It’s the third quarter in a tight game against Bowling Green, and Penn State football is driving down the field hoping to put the game out of hand. Drew Allar throws a bomb to Omari Evans, who catches it and runs into the end zone. Everyone thinks it’s a touchdown until a flag lands on the field. Evans is called for pass interference, and Allar throws an interception five plays later.

Frustrating scenes such as that one have been all too familiar for the Nittany Lions this season. In just three games, the Nittany Lions have already been assessed 22 penalties worth 201 yards. That’s 7.33 per game, tied with UCLA and ahead of Maryland’s 7.50, Michigan State’s nine, and Washington’s 9.25 in the Big Ten. It’s worth noting the latter three teams have played four games.

The Nittany Lions have an ongoing problem with penalties, and it’s something James Franklin and his players have talked about trying to fix more than once this season.

Defensive lineman Smith Vilbert said the team had addressed penalties “a lot” in the week after West Virginia.

“We don’t want to give the other teams a chance, and that right there, that’s something that we could control,” Vilbert said.

Despite this, whatever Penn State did that week to try and stop the penalty woes didn’t work. In the game against the Falcons, Penn State gave up seven penalties. A bye week ensued following the game, and the team worked on penalties again.

“Just some things that we got to get cleaned up, we’re giving yards away and making things more challenging, so that is a major priority for us,” Franklin said in his weekly Monday press conference following the bye.

He had just come from his staff meeting, in which he said they’d discussed penalties again. But it didn’t end there.

Despite what Franklin, Vilbert, and others had said, Penn State took another seven penalties against Kent State. This time, Franklin went on a tirade expressing his frustration despite an otherwise positive showing in the game.

“As a head coach, it’s embarrassing because it shows a lack of discipline, and it’s sloppy, and it makes things harder than it needs to be,” he said. “You want to be ahead of the sticks. If it’s 1st-and-5 because you jumped offsides on defense, you’re not going to get the sacks you want. You’re not going to get the tackles for loss you want, because they’re ahead of sticks.”

Of course, there’s going to be the occasional game or two where a lot of penalties are assessed — it happens. However, this isn’t the first or second time, but the third game in a row penalties have been a problem.

Where does it end? How do Franklin and Penn State solve it from here, and how many more staff meetings and “addressing” it with the team will it take before this finally stops?

Franklin has said at least twice recently that analytics suggest penalties don’t significantly impact the outcome of a game, and he’s probably right. They may not lose Penn State games on their own, but they can make them significantly harder to win.

Take Saturday night’s upcoming contest against No. 19 Illinois at Beaver Stadium, for instance. The Nittany Lions are facing a hot, confident team with a strong secondary and a much-improved quarterback rolling into Happy Valley. Quickly slamming the door on them from generating any momentum will be the key to winning this game.

If what would’ve been a 3rd-and-10 suddenly becomes 3rd-and-5 because a defensive lineman jumps offside, that quarterback who had 10 carries last week at Nebraska will have a much easier time waltzing his way to a first down. Let that happen enough times and the Illini are in the end zone, defying the prime-time hostile environment they’ll be up against. That grows confidence, which festers. The fewer penalties taken, the much less likely this scenario gets on Saturday night.

While one penalty alone is a little thing that is typically insignificant to the outcome of a game, these little things matter because they can accumulate to something big.

Pause the thoughts and worries about what might happen if penalties cause problems against Illinois, and consider what could instead happen if they aren’t.

Andy Kotelnicki finally has Drew Allar playing like the quarterback Franklin needs him to be, while the backfield and offensive line boast tremendous depth and talent. Although the defense has suffered some bumps and bruises, it is still a talented unit with high-end starters.

If penalties aren’t an issue, maybe that 3rd-and-10 becomes 4th-and-15 after a huge sack, resulting in a loud reaction from the crowd. Or maybe a 50-yard touchdown pass to ice the game isn’t called back because of a hold. The possibility of a big win only increases if the football is cleaner.

It’s concerning to see something that’s seemingly fixable be this much of a headache just a handful of games into the season. Penn State needs to fix the penalties now before it’s too late.