Grading Drew Allar’s crisp performance in Penn State’s White Out win over Washington

Penn State needed a bounce-back performance in Week 12 after a 20-13 loss to Ohio State, and so did its quarterback. While it wasn’t entirely his fault, Drew Allar had his worst game of the season against the Buckeyes, his first year under offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, but was much better in a 35-6 win over the Huskies. 

In front of the White Out crowd at Beaver Stadium, Allar was crisp, completing 20 of 28 passes for 220 yards with one touchdown, no turnovers, and no sacks, he just wasn’t quite dynamic. Kotelnicki’s offense hasn’t had much trouble moving the ball between the 20s, but the issues have come in the red zone when the windows get tighter. It’s not so much that Allar struggled inside the 20 on Saturday, it’s that the ball wasn’t even in his hands. 

Third down and red zone can make or break a quarterback, and while Allar was excellent at keeping the chains moving, Tyler Warren and Beau Pribula put most of the points on the board. Allar’s grade isn’t just about what he did in the win over Washington, it’s about what he wasn’t asked to do because that’s the biggest concern in his game. 

Against Ohio State, Penn State made two trips inside the Buckeye’s five-yard line and came away with zero points. The Nittany Lions didn’t score a single offensive touchdown in the game and with the game on the line, Kotelnicki and Allar couldn’t get the ball into their superstar tight end’s hands. So, in Week 12, Kotelnicki cut out the middleman. 

Penn State went 5-5 with touchdowns in the red zone, but twice Warren ran it in as the wildcat quarterback after Allar’s more mobile backup, Pribula, ran in the first score of the game from eight yards out. 

One of Warren’s rushing touchdowns came Allar missed running back Nicholas Singleton in the flat for a sure touchdown. It was a quick throw with Singleton sneaking towards the pylon out of a bunch set, and Allar’s feet sped up, causing him to sail the throw. When the field condenses in the red zone, Penn State prefers to play 11-on-11 football in the run game, and Allar doesn't provide that threat, so he has to be supremely accurate as a thrower to fit passes into tight windows to stay on the field. His miss to Singleton only emboldened Kotelnicki to continue giving Warren QB reps inside the 20 and, more specifically, inside the 10-yard line. 

Later, Allar hit Julian Fleming for an eight-yard touchdown on third-and-goal before the half. While it wasn’t particularly high difficulty, it was possibly Allar’s best and certainly most important throw of the day. If he doesn’t hit Fleming in stride, he’s likely tackled before hitting paydirt. Allar needs to continue to hit throws like that in the red zone if he wants to be trusted near the end zone against Penn State’s best opponents and in the College Football Playoff. 

Outside of the red zone, Allar was excellent. He’s been lethal stepping up in the pocket this season, both as a runner and a thrower, so Washington continually ran A-gap stunt to flush him to his right or left and he continued to avoid sacks and push the ball downfield effectively. However, most of the day, he had incredibly clean pockets to operate from. 

In the pocket, his footwork continues to improve as it has all season and that’s reflected in his accuracy when throwing over the middle of the field. Allar hit nearly every in-breaking route, most impressively on a third-and-6 at the start of the second quarter. Allar worked through his progression and ripped the dig on a dagger concept to Harrison Wallace for a 25-yard gain. 

It’s the second throw of this cut-up, and watch how quickly the ball is on Wallace as he comes out of his break. 

Allar has been very effective this season, and some of the red zone deficiencies on this offense are due to a lack of weapons at wide receiver, but you have to play the cards you’re dealt and that means the talented junior has to raise his level in the red zone or he’ll continue to come off the field.