Smeltz: Northwestern 23, Penn State 21: This is why we can't have nice things

By: Joe Smeltzer

Hello, everybody. This article will be less of a rant than the one I wrote when Penn State lost to Temple. It will not be highly critical of James Franklin, Christian Hackenberg or any one man in particular. What it will be is a lifelong Penn State fan calmly venting his frustrations about the drop off that his beloved program has experienced in his lifetime, and how Saturday;s loss at Northwestern personified so many traits that many Penn State teams in his generation possess. This will not be a ''bridge jump'' article, but rather Joseph Arthur Smeltzer expressing his opinions on the current state of Penn State football in a constructive and thoroughly thought out way. 

Penn State choked in Evanston, Illinois on Saturday. It was a game that Penn State badly wanted to win, as a W of any kind would have likely propelled them into the top 25. It was a game that Penn State could and should have won, and in the end, it was a game that Penn State completely blew. The Nittany Lions were down 20-7 at the start of the second half and did an admirable job of fighting back to take a 21-20 lead.

Penn State was still clinging to a one-point lead with the ball and under 2:30 to play in the fourth quarter, and all they had to do was convert a 3rd and 1 to most likely seal the game. But they failed to convert, foolishly calling a running play out of the Shotgun formation, and a punt gave Northwestern good field position at their own 46. A face-mask penalty pushed Northwestern back five yards, and two incomplete passes set up a 3rd and 15. That's when Zach Oliver, who had struggled the whole day, completed a 23-yard pass to Austin Carr, moving the ball to the PSU 36. The writing was on the wall from this point forward, and Jake Mitchell made a 35-yard field goal to seal the deal.

I won't dig too deep into Saturday's game itself because I am thinking about a much bigger picture. The big picture is that Saturday's loss pretty much sums up my life as a Penn State fan. In my lifetime, whenever Penn State has a game in which a win would make a statement on the national radar, more often than not, they haven't gotten the job done. They couldn't get it done against Ohio State at home in 2009 when a win would have won them a Big 10 championship. They couldn't get it done in 2012, also against Ohio State, when a win would have given Bill O'Brien his first true signature victory, and Saturday, they couldn't get it done at Northwestern.

Now a win on Saturday would not have put Penn State into national title contention or even put them into the top 15, but I think it would have made a statement. Had Penn State won, it would have been a road win against a respectable Big 10 opponent, and likely would have moved Penn State into the top 25 for the first time since 2011, which would have been a pretty remarkable achievement considering how this team looked in their week 1 loss at Temple. It would have been huge for James Franklin, as it would have given him his first win against a top 25 opponent since he took over as coach in 2014 as well as given him much more credibility as a head coach. It would have given the Nittany Lions their first win against quality competition (the best team record wise that they have beaten is San Diego State, for crying out loud).  Yes, a win would have been quite lovely, which is why Penn State had to screw it up.

Had Penn State beaten Northwestern, I think that there was a fair shot that they would have finished the regular season at 10-2, as the last two regular season games  against good but beatable opponents in Michigan (home) and Michigan State (away). Finishing the regular season at 10-2 would have been a fairly remarkable achievement considering the embarrassment at Temple, not to mention that this offense, especially at the quarterback position, has still yet to reach its potential.

The silver lining out of all of this is that Penn State still has a chance to turn this season into a significant positive. There is no telling what will happen in the future, and I will not predict how this season will end up as Penn State will not play a game for almost two more weeks. The overall feeling that Penn State fans will have after this season is still up in the air, as there is a legitimate chance that Penn State will either win out or lose out. But from where I'm sitting, there is a reason to be concerned. Heart-wrenching losses like this can greatly hurt the momentum of a season, and I would feel a lot better about Penn State's road ahead had they won on Saturday.

The Nittany Lions of my dad's generation kicked butt, took names and won. A lot. Penn State used to be among the very best college football programs in the land. They were consistently awesome and a force to be reckoned with no matter who they played. The Penn State Nittany Lions of my generation have had a lot of good teams but have only showed flashes of the powerhouse that they once were. In my lifetime, I have had to watch programs such as Wisconsin, Michigan State, and now Iowa fly past my beloved Lions on the national radar, and it frustrates me. Close losses to good but beatable teams like Northwestern are in my mind, a big reason Penn State is being passed up by the Big 10 counterparts that they used to own. To put things into perspective, since 2005, Penn State's record against opponents that were in the top 25 at the time that the two teams met is a disappointing 13-22, and that includes the Big 10 championship years of 2005 and 2008 (the only two years of dominant Penn State football that I am old enough to remember).

I understand that sports teams can't be great forever, and Penn State falling off a bit on the national radar should not come as much of a surprise, especially given all of the ramifications of the Sandusky scandal. At the same time, I think it is natural for me to think of the Penn State teams of my generation as opposed to those of my father's and have a "that's not fair!" outlook on it.

The purpose of this article was not to say that the Penn State football program is in shambles or that James Franklin does not have the potential to get Penn State back to where it once was and deserves to be. I am not trying to write this season off as a failure, as I still think a 10-3 finish or even a 9-4 finish is very possible, and neither are disastrous by any stretch. It is no question in my mind that this is a better football team than we saw last season, but how much better is the important question. The fact of the matter is that Penn State had a big opportunity on Saturday to take a step forward, finally beat a good team, and get back into the top 25 for the first time in nearly five seasons, and they completely squandered it away. In my lifetime, games like Saturday have become more common for Penn State, and it is very frustrating to sit through. Penn State has developed a pattern: beat the cream-puffs and decent conference teams and then lose the big ones.

The 2015 Nittany Lions  fit that pattern, and they don't even have a win against a decent Big 10 team on their resume. This pattern has become very frustrating over the past five years, and I want the Penn State teams that my dad lived through to return. James Franklin is a great recruiter, and he has shown that he can get talented players to come here. The question of getting this program back to being dominant is still unanswered, and only time will tell whether it is a task that he can handle. Penn State football is not dead, nor is it irrelevant, but it is not a machine anymore, and Saturdays events were just a harsh reminder of that.  This season can still be a success, but I will hope for the best but expect the worst in that regard, as I do with all of my sports teams.

As for right now, I am not as angry as I was the first week of the season, but I am frustrated, and I am hoping to write a much more positive article on the Nittany Lions twelve days from now after the Michigan game.

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