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UNIVERSITY PARK -- The true champion is most dangerous when he sees his own blood.
And that's exactly what happened Saturday afternoon as the Nittany Lions gave No. 2 Ohio State everything it wanted for 51 minutes.
The problem is the game lasts 60, and as a result, an encouraging performance and budding upset unraveled into a four-touchdown collapse during a six-minute nightmare.
The 44-31 loss came before 108,433 at Beaver Stadium, patrons who have seen it all too often against top-ranked opponents.
It extended James Franklin's streak to 11 straight losses against Top-10 teams and 1-8 record vs. the Buckeyes -- not a good return on a $7 million investment (Franklin's salary) through 2031.
Asked to assess the obvious gap between Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, Franklin had a simple explanation: "The game starts and ends with the turnovers."
The Lions committed four -- two early, two late -- to the Buckeyes' zero.
Franklin said "we played really well" Saturday, and after Sean Clifford's bad start, they did.
But when it mattered most, and the game was there for the taking, they couldn't protect Clifford or contain the Buckeyes' superior passing attack.
Clifford's interceptions on the Lions' first two possessions contributed to an early 10-0 hole.
"Too many mistakes in critical moments, which you can't do against a top-ranked opponent," Franklin said.
The meltdown wasted an otherwise admirable effort by a Penn State defense that allowed just one touchdown and 16 total points well into the fourth quarter.
"I thought we (defensively) played our tails off -- especially with a bunch of short fields (that the offense created through turnovers)," Franklin said.
The Lions took a 21-16 lead with 9:26 remaining before their defense finally broke against a Buckeye team that came in averaging 49 points per game.
Until then, things were going well enough that cornerback Joey Porter Jr. said, "We felt we had them right where we wanted them."
Fellow defensive back Ji'Ayir Brown wasn't so sure.
"A team like that you got to finish them off, and we didn't do a good job of that," he said.
Ohio State took the lead for good (23-21) with 8:51 left on TreVeyon Henderson's 41-yard touchdown run, then put a bow on the comeback 34 seconds later by forcing a sack-fumble on Clifford the Bucks immediately cashed into another touchdown, and -- that quickly -- the rout was on.
The Clifford fumble -- in which he never had a chance as Ohio State defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau devoured right tackle Bryce Effner, pushing him into the beleaguered quarterback -- turned into another Henderson TD, making it 37-24.
Those not wanting to hear the post-game band music left after the Nits' next play when Clifford threw a Pick-6 -- to Tuimoloau, who played like Chase Young.
That people will read the weekend scores and erroneously conclude, "Oh, Ohio State cruised" made the loss hurt that much worse.
"It's harder than where you feel you have the game in your hands," Porter said. "It went ugly real quick."
But the great teams -- the elite teams that Franklin is chasing, maybe hopelessly -- come at you in waves.
The elite teams have lines who protect and edge rushers who get home and receivers who can't be covered and accurate veteran quarterbacks who aren't rattled early in big games.
"It's a heartbreaker because we had our shots," Clifford, who appeared to take the loss the hardest after falling to 0-4 as a starter against the Buckeyes, said.
Clifford felt badly because "I thought our defense played really well" and he also tried to make the case, maybe to himself, that "We're a really good football team, we really are."
But the gap, raised earlier, between good to great is vast.
Franklin, 4-14 against Ohio State and Michigan, must now attempt to pull everybody back together after their emotional balloon burst, and there's no remaining opponent to get everybody else around the program excited.
Working Clifford's successor, Drew Allar, into the mix, if not starting him, should be a timely topic.
First up is a trip to 3-5 Indiana, and the Lions will need a healthy dose of motivation to guard against a bumpy November.
"That's our job as coaches and players," Franklin said. "Losses are hard. They're hard around here, at a place like at Penn State, where we have really high expectations and standards."
With each passing game and each passing year against the Big Ten's best -- yes, elite -- those expectations are steadily being reduced.
Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.