That was an incredible fourth quarter. Either Notre Dame or Penn State could have easily won this game to secure a spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship. But once again it was James Franklin’s team that found itself on the wrong side of the final score in the biggest game of the season and the biggest game of Franklin’s tenure in Happy Valley.

The Nittany Lions took a 24-17 lead with 7:55 left after a controversial pass interference call took them out of the game and gave them the ball inside the 10-yard line. They only ran five plays the rest of the game, a three-and-out followed by one of the worst interceptions you’ll ever see on their final drive of the game.

PSU’s defense gave up the game-winning touchdown immediately after taking the lead and was barely able to prevent the game-winning field goal when Drew Allar gave Notre Dame the ball with 33 seconds left.

When the lights became brightest, Franklin’s team gave up.

Now let me say that I think some of the talk about Franklin is unwarranted because he is an outstanding football coach. He won nine games in back-to-back seasons at Vanderbilt, something I don’t think more than five coaches in the country could accomplish. And he has won 10 or more games in six of the last eight full seasons at Penn State. He was objectively excellent by any reasonable standard. But at some point, you can’t ignore the fact that seemingly every time the Nittany Lions play an opponent of equal or greater caliber, the other team comes out victorious.

It would be crazy to talk about firing Franklin or something like that, but I can imagine the frustration of Penn State fans after seeing this happen over and over again. The two CFP games he won this year were against teams Penn State could have easily beaten, so it’s hard to even enjoy those considering what happened once again when the time came , facing a team that was a slight favorite over the Nittany Lions. I really don’t know what you’re doing.

Maybe that’s exactly what James Franklin is. And let’s be clear: The overwhelming majority of fans in the country would do unimaginable things every year to follow in Penn State’s footsteps, especially now that the Nittany Lions are likely to play the Franklin Special more often in the CFP. field will be visible. You just have to keep shooting and hope someone hits it eventually, I guess.

And maybe we’ll talk about Franklin finally getting over the slump and being one win away from a national title if Allar doesn’t make an incredibly terrible decision. But at some point, someone has to be to blame for all these losses.

Just eight months until Penn State begins its next quest for an 11-win regular season with a loss to Ohio State followed by a playoff loss to the first team that plays with heart.