Following Penn State’s 30-24 loss to Oregon in the White Out a week ago, James Franklin preached to the team that it couldn’t let the game linger and allow one loss to turn into two.

Fast forward one week, and the Nittany Lions did exactly the opposite.

Penn State looked completely unprepared and embarrassingly fell flat against UCLA on Saturday afternoon with a final score of 42-37. It was easily Penn State’s worst defensive game of 2025 so far as UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava thrashed the Nittany Lions for 166 passing yards, 128 rushing yards, and five total touchdowns.

While the offense struggled as usual, it had all the makings of a comeback going into the final frame. Penn State got within six points of UCLA with Kaytron Allen’s 2-yard score at the top of the fourth quarter.

Drew Allar led the team with 78 rushing yards on 11 attempts and threw 200 yards and two touchdowns. Yet, when the Nittany Lions needed a stop, Iamaleava had no problem rushing into the end zone to maintain the Bruins’ pace towards the eventual upset.

When the loss to Oregon gets put into perspective, it’s clear that Penn State allowed the loss to manifest itself at the Rose Bowl. At the end of that game, the defense simply ran out of gas against the Ducks. The Nittany Lions looked just as lost as UCLA ran rampant all day. There’s no doubt that all of the talk outside following the top-10 matchup stayed in the team’s head.

“We got to tune out all the outside noise. I thought our guys worked hard at doing that last week, but obviously not well enough,” Franklin said postgame. “We got to stick together… the reality is we didn’t play well enough in all three phases to win the game. And there’s going to be a lot out there to divide, divide, divide, and we got to tune all that out and stick together.”

Franklin compared the game to last season’s overtime win over USC. They were both cross-country trips to Los Angeles that saw the Nittany Lions go down big in the first half. The difference is Penn State managed to come back against the Trojans with clutch fourth-down conversions down the stretch.

Penn State was also undefeated going into that clash at the Coliseum. There were no clouds over the team’s head and no losses to obsess over, especially one that ended as upsettingly as the White Out loss to Oregon.

“We just can’t make this a routine. We can’t just keep on doing this. We just got to come back to work. We got to prepare. We got to ask questions where we’re confused, or even get in the film room more, make sure everyone’s on the same page and prepare better,” Dom DeLuca said postgame.

DeLuca tied with safety Zakee Wheatley for the team lead in tackles against UCLA as he took over Tony Rojas’ starting linebacker spot.

Edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton clearly outlined Penn State’s lack of mental focus on the defensive side of the ball towards UCLA, coming off the loss against Oregon.

“We weren’t ready to play, I guess. I don’t have the answer exactly why we lost,” Dennis-Sutton said. “Obviously, as a unit of defense, it was a terrible start. Let them score. It was just a bad day for our defense.”

A bad day for the defense it was. Even outside of Iamaleava’s 294 all-purpose yards, the Bruins had no problem pounding the rock. Running backs Anthony Woods, Jaivian Thomas, and Jalen Berger combined for 152 yards on 36 rushing attempts, good for 4.2 per carry.

Add on Iamaleava’s total, and UCLA demolished its rushing total from any other game this season with 269 yards. The next closest was 173 yards in the Bruins’ 30-23 loss to UNLV on September 6.

Linebacker Amare Campbell lived in the backfield against UCLA, ending his day with 10 total tackles, one sack, and 2.5 tackles-for-loss. Yet, he understood the magnitude of the Bruins’ rushing game and knew the Penn State defense didn’t live up to its expectations.

Campbell is focused on not allowing the losses to keep the Nittany Lions down, however. Like DeLuca, he knows Penn State simply has to put its head down and get back to work. If the emotions of the upset linger, it can only bleed into next week and the week after and the week after.

Drew Allar expressed the same sentiment after a solid bounce-back performance from the Penn State signal caller.

“I firmly believe we have one of the best cultures in college football. I mean, I don’t think one or two games defines us,” Allar said postgame. “I think what’s going to define this team, specifically, is going to be how we respond to this, because it’s a bump in the road for sure. But you know, backs against the wall, there’s no other team or coaching staff that I’d rather be in this situation with.”

Losing to Oregon was one thing. The heartbreak of that game clearly reverberated into the locker room and poisoned the Nittany Lions ahead of their trip to Pasadena.

Penn State has to ensure its mental focus ahead of Saturday’s game against Northwestern. With two losses on the board and no wins through Big Ten play, the season already feels like it’s hanging by a thread with the brunt of the schedule still on deck.