Penn State's Drew Allar Struggles Vs. Michigan. The Gameplan Didn't Help
At one point in Saturday's Penn State-Michigan game, Nittany Lions receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith made a sharp double-move to get open for a potential touchdown. Quarterback Drew Allar either didn't see or it didn't trust it and took a checkdown throw for a short gain. Some in the Beaver Stadium crowd sighed at the near-but-so-far miss. The moment distilled Penn State's 2023 passing game into 6 seconds during a 24-15 loss to Michigan.
Allar's 70 passing yards, on an 11-for-22 day, represented by far his lowest total as Penn State's starter. Allar owned it, describing his play as "not good enough" and defending Mike Yurcich by saying the now former offensive coordinator called plays that Allar and the offense didn't properly execute.
Penn State coach James Franklin, however, made his strongest public comments regarding the offense's stewardship this season and the assets surrounding Allar. Franklin often couches critiques in softer words. This grade was more transparent and more stark, foreshadowing Franklin's decision Sunday to part ways with Yurcich.
"We’ve got to do a better job of calling a game to allow our quarterback to get into rhythm," Franklin said. "That is critical. We’ve got to find easy completions for a quarterback to get into rhythm.That's what everybody does. We’ve got to do a good job of that. And then on top of that, although there weren’t sacks, there were too many pressures and there were too many times where we were not creating separation."
The "rhythm" comment was notable. What Penn State's gameplan did to Allar, particularly after his coming-of-age moment at Maryland, was surprising. Allar looked free and in control at Maryland, where he read coverages, diagnosed advantages and capitalized on them in a 51-15 victory. And Yurcich let him swing. Allar went 11-for-15 and threw two of his four touchdown passes on first down.
“At the end of the [Indiana] game, it finally clicked for me where I was just out there playing, not trying to be perfect or anything like that," Allar said outside the team locker room at Maryland. "I think that really helped me, and that mentality is something that has helped me get to this point and I don't want to lose that."
Penn State then took it away from him. Essentially the coaches told Allar, who had recaptured his "inner self-confidence" from high school, to freeze that and become another running back. After an admittedly shaky 1-for-5 start, Allar attempted just eight more passes (completing seven) until the fourth quarter. He attempted a season-low 22 passes and ran a season-high 10 times. Sure, several were scrambles into open field as receivers were covered. But Penn State basically took the ball out of Allar's throwing hand until asking him to win the game with it.
So on 3rd-and-6 in the fourth quarter trailing by eight points, Allar threw a pass behind receiver Kaden Saunders, who was open. And he blamed himself for the incompletion, followed by a fourth-down incompletion.
"I missed plenty of throws," Allar said. "I think of the 3rd-and-[6] at the end of the game. I threw it behind Kaden. He won his route. Put it in front of him and let him make a play."
By that point, however, Allar had been instructed that this game would not be his. Penn State ran 22 first-down plays, throwing on three of them. Its run-pass imbalance wasn't a stark as Michigan's 86-percent run rate but also didn't fit a team that needed to strike big against Michigan.
Though they fell behind 14-3 in the second quarter, the Lions still ran on 60 percent of their plays for the game. And half of Allar's attempts covered five or fewer air yards (he was 7-for-11). That included a second-and-one pass to Malick Meiga, which lost a yard, that Franklin said supposed to be a run.
"We made a couple of throws that, if the ball’s not delivered right, one ended up being a pass interference on them and one we werefortunate that it wasn't an interception," Franklin said. "Your ball location is critical in these types of games. We had a couple of shots called but we were waiting for a specific look at a specific defenseand weren't able to do that. So we weren't able to loosen them up from a coverage standpoint to help with the more consistent higher percentage throws."
After the game, Allar still sounded resolute, saying,"there's no other group that I'd rather go out and play with." He also sought to deliver a message.
"There’s going to be a lot of noise surrounding us now, people are going to try to divide us, just take shots at us. But who cares?" Allar said. "We’re the ones playing the game. We’re not going out trying to lose a football game. We put too many hours, too much hard work, too much sacrifice in this to want to go out and lose a football game."
"We’re not getting blown out," he added. "They’ve been one-, two-score games and we’ve been in it to the end. But there's a couple times on offense that we just didn’t execute the assignments assigned, and you can't do that against a team like Michigan."
More on Penn State
James Franklin parts ways with offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich after loss to Michigan
Penn State struggles to process a loss to Michigan
The Penn State-Michigan report card
For Penn State and James Franklin, another missed opportunity
Michigan 24, Penn State 15: The breakdown from Beaver Stadium
James Franklin addresses Michigan allegations, Jim Harbaugh's status
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