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In abandoning the run, Lions cut out playmakers.
This is a long list, but as is the case with every big-game loss, there are few wrong answers.
I cannot fathom how Penn State got away from the run.
James Franklin (previously) resisted season-long questions on why the Lions weren't throwing deep more to open up the run.
It's pretty clear now they weren't throwing deep for a reason -- because they didn't think Drew Allar was ready to carry the team that way, didn't think the receivers could get open and had the usual offensive line concerns that have been around for the past decade.
They specifically built their gameplan around an old-school Penn State style that frankly was working. Maybe it wasn't sexy, but the Lions were 6-0 and unchallenged.
It leaned on the defense and an improving kicking game and a run game most thought would be better but also hadn't played much in the fourth quarter and was certainly good enough.
Iowa clearly has a better team than it showed, but the strategy embarrassed the Hawkeyes, 31-0, with unthinkable statistics -- Penn State ran 97 plays to the Iowa's 33.
Franklin admitted he never saw a number of (lowa) plays that low, and PSU doesn't keep statistics for fewest opposing plays. But trust it would be on the top of the list until you go back to some game against Dickinson in the early 1900s.
Franklin liked the strategy so much he praised Mike Yurcich's patience in the post-game afterward and kept up the narrative for the next month.
"You have to understand and embrace your identity," he said leading into Columbus, "and stay true to what has gotten us here."
And yet -- and yet -- with the chance to finally strangle the albatross that has hung on James Franklin and with the eyes of the college football world anxious to see if the Lions can finally show they're a contender and not a pretender, they threw 42 times and ran 19.
That doesn't include plays Allar scrambled because (surprise) no one was open.
So the strength of the offense and its most explosive players -- running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen -- each touched the ball nine times.
There were at least three series when Penn State got away from the run -- including their first one.
Franklin keeps talking about the biggest problem being the lack of plays due to the unthinkable 1-for-16 third-down conversion rate, but had they run the ball more, maybe they could have moved into more shortage yardage situations they could manage.
The Lions had success with the "tush-push" and previously worked themselves into the short-yardage situations often, relying on their backs, the size of Allar and the blocking of the tight ends.
But when the lights were on, all that went away and put another demerit on Franklin's resume under the big-game/Ohio State category.
I can't imagine it was Franklin who wanted to get away from it, and have to believe Yurcich's status in tenuous, but make no mistake: The head coach is ultimately responsible.
Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.