Yurcich, Franklin, receivers need to share the blame.

Penn State embarrassed itself offensively in the loss at Ohio State, and to me the primary culprits are Mike Yurcich, the wide receivers and James Franklin.

The easy part of this is pointing out that the receivers just aren’t very good.

There’s not a legitimate No. 1 Big Ten receiver on the team. KeAndre Lambert-Smith is really a possession guy and No. 2 receiver, and everybody else is really a No. 3 at best.

I’ll try not to speak Japanese here, but … when defenses don’t respect your receivers or believe that they can beat them down the field, then they can stay in man coverage, load up the box and have a better chance to stuff your running game.

This is basic offense 101.

Hopefully what I’m saying is coming through loud and clear from Mars.

Drew Allar doesn’t have good weapons at receiver, and he doesn’t seem willing or capable to make plays happen in the passing game by delivering throws on target while under pressure.

This Penn State offense has a lot of problems.

OK, so it’s up to Yurcich to fix them. And he was woefully inadequate in that pursuit against the Buckeyes.

Penn State does have a lot of good players on offense. Yurcich needed to be far more creative in what he was scheming and calling, doing anything and everything he could to try and gain any advantage against the strong Ohio State defense.

Get the ball to Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen any way you can, either by screen passes or wheel routes or … something.

Anything.

Yurcich couldn’t do any of that.

His offensive game plan was one of the worst we’ve ever seen at Penn State, and that’s not an exaggeration. When you start a game 0-for-15 on third down, that’s about as inept as it gets.

The tight ends are really good. The running backs are really talented. Sure, the wide receivers aren’t great, but find a way to get them loose in space on short throws and see what they can do after the catch.

I place a ton of blame on Yurcich for that performance, but we also need to keep in mind the James Franklin component.

This whole thing looks like the head coach has been meddling too much in the offense. I do not for a second believe that this is the offense Yurcich truly wants to run, but rather the offense Franklin is forcing him to run.

Which is ludicrous.

Franklin keeps talking about how he’s had to remind Yurcich to not get bored calling plays. This is code for “do what I tell you to do, or else.”

Allar doesn’t get off the hook here. Not by a long shot. He is simply not the quarterback Penn State expected him to be, at least not yet in his career. At this stage, he is nothing more than a game manager who seems so intent on not turning the ball over that he cannot bring himself to take any chances whatsoever with his passes.

That’s called playing scared. Playing not to lose, instead of playing to win.

That style will work against most other teams on the schedule, in large part because Penn State has a sensational defense.

But that style will not work against Ohio State, or Michigan in a few weeks.

It’s such a shame everybody had to learn this lesson the hard way, because this Ohio State team was extremely beatable.

Cory Giger covers Penn State for DK Pittsburgh Sports and hosts “Sports Central” weekdays from 4 to 5 p.m. on 96.1 Hank FM.