Penn State coach James Franklin, offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and others emphasized a theme before the season. They aimed to put the football in the hands of their best players more frequently. That’s not what happened last Saturday when the Nittany Lions lost 20-13 to Ohio State, especially on four plays from inside the 3-yard line in the fourth quarter. Tight end Tyler Warren and running back Nick Singleton, Penn State’s two best offensive weapons, didn’t touch the ball during that fateful sequence. Warren had just made a contested 31-yard catch and a 33-yard run off a direct snap to put the Lions in position to tie it. He might have been the primary target on fourth-and-goal from the 1, but Ohio State (and everybody in the record crowd of 111,030) expected that and forced an incompletion. Singleton’s absence from the offense for that sequence and for the second half is even more puzzling. The former Gov. Mifflin star was on the field only on fourth down and that was to help block Ohio State defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau. Worse yet, he saw the ball on offense just twice in the second half of Penn State’s biggest game of the year. He carried once for 4 yards and caught the only pass that came his way, for 13 yards. That’s inexcusable for the guy who leads Penn State in scoring and all-purpose yards, who’s third in receptions and who’s averaging more than 6 yards a carry. Singleton finished with 15 yards on just six rushes, which tied a career low. He also caught six passes for 54 yards and returned three kickoffs for 66 yards. He gained a game-high 135 all-purpose yards, yet he was forgotten when it mattered most to the Lions. It flies in the face of everything that Franklin and Kotelnicki have been saying for almost a year, about giving their best players the ball. “There is a piece where you can say in critical moments you’ve got to think players and not plays,” Franklin said Monday. “Maybe on one of those three downs, at least, you’ve got to make sure Tyler Warren touches the ball, however that is. “I think we’ve got two really good running backs (Singleton and Kaytron Allen) that we feel good about. Those guys have got to touch the ball as well.” Allen gained 27 yards on 12 carries, twice as many as Singleton had. He doesn’t have the explosiveness that Singleton has. He is not the receiving threat that Singleton is. If Allen was at running back for that fourth-quarter sequence because Franklin, Kotelnicki and running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider thought he was the best option, fine. If Allen was in the game ahead of Singleton only because it was his turn to play, then they put trying to keep someone happy ahead of winning the game. That would be wrong. Singleton also was forgotten for a long stretch last year in the Peach Bowl loss to Mississippi. He had one carry from the first play of the second quarter until the first play of the fourth quarter, despite gaining 50 yards on eight rushes, a 6.2 average. As for last Saturday, Allen’s three carries from the 3 netted 2 yards. They also underscored the fact that Penn State’s offensive line might be strong enough to handle most defensive lines on the schedule, but not one as talented as Ohio State’s. “We didn’t get movement up front,” Franklin said. The Lions didn’t get much push all afternoon. Allen and Singleton combined to average just 2.33 yards per carry. Warren’s 33-yard burst allowed Penn State to top 100 rushing yards. Only once in the last four games have the Lions averaged at least 4 yards a carry, and that was against Wisconsin. “We’ve got to get our traditional running game going,” Franklin said. He might want to start by giving Nick Singleton the football.