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For Pat Freiermuth, Accountability is Penn State's Next Step

Penn State's Pat Freiermuth said players have to hold themselves accountable for the 0-3 start. "I don't think that's happening right now."

Penn State's first offensive drive of the season ended with tight end Pat Freiermuth catching a touchdown pass, then turning to an end-zone camera to shout, 'I'm back."

Two weeks later, Freiermuth attempted to comprehend what has happened since.

"It's the most frustrating thing because you keep asking yourself, what is it? What can we do?" Freiermuth said.

An 0-3 start, with an offense that hasn't met preseason expectations, is not why Freiermuth twice returned to Penn State. The All-American tight end had the option to leave for the NFL following the 2019 season but didn't and could have passed on a restructured 2020 season but didn't.

Thus Freiermuth's reaction to catching his 16th career touchdown pass, a school record among tight ends, to start the season. Since then, Penn State's offense has been a cascade of inconsistency and inefficiency.

In some pivotal Big Ten stats, Penn State's offense is listless: 10th in rushing, 12th in completion percentage and 13th in both turnover margin and red-zone effectiveness. What's worse, Freiermuth isn't sure how the Lions got here.

"I mean, we had 100 Zoom meetings during quarantine and we came back up here in the summer to put in a bunch of extra work," Freiermuth said. "So I don't know. It's definitely not the coaches, because at the end of the day, they're putting us out there for a reason to run a certain play. And if we're not getting the right depth or getting the right technique, then and that's on us."

Freiermuth made accountability a continuing theme of his post-game media session. He referenced it multiple times as a necessary force in the locker room, among players and especially captains. And he made a rather candid assessment.

"Our players have to hold each other accountable," Freiermuth said. "I don't think that's happening right now."

Freiermuth, as a captain, listed himself among those players who could be doing more. He critiqued what he called a first-half drop against Maryland and said some better route-running might help quarterback Sean Clifford.

Further, Freiermuth said the tight ends and offensive line must accept responsibility for a run game that has looked overwhelmed since Noah Cain's injury against Indiana. And he called the team's overall effort "disappointing."

"Running the ball’s a mentality," Freiermuth said. "At the end of the day, if you can’t block the guy across from you, it’s not going to work. ... My self-evaluation is, if we're not going to have that mentality where we can't move a man from point A to point B, then it's not really on the coaches and not really on our running backs. It's on us as a unit, as tight ends and the offensive line, to take that pride in mentality to be physical and have effort."

Following Penn State's loss to Ohio State, Freiermuth said he talked with his father, who advised him to play the game as he did in the backyard as a kid. He's trying. But the tight end also is asking for more of his teammates.

"I'm gong to be brutally honest," Freiermuth said when asked what accountability looks like. "It looks like looking each other in the mirror, looking yourself in the mirror, and asking yourself, 'Are you doing everything you can for the team?' And if you're not, then you'e got to figure it out."

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