Perhaps one of the most overlooked stats when evaluating how good an offense and a defense is how well it does during third down.

The best football teams offensively extend drives by converting third downs. At the same time, the best teams also stop their opponents on defense in the same situation to get the ball back for its offense.

In Penn State football’s first win of the season against West Virginia, the offense converted 45% of its third downs, as its defense held the Mountaineers to just 29% on its third downs.

Although Penn State fared much better in that category, James Franklin wasn’t satisfied.

“That was one of the big challenges. I thought early in the game, we weren’t converting on third down and they sustained some dives,” Franklin said after defeating West Virginia. “The time of possession was way out of whack and that put our defense in a tough spot. That’s a combination of offense sustaining drives and the defense getting more three-and-outs.”

However, Penn State didn’t improve on third down against Bowling Green. In fact, both sides of the ball did much worse than they did the week prior.

Penn State’s offense was successful on third down just 22% of the time against the Falcons, who converted on half of their 14 third-down opportunities. The extension of drives for the Falcons led to four more minutes of total time of possession — one of the biggest reasons Bowling Green scored 27 points.

Through the two games, Penn State is barely breaking the top 100 in third-down efficiency on both sides of the ball. The Nittany Lions’ offense ranks 93rd in the country in the category while the defense ranks 89th.

After practice on Tuesday, Franklin said improving on third down is his biggest priority offensively.

“Our offense is either scoring or going three-and-out,” Franklin shared. “What happens is the play count is out of whack and we’re not getting enough plays.”

Franklin mentioned numerous times that he’s looking for a more balanced offense and getting them the ball more.

As for the defense, Franklin wants the group to get off the field on third down more to give the offense more opportunities.

“Our rep count is way up on defense right now and our rep count on offense needs to be higher,” Franklin said.

In the first quarter against Bowling Green, Penn State’s offense was in a 3rd-and-7 situation on its own 28-yard line. Allar completed a pass to Trey Wallace for 18 yards to convert the first down, but Drew Shelton was called for a hold to push the offense back 10 more yards.

In the following play, Allar found Omari Evans wide-open to convert the first down, but Evans dropped the pass.

Franklin said avoiding those negative plays compounds drives and helps improve the balance on offense.

“We don’t have a hold on third down or we don’t drop the ball on third down, that may equal another six plays,” Franklin said. “We do that two more times, you’re talking 10-15 plays in the first half. Over a game, that creates more opportunities and more touches, and we want to be able to spread the wealth.”

With Penn State having its bye this week and facing perhaps the worst FBS team in the country in Kent State the week after, both the offense and the defense need to improve on their third-down efficiencies.

“The more we’re on the field, there’s more opportunities to score points,” Franklin said. “And, it keeps our defense off the field.