What They Said After the Penn State-Villanova Game

Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said his defense "took a step in the right direction" vs. the Wildcats.

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin (left) shakes hands with Villanova Wildcats head coach Mark Ferrante (right) following the end of the game at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Penn State scored 31 second-half points to put away Villanova 52-6 on Saturday in a non-conference game that once again felt offensively stalled through another first half. Still, the second-ranked Nittany Lions (3-0) completed the non-conference schedule by outscoring their opponents by a combined total of 132-17.

The cash games are over, though, as Penn State returns to the field Sept. 27 vs. Oregon in the annual White Out. Franklin said that the team will practice Sunday night under the lights at Beaver Stadium to get a feel for the venue after dark.

In the meantime, here's what Franklin and Villanova coach Mark Ferrante said about Saturday's game,

RELATED: What we learned from Penn State's Week 3 win over Villanova

Penn State coach James Franklin

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin watches the replay of the final play of his team's win over the Villanova Wildcats at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

On the game: You look at the game, the one turnover [a Drew Allar interception], that one drives me crazy, because although it wasn't as clean as I'd like it to be. And I think we make it harder than it needs to be at times, I do think we're playing winning football. On that one, we had a missed assignment, and you can't let one bad thing turn into two bad things. Overall, I've been pleased with how we're playing. We won the turnover battle. We won the explosive play battle. We won the third-down battle. We won the sack battle. We won the field-position battle. We won the penalty battle, and we won the middle eight. All those things are positives that we’ve got to build on. I thought our defense significantly took a step this week, just more confidence, more command, more control of the defense, especially from our safeties and linebackers that are kind of running the show. That was important going into this bye week.

On his team through three games: I think the first thing I would say is defensively, I think up until this week, we weren't playing as fast and as confident as I think we need to play. It seemed like we took a step in the right direction in terms of running the defense and commanding defense like I mentioned before. Special teams, I think has been a real positive. I think we've been really good in special teams in all three games. Obviously, there's still some things I think we can improve on, but I think that's been a positive. And then offensively, we've just been inconsistent. We have to improve on third down. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Then we got to be just more explosive overall. We've won the explosive play battle today, so that's a positive. We actually met our mark of 15%, we were above that. But still, I think there's a lot more room for growth in that area. We're 3-0. I'd love to see us further ahead. I'd love to see us playing dominant in all three phases, but we know the things that we need to improve on, and we got plenty of film, and again, this bye week is going to be important for us with a real challenge.

On the forthcoming bye week: This bye week is obviously going to be really important. This is not an off week by any means. Tomorrow, we will practice tomorrow night, which is different for us to get into Beaver Stadium, because we have new lights. We have not been in the stadium with all of the new lighting up. So, we will do that tomorrow night, that we'll practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, which is our typical bye week schedule. The guys will have the weekend including all Friday and Saturday. The coaches will be out recruiting, and then we'll get into a traditional game week the following Sunday. Obviously, we'll have the advantage of not having to break down the previous game and not make corrections in practice, so we'll be a little bit ahead, but we need to get better. We need to get better on Tuesday, we need to get better on Wednesday. And then we need to be able to come in the next week in a really good place with a tremendous opportunity and a tremendous challenge in front of us.

Penn State Nittany Lions tight end Luke Reynolds (85) leaps over Villanova Wildcats defensive back Damill Bostic Jr. (36) to avoid a tackle during the fourth quarter at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

On quarterback Drew Allar: When you talk about touchdown to interception ratio, he's one of the best all-time in Penn State history. But we got to help him get into a rhythm. And I think the third downs are a big part of that. We got to be better on third down as coaches, Drew’s has to be better, and all the guys have to be a little bit better. I think we’ll attack it this bye week, but we’re not getting into the rhythm that I think we are capable of getting in.

Villanova coach Mark Ferrante

Villanova Wildcats head coach Mark Ferrante looks on from the sideline during the fourth quarter against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

On the game: When you play a team like that, where you’re pretty much overmatched in every position, you have to play nearly perfect — and we didn’t do that today. So, just like every other game, regardless of the score, we’ll try to pick up on the positive plays we made today, correct the
negatives, and then put this behind us after tomorrow and move on to our next game. We’ll try to go 1–0 next week. I’m proud of the guys’ effort. I think it was a very physical game. You just have to play better when you’re competing at that level. You talk about some of the positives. For me, the positives were in this game and especially the first half, when we got some three-and-outs against that team.

On his defense forcing Penn State to kick three field goals: Yeah, that was great. They had short fields on both of those field goals. After they took the opening drive and kind of did what they wanted, I think our guys settled in and got used to what they were seeing. We forced some three-and-outs after that and then held them to field goals on less-than-50-yard drives. That was huge. That’s something we can build on. What I told the team afterwards was, yes, it stings now. It’s terrible in the moment, but it’ll help us. Facing that level of opponent, being able to go in there and play as physical as we did, will have a cumulative effect on us in a positive way down the road.

On Penn State quarterback Drew Allar: He’s a big, tall pocket passer. He had a lot of time back there, so he was able to find his receivers. They did a great job. I give their offensive coordinator a lot of credit because they mixed up personnel really well. They hit guys out of the backfield, and their tight ends created mismatches at the line of scrimmage. If you cover things downfield, they’ll hit the check-down and still pick up the first down. I think their quarterback has a very good understanding of what his coach is asking him to do, and he managed the offense really well. I didn’t think he was an overly mobile guy, but he scrambled and got a couple of big first downs today. If we could have held him there, maybe we could’ve forced a punt. But he kept the sticks moving, throwing the ball. Obviously, in those final drives, he made some key plays.

Penn State Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar (15) looks to throw a pass during the third quarter against the Villanova Wildcats at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images