Penn State coach James Franklin spent much of his Monday press conference reflecting on Saturday’s 20-13 loss to Ohio State, the Nittany Lions’ first of the season and eighth straight to the Buckeyes.

That included a look in the mirror on his own gameday management, particularly what Franklin may have done differently on the Nittany Lions’ critical goal-line shortcoming in the fourth quarter.

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Take another look at No. 4 @OhioStateFB's late goal line stand in today's win at No. 3 Penn State ????#B1GFootball pic.twitter.com/MNRBPwTfaf

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“Overall, obviously, got some things we’ve got to continue to work on, but most importantly, we’re on to Washington,” Franklin told reporters Monday in State College. “We’ve got to find a way to get a win this week. I thought the staff and the players did a good job last night and yesterday of making the corrections and then moving on to Washington. We’ve got to make sure that one loss doesn’t turn into two, and that’s controlling the things we can in our building and flushing it.”

Of all the finger-pointing that could be done in reviewing the defeat, it seems unfair to settle on the defense as a primary culprit.

After all, that unit contributed more points (seven, via Zion Tracy’s first-quarter pick-6) than the offense, which managed two field-goal drives and failed to score a touchdown.

However, Penn State (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten), which dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 nationally in Sunday’s latest AP Top 25 poll, suffered an ill-timed defensive implosion at the end of the game.

Instead of making a stop deep inside Ohio State territory, the Nittany Lions allowed the Buckeyes to march 58 yards from their own 1-yard line, eating up the remaining 5 minutes, 13 seconds of the fourth quarter to seal the 20-13 win.

“(Ohio State’s) last drive was concerning,” Franklin said. “ … As an optimist, there was an opportunity there to really do something special.

“Whether those are championship drives from an offensive perspective or whether they’re defensive gut checks, you have got to be able to stop the run when everybody in the stadium knows that they’re going to run the ball.”

Situationally speaking, the Nittany Lions just had been stuffed at the goal line, turning the ball over on downs after failing to score the tying touchdown.

But they still had all three timeouts and 5:13 on the clock.

In other words, had the defense come up with a stop, quarterback Drew Allar and Co. would have had an opportunity to tie things up.

Instead, the Buckeyes ran the ball with impunity, collecting three first downs and forcing Franklin to burn his timeouts.

Check out the Quinshon Judkins block to pave the way for @OhioStateFB's game-sealing 1st down ????#B1GFootball pic.twitter.com/x6PbSpFnOc

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“I was very pleased with our defense,” Franklin said. “I think (the Buckeyes were) averaging 40 points a game, so I think overall, you look at how we played against them, I think we played well. But there are three drives in that game where I don’t think we played up to the standard of how we played this year and specifically in that game.”

The other two drives Franklin referred to transpired in the first and second quarters, when Ohio State scored back-to-back touchdowns, promptly erasing Penn State’s early 10-0 lead to go ahead 14-10.

The Buckeyes’ second touchdown drive, with Will Howard finding Brandon Innis for a 21-yard score, featured two painful self-inflicted wounds on the part of the Nittany Lions.

First, Abdul Carter jumped offside on third-and-2 from the Ohio State 27-yard line, resulting in a first down.

Then, Elliot Washington was flagged for taunting after tackling the Buckeyes’ Carnell Tate, who made a third-down grab well short of the sticks.

Washington’s taunting penalty was addressed internally, with the sophomore cornerback individually as well as together with the team.

“I think the way you address it is in a team meeting setting,” Franklin said. “It needs to be addressed so not only does that player learn, but the whole team learns. Not only in a team meeting, but also on either side of the ball, offense or defense, it needs to be addressed. Needs to be addressed with the individual, which it has. And with the group, which it has.”

Time will tell whether Franklin and his players are indeed able to “flush” their Ohio State loss and not let it bleed into the game against Washington (5-4, 3-3) on Saturday at Beaver Stadium.

But for sake of cleaning things up in preparation for the Huskies, dwelling on the frustrating loss to Ohio State as corrections are made may be in the cards this week.

“At the end of the day, we did not play well enough against a very, very good opponent to get the W,” Franklin said. “Obviously, needs to be more time spent on it and more discussions spent on things that we have to do outside of what we did that game week.”

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