COLUMBUS, Ohio — Weeks before Penn State’s trip to Columbus, quarterback Drew Allar had to politely decline photo and autograph opportunities with a smile and a small wave as he slid through a crowd of fans outside of Northwestern’s modest stadium on a warm fall Chicago afternoon. With a Penn State staffer in tow, Allar stepped onto the bus and disappeared into the quiet solitude of his headphones.
All was well.
Fast forward and Allar is wiping away tears from his dirtied face after a 20-12 loss to Ohio State. He has lost before, but this seemed a shock to the system. On a day fans expected him to become the Goliath slayer, the Nittany Lions’ offense would score their only touchdown far too late and Allar would flounder in the biggest game of his life almost from the outset.
Ohio State’s defense played no small part in Penn State’s and Allar’s struggles, but the Nittany Lions were rudderless on offense, unable to block well enough to truly live on the ground, unable to get separation in enough time — or at all — to give Allar much in the way of consistent and legitimate targets down field. For his part, Allar avoided the sort of game-swinging mistakes of his predecessors, but offered no threatening counter to Ohio State’s defense either. All of this compounded by a Penn State offensive line that was unable to set the tone on the interior.
The result was among Penn State’s most excruciating losses to Ohio State in a series that has been littered with moments of “what if?”
The what if that will likely haunt Penn State most of all; that in spite of systemic offensive issues the Nittany Lions had their chances and opportunities to steal the game. For all of its own woes, Ohio State’s offense suffered from similar shortcomings and a noticeable lack of the lethality that has been the hallmark of the Buckeyes’ success for the last decade. The game, in all its ugly glory, was there to be had.
“I sucked,” Allar said after an 18-for-42 effort for 191 yards and one late touchdown.
Why do you say that?
“Because I did.”
It’s undeniable Allar could have been better. There’s not much disputing that Allar looked the part of a young first year starter playing in the biggest game of his life. For all of the progression Allar has made physically in the past 24 to 36 months, he is still young, inexperienced and a prospect by virtue of physical stature and tools more than a resume built and proven.
But there are other truths to note as well.
“We weren’t able to create separation,” Penn State coach James Franklin said after the game. “Drew needs some guys to make plays for him on a more consistent basis.”
And Franklin isn’t wrong. Penn State’s offense is not built of established offensive targets. It is a receiver room that openly spent the offseason looking to create consistency, boasting a transfer portal addition who has struggled to make the transition to the next level. It is a tight end room of talented but not particularly explosive options, often asked to help block more than it is asked to go streaking 20 yards down the field.
For all of the things Allar could have done better, there is a knife-twisting, salt-in-wound likelihood that had Penn State fielded some mixture of Jahan Dotson, Parker Washington, Mitchell Tinsley or a handful of other receivers it has rostered the past decade that the Nittany Lions may very well have won. Washington posted 179 receiving yards against Ohio State in 2022, just 12 yards shy of Penn State’s entire passing yardage total on Saturday. It’s undoubtedly true that offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich will spend his Saturday evening and Sunday morning reviewing a bevy of calls he might like to have back while circling back around to the fact Penn State has no real legitimate downfield threat to put up against an elite defense and a running game which has built its optimism on what the same players did last season and not so much what they have done more than halfway through 2023.
Totaled up, it creates a sum of all fears of the Drew Allar era, that it just won’t be the way people hoped it would be. In a sense it is slightly ironic Penn State could acquire a quarterback of his stature who has undeniably impressive physical traits and the tools to be an exceptional player and then lack the skill players around him to make the most of that talent. Instead, Penn State is left trying to piece together an offense plenty capable of beating all sorts of teams — especially backed by such a stout defense — but critically lacking in the areas required to pose a consistent threat to the two (soon to be more) season-defining opponents.
For Franklin, Saturday’s loss only adds to an escalating narrative that Penn State has a finite ceiling under a coach who has done an exceptional job getting the program to a point where it is consistently playing in nationally relevant games but appears to lack whatever undefinable touch is required to win them. It may have been one thing had Penn State and Ohio State lost in a classical race to 30 points. But Saturday was not a game which showcased Ohio State’s best, and the win was there to be had.
And yet, Penn State still lost. It’s a question of development, scheme, acquisition and assessment. Broadly, Franklin has found his highest level of success with two teams that were largely without any significant shortcomings, but what Franklin has seemingly lacked is the savvy to overcome his team’s more noticeable imperfections against his team’s more noticeable opponents.
Further down the road, Franklin now sits five Big Ten games away from the conference expanding by four teams, three of which pose legitimate threats to Penn State and the rest of the league’s upper third. It seems almost certain that losing will become more regular for all parties than it has ever been while an expanding playoff format could see Penn State still making the postseason only to find its big game existential struggles take on a different form.
It’s also possible that Penn State will find more success facing out-of-conference teams in big games rather than an annual showdown against programs which have an intricate understanding of how each opponent operates. That answer is uncertain and remains to be resolved.
What is certain is that things won’t be getting any easier and the longer Franklin can waltz Penn State to double-digit wins without any wins of note, the harder it will be to sell Penn State fans on that vision still being a sign of success. Andy Reid will likely be a first ballot NFL Hall of Fame inductee, but the former Philadelphia Eagles head coach made much of his early career winning a lot while also winning nothing, a reality which resulted in Reid leaving Philadelphia both appreciated for his success and appreciated for his departure. In the end, Penn State’s inability to beat Ohio State and others will not likely impact its ability to beat most everyone else. If that ends up being good enough for Penn State is a challenging, ever-asked question.
As for Allar, it’s hard to know how Saturday will shape his future with the program. He has never spoken publicly about his longterm intentions, but beyond a predetermined departure for the NFL following next season based on his physical attributes, Allar’s current performances — a product of both himself and what is around him — lean more toward Allar staying out his career at Penn State and not leaving early on the back of first round expectation. Much will happen between now and that decision next year, but Saturday was not a step closer toward those NFL aspirations if they’re based on how he has played so far.
Time will tell.
And time has elapsed since Allar got on the bus at Northwestern. Now it’s chilly, cloudy and quiet, Allar once again walking towards the buses after briefly meeting with his family outside of Ohio Stadium. This time there was no crowd waiting for him, no throng of fans trying to get a glimpse of his boyish smile. This time it was just Allar alone with his thoughts, taking the steps up onto Penn State’s bus, waiting for the rest of his teammates to join.
