Drew Allar had a breakout season in 2024, the type of season that had NFL evaluators hoping he would change his mind about returning to Penn State for his senior year in 2025, then the Nittany Lion’s season and Allar’s draft hype both came to a screeching halt. After knocking off SMU and Boise State in the College Football Playoff, Penn State fell one win short of an appearance in the national championship game, losing to Notre Dame 27-24 in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Orange Bowl.
The loss was easily Allar’s worst game of the season, and though Penn State’s quarterback had a disastrous performance, he wasn’t the only reason that the passing game struggled and the team lost. Allar’s last-minute interception is impossible to ignore, but let’s grade his entire performance and try to divvy up the blame on the Penn State offense.
Allar completed one fewer pass in the Orange Bowl than he did in Penn State’s Fiesta Bowl win over Boise State, but his performances couldn’t have been more different. Against the Broncos, Allar was pushing the ball deep, posting a career-high average depth of target of 17.2 yards downfield and he finished with three touchdown passes. Against Notre Dame, offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki didn’t have much interest in testing the secondary or trusting his receivers.
Allar posted a 6.3 yard ADOT, nearly three yards below his season average, he only targeted two wide receivers all game and neither caught a pass. Aside from tight end Tyler Warren, who finished with six catches for 75 yards, Penn State’s playmakers failed to create any consistent separation and put their quarterback in an incredibly difficult spot. Still, in many ways, the mark of a great quarterback is how they perform when the circumstances are the worst. Needless to say, Allar did not play like a great quarterback.
On Penn State’s first scoring drive of the game, Allar missed Nicholas Singleton, not on a deep throw downfield, but in the flat for a wide-open walk-in touchdown. It cost the Nittany Lions four points in a three-point loss.
This play MIGHT come back to haunt Penn State pic.twitter.com/LUyFdhGKsj
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) January 10, 2025
There were plenty of open throws that Allar did miss, beyond the throws he couldn’t pull the trigger on because his receivers had no separation. Once Kotelnicki realized Allar was off, he practically held his hand the rest of the game, until he final possession of course. Five of Allar’s 12 completions came on screen passes, accounting for 51 of his 135 yards. Allar only attempted one throw over 20 yards and went 2/6 on throws from 10/19 yards downfield.
It was a disastrous performance that primarily falls on the quarterback, who was uncharacteristically sacked three times on just eight pressures. Then, there was the interception.
Notre Dame picks off Drew Allar late in the fourth 😳 pic.twitter.com/F0SZvM5fFa
— ESPN (@espn) January 10, 2025
Just an unacceptable throw. And an even worse decision.
Drew Allar had the worst game of his season in the biggest game of the season. Some of that is because of his lack of help in the passing game, but much of it was inaccuracy and poor decision-making. Another year in college will do him well as far as his NFL future is concerned and it’ll keep Penn State in the national championship conversation for 2025.