Penn State’s playoff hopes have no room for error after crushing loss to Oregon

Penn State’s playoff hopes have no room for error after crushing loss to Oregon originally appeared on The Sporting News

Big games, big games, big games. That's all Penn State has heard for the last few weeks, and even the last few seasons, and that buzz came to a crescendo in the lead up and aftermath of the Oregon game this past weekend. Penn State has not been especially amazing when it comes to facing big-time competition -- there is no more debating this, and the Nittany Lions are so fatigued from hearing about it.

But until some good news comes out of Happy Valley, optimism may not be especially high surrounding James Franklin's football program. Oregon stole Penn State's top 5 status. They stole their undefeated record. They stole Penn State's soul.

The hits kept coming when College Football Playoff projections dropped the Nittany Lions out of the picture entirely, now straddling the bubble of playoff contention. If the season were to end today, now a meager five weeks into the season (six if you count week 0), ESPN has emphatically declared that Penn State's current resume would bump Allar and company out of the final 12-team bracket.

One loss to Oregon was all it takes? Well, a better argument would be that this year's Penn State team is once again sticking to the script. Always winning against lesser opponents, but never climbing against the perennial powerhouses. At what point does Franklin's Penn State program start to draw comparisons to Dwayne Casey's Toronto Raptors tenure -- always a competitor unless they meet LeBron. The Penn State Nittany Lions are always near the top of the rankings, but they've never proved capable of toppling the giants.

Four wins in 25 top-10 matchups is a putrid 16 percent for a program that, according to their frequent appearances near the top of the AP Poll, is constantly rubbing shoulders with the likes of Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson (this year excepting), and the very best programs in the nation. But when the team takes the field against the blue bloods, they rarely appear to belong.

So is this loss to Oregon the final nail in the coffin? No, that wouldn't be fair to say -- Dan Lanning's squad is once again very good -- but this is a team that still has to walk into the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio before the end of the regular season. As it looks right now, optimism isn't high that Franklin's team will handle business in that November matchup. And another loss could hold serious playoff implications.

MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL NEWS:

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• Texas QB Arch Manning banished below the top 40 in ESPN's quarterback rankings

• Dabo Swinney drops brutal ‘coaching failure’ admission on Clemson’s record-worst start

• Texas Longhorns could miss College Football Playoff entirely, 'have work to do' on season resume