Ke’Andre Lambert-Smith has turned himself into maybe the one trustworthy receiver for Penn State this season, and QB Drew Allar has certainly built quite a rapport with the junior.
It was no surprise that Allar found Lambert-Smith for the game-winning 57-yard touchdown with 1:46 left.
“I thought it was awesome. I enjoyed it,” PSU coach James Franklin said in his post-game presser. “KeAndre being able to make the play and stay inbounds was awesome.”
What may have been a little bit of a surprise was that was Allar’s response, just three plays after throwing the first interception of his career. It was the 18th game of his career, and Allar set a NCAA record for throwing the most attempts (310) before throwing an interception to start a career.
“That’s a legitimate first,” Franklin said. “You throw your first interception and now you have to respond. I thought he handled it well, and he delivered a big time throw. That’s a positive that we can build on.”
Allar said he didn’t realize he had thrown the first interception of his career until he saw the defense coming on the field. Allar was under pressure and didn’t get off a good throw, and the ball was picked by Indiana’s Josh Sanguinetti to set up a field goal that tied the game at 24 with 2:58 remaining in the game.
“In that case, I probably should have just took the sack and let the punt team have a chance to flip the field,” Allar said.
“Usually you hear the crowd react, but there was no reaction to it. I thought it was an incomplete pass. After that happened, I just had to flush it and move on.”
Lambert-Smith said for Allar to come back after the interception and deliver the throw he did is just a testament to who he is as a quarterback.
“We told him, ‘You’re not the only one out there. We all got your back,’ Lambert-Smith said. “We have 100 percent belief in him. I knew he would come out next drive and lead us to a score.”
There are plenty of question marks surrounding the PSU offense right now, but the duo of Drew Allar and Lambert-Smith have turned into one of the better QB-WR combos in the Big Ten.
“We definitely weren’t as clean as we would have liked to have been on the offensive end, but at the end of the day we found a way to win,” Allar said. “Indiana was a tough opponent. Their record may not show it, but they played tough and hard.”
