James Franklin confident that Penn State has bounced back from Ohio State loss

Entering the second segment of its 2018 schedule, Penn State is ranked eighth in the Associated Press poll with its only defeat by a single point to Ohio State, and is in a favorable position with three of its four most difficult games over the coming weeks at Beaver Stadium.

The first of those games comes this Saturday at home against Michigan State (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten), which fell out of the top 25 for the first time all season after its surprising 29-19 loss Saturday to Northwestern.

It's safe to say the Nittany Lions (4-1, 1-1) are eager to return to action after last weekend's bye. Two weeks is a long time between games after blowing a 12-point fourth-quarter lead and losing to the Big Ten front-running Buckeyes, with players possibly dwelling on what they could have done better.

Coach James Franklin, however, said he saw his players bounce back and ready to look ahead to the next challenge.

"Obviously the bye week helps, but we can't rely on the bye week," Franklin said during a media availability Wednesday. "We've got to be able to get over things and get over things quickly. Is it challenging? No doubt about it. But I think there's been some honest conversation. The ownership, I think, is a really good example of our guys moving on.

"And I can see it. I see body language. I'll be honest with you — the players are probably more resilient than the coaches in a lot of ways. So it's an opportunity for us to learn from them and feed off of them."

Looking at Penn State's first five games, quarterback Trace McSorley unquestionably has been team MVP, certainly worthy of Heisman Trophy consideration. After rolling up 461 yards of total offense against Ohio State, he's averaging nearly 292 yards of total offense per game, 14.4 yards per completion and 6.2 yards per rush.

The passing game, however, has not been sharp. McSorley, a career 61.8 percent passer at the start of 2018, is completing just 52.9 percent thus far. His receivers, even the usually sure-handed Juwan Johnson, have dropped an average of four or five throws per game.

Junior running back Miles Sanders, although limited to 43 yards by Ohio State, has played well behind an improved offensive line. The Nittany Lions are one of the nation's top rushing teams at 261.2 yards per game and Sanders averages 107.6 yards.

The defense, however, has struggled against the rush, allowing nearly 162 yards per game, and is in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten in points allowed (21.0, seventh) and total yards (354, eighth).

After playing a number of young players on defense in their first four games, the Nittany Lions shortened their bench against Ohio State. Franklin admitted part of the problem in losing the lead was fatigue, and he has moved redshirt freshman C.J. Thorpe from offensive tackle to defensive tackle to get more depth there.

"We have games like that where we play our starters a lot more reps and we run out of gas in the fourth quarter," Franklin said. "We've got to do a better job of creating depth so we feel like we can play more guys in those types of games to sustain it. That's the next step for us."

Special-teams performance has been mixed. Redshirt freshman K.J. Hamler (kickoffs) and fifth-year senior DeAndre Thompkins (punts) have shown they can break a long return at any time. But freshman Jake Pinegar is just 3 of 6 on field goals and even Blake Gillikin, an all-Big Ten-caliber punter, struggled with consistency against Ohio State.

Franklin is pleased, however, with the week-to-week improvement of his team, something that must continue if the Lions harbor lofty postseason hopes. In the next five weeks, starting with Michigan State and a road game at Indiana, they face No. 26 Iowa (home), No. 12 Michigan (away) and No. 15 Wisconsin (home).

"I was very, very proud of how hard we played" against Ohio State, he said. "We made some mistakes, some costly mistakes … but we played hard and got better. So we've got to make sure we take another step this week coming up, take it one week at a time and we'll like what we see."