Grading Drew Allar’s surprisingly strong performance in Penn State’s Week 10 loss to Ohio State

In a 20-13 loss to Ohio State, his second loss to the Buckeyes in as many years, and when his defense accounted for seven of those points, Drew Allar played surprisingly well. Coming off the knee injury he suffered against Wisconsin in Week 9, Allar was the least of Penn State’s offensive problems as James Franklin’s Nittany Lions fell to 7-1 on the season. 

Franklin is now 1-10 in his 11 games against Ohio State and in recent years his effort to close the talent gap between his team in Happy Valley and the reloading juggernaut out in Columbus has been to target elite quarterback prospects on the recruiting trail and to hire an innovative play-caller. 

Franklin may never be able to match the resources that Ryan Day has to pour into top-tier wide receiver prospects and high-level talent across his entire offense year after year, so potentially an elite quarterback can offset the discrepancy and be the rising tide that lifts Harrison Wallace III, Omari Evans, Julian Fleming, and Liam Clifford to a functional passing game. If not that, then maybe Andy Kotelnicki could scheme his way into coverage busts and wide-open receivers. 

So far in 2024, that’s worked against the Illinois’s and Wisconsin’s of the Big Ten, but against the Buckeye’s $20 million roster, there was nothing Allar could do. Despite his pedestrian numbers, Penn State’s former five-star QB played well in his second career start against the Buckeyes and was significantly better than a season ago in a 20-12 loss. 

Kotelnicki had a rough outing on Saturday, but Allar played well. It just didn’t matter because his receivers were so thoroughly outmatched by Ohio State’s defensive backs and Day’s defensive coordinator Jim Knowles recognized it immediately. Knowles, who loves to bring pressure anyway, blitzed Allar on 64.3% of his dropbacks, leaving his cornerbacks on an island in man coverage and never paid the price for it. A Penn State wide receiver didn’t make a catch until 1:15 left in the first half!

Against the blitz, Allar went 7/12 for 44 yards with an interception, though again those numbers are fairly misleading. Allar was accurate against Ohio State and for the most part very poised in the pocket, avoiding pressure and navigating his way through traffic while keeping his eyes downfield. With Knowles living in Cover 1 or Cover 0, blitzing the house with man coverage behind, Allar took what he could with his legs, scrambling five times for 31 yards, he’s just never going to be the type of player who can burn a defense on the ground. 

With more bodies around the line of scrimmage, Ohio State was able to shut down Penn State’s running backs, putting more pressure on Allar and tight end Tyler Warren with both the backs and receiver essentially neutralized. 

Warren has been Kotelnicki and Allar’s trump card in the passing game. The last time Penn State was truly pushed in a competitive game, Warren had 17 catches against USC. but USC didn’t have Caleb Downs. 

The Alabama transfer was the most arguably coveted player on the market this offseason and he spent most of his afternoon in Happy Valley shadowing Warren. Yet, even when Kotelnicki wisely got Warren a one-on-one on a crucial third-and-10 with Downs out of the picture, the total inability of Penn State’s receivers to run a route, let alone catch a pass, disrupted the operation.

Worse yet, when Allar was orchestrating an aggressive drive just before the half in which he finally gave his receivers a chance to win one-on-one, Wallace burned him. After making a nice grab down the sideline the play prior, Allar threw a perfect strike to Wallace in the back corner on the end zone, and his supposed No. 1 wide receiver practically handed an interception to Ohio State’s Davison Igbinosun. 

In Ohio State’s loss to Oregon, the Buckeyes got exposed on the backend of their defense and their secondary play has been a surprising weakness all season relative to the amount of recognizable names with future NFL profiles that liter Knowles’ defensive backfield. However, Oregon exposed them with Tez Johnson, Evan Stewart, and Traeshon Holden, Penn State would be thrilled to have one wide receiver that is the caliber of those players, let alone three. 

Penn State fans were frustrated about the lack of defensive holding calls against Ohio State in the game, and that will certainly be the primary rebuttal to my argument to critiques of Penn State's wide receiver play. But that’s the way the officials called the game both ways and Ohio State had the talent to take advantage of that. 

Allar was by no means perfect, but when given the opportunity to make plays, he was accurate far more often than not, kept the offense afloat with his mobility, and took the check-downs when nothing was open until he had no choice. If you want to assign blame for another inept offensive performance against a quality opponent, blame the team’s head coach for addressing the need at wide receiver this offseason by adding an Ohio State castoff in the transfer portal and nothing else.

Franklin has been smart to prioritize quarterback over everything else because an elite player at the most important position can change the fate of a team regardless of the talent of the rest of the offense. However, without elite mobility, Allar just doesn't profile as the type of quarterback who is an offense unto himself, a Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson in the NFL who, because of the threat of their athleticism, can succeed essentially regardless of their circumstances.

Still, he's a quality college quarterback and will be a viable one at the next level, if the pieces are right around him. His ability as a distributor is more suited to take an offense with good weapons and make it great, not take an offense nearly devoid of playmakers and make it functional. This game was a perfect example of that, or in other terms, a B+.