Penn State defensive end Nick Tarburton told reporters on Tuesday morning that the entire Nittany Lion defense watched film together on Sunday in the wake of a 41-17 thumping by No. 5 Michigan last weekend. Penn State gave up just over 400 yards on the ground on Saturday en route to being physically dominated at every level by the Wolverines.
“It was a tough day for all of us,” Tarburton said of the Sunday following the loss. Penn State normally watches film as individual position units before having entire defensive and offensive meetings to review tape. In this case the film breakdowns happened as an entire defense from the outset as Penn State reviewed everything that went well – and mostly wrong – on Saturday.
Penn State coach James Franklin was in attendance for the meeting run by defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and felt good about the session as the Nittany Lions look to prepare for a Minnesota team that boasts the No. 16 rushing offense in the nation just behind Ohio State. Michigan now sits at No. 9 following Saturday’s stat-packing afternoon.
“I think the meeting was good,” Franklin said on Tuesday. “I was in the meeting. I thought it was a really good meeting and I think what has happened at times and we’ve talked about this a little bit before – our guys, their investment level’s really high. And guys ended up trying to make plays rather than specifically doing their job. And the reality is a lot of times when you do [your job] plays just come to you organically. So it was a good meeting and we went through everything in detail to make sure everybody is on the same page. But it was needed. And to your point, it’s going to be important that we get those things correctly because we got a team [coming up] that likes to do similar things.”
The good news for Penn State: Ohio State is the only team left on the schedule in the Top 30 of total offense coming in at No. 2. The Buckeyes are currently the only undefeated team in the nation to have won ever game by double-figures. A challenge for Penn State to attack in two weeks’ time, but not before trying to right this ship against the Gophers on Saturday night.
