"The penalties were pretty lopsided": James Franklin takes subtle shot at Oregon after huge Big Ten title game loss

James Franklin and the Penn State Nittany Lions lost 45-37 to the Oregon Ducks in the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday. Despite just joining the conference this season, the Ducks have gone on to put up an impressive undefeated campaign and clinch the Big Ten title. They now also have an automatic bye to the quarterfinals in the 12-team playoffs.

After the game ended, Franklin took a subtle shot at Oregon and the officials. He stated that penalty calls by the officials were heavily in favor of Dan Lanning's team. He also felt that there were several moments in the game in which the officials could have reviewed a few penalty calls.

"There wasn't one holding call in the game, so that'll be interesting to watch," Franklin said. "And I don't want to come off the wrong way. I give Oregon a ton of credit, but the penalties were pretty lopsided."

"I have more of an issue with the ones that could have been reviewed. The non-reviewable ones, they're gonna happen, but the ones that need to be reviewed need to be reviewed in my opinion.

Franklin's team had five penalties for 65 yards compared to Oregon's 3 for 24 yards. The Ducks put up a physical defense against Penn State's offense, which irked Franklin.

Nittany Lions QB Drew Allar tried his best to help his team make a comeback by tallying 226 yards and three touchdowns passing. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for them to break through the dominating position Oregon held in the Big Ten championship game.

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James Franklin addresses other officiating issues during Big Ten championship game

In the fourth quarter of the Big Ten title game, Penn State QB Drew Allar made a pass to WR Omari Evans near Oregon's 35-yard line. However, this pass was ruled incomplete by the officials, leaving James Franklin furious on the sidelines.

In the post-game presser, Franklin talked about this moment and questioned why the officials did not review the play to clear the doubts surrounding the catch Omari Evans made.

"There was a couple of calls that we didn't get that I thought we should have," James Franklin said. "One of the calls that I thought was critical point in the game was the two-minute drive with a catch on the sideline to Omari, I thought that was a catch. And looking at the Jumbotron, it looked like it was a catch."

"I get you're going to miss some calls, but it's two minutes. So everybody says, okay, well, slow down so they can review the drive. It's a two minute drive. We can't slow down. In a critical game like that, in my opinion, they should have buzzed down and checked that."

Despite losing the Big Ten championship, James Franklin and his team still have a shot at the national championship. It will be interesting to see which team they will face in the first-round matchup of the playoffs. Can Penn State seek redemption and win the natty?