University Park— Penn State QB Drew Allar planned on flipping the script, and he almost did it.
The team was down 17-3 to No. 6 Oregon early in the fourth quarter, and some fans started chanting for Coach James Franklin to be fired.
Then, things started to turn around.
Allar hit Devonte Ross for a 35-yard touchdown pass to make it a one-score game. Then, he hit Ross on a seven-yard pass with 30 seconds left to tie the score and force overtime.
But on Allar’s first pass of the second overtime, he went for tight end Luke Reynolds and missed him, instead finding Oregon linebacker Dillon Thieneman for the game-ending interception.
Allar’s last pass of last season was also in a big game and also intercepted, that one being to Notre Dame’s Christian Gray.
Allar plays the game to win, and most of the time, he does (27-7 as a starter).
But all seven of those losses have been to ranked opponents, with six being in the top 10, so it just hasn’t been there in big games.
“I don’t prepare all week to come out and lose the game,” Allar told reporters afterward. “So, obviously, it hurts. We had our opportunities. I think it that’s kind of the unfortunately bright side of it.”
WHAT WENT WRONG?
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
Allar was pretty direct when asked what went wrong.
“I mean, what went wrong was we didn’t win the game,” he said.
He was also direct when asked what happened on the game-sealing interception.
“I tried to get it over the guy’s head and he jumped and caught the ball,” he said.
There’s are the type of answers athletes are expected to give after tough losses, and nobody rational would blame Allar for being short at times.
He did go into deeper details about Penn State’s issues, particularly the ones that led the offense having just three points through the first 45+ minutes of the game.
“We just weren’t efficient on first down and I think that’s the main thing of it,” he said. “We were in third and obvious passing situations in the first three quarters, and against a team like Oregon with the front that they have and obviously the coverage guys on the back end, it’s obviously going to be an uphill battle. So we just have to be better on first and second down and just executing.”
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Franklin appreciated Allar’s effort, and pointed out that the rest of the offense didn’t necessarily make life easy for him in the first three quarters.
“I thought he battled,” Franklin said. “Early in the game, I think it’s obviously going to be easy for people to be critical, but again, when you’re not able to have success on first down, you’re not able to get ahead of the sticks on second down. In the first half, I think we averaged almost 3rd-and-9. That’s not a good situation for any O-line. That’s not a good situation for any quarterback.”
Another eye-opening stat is that Penn State ran for 139 yards against Oregon, compared to 297 against the Ducks in last year’s Big Ten Championship Game.
Nick Singleton gained 21 yards on 11 carries.
“We were not able to get our running game going, and that put us in a very, very challenging spot,” Franklin said.
Franklin did hold Allar accountable for the interception.
“Obviously, the turnover at the end… Drew has been as good as any quarterback in the country when it comes to touchdown-to-interception ratio over his time, but obviously that was a critical one,” he said.
“But early on, we were not able to get into a rhythm for all the reasons I just mentioned. And now we’re in third-and-long after third-and-long after third-and-long.”
On the plus side, Penn State did come back to tie the game in regulation and lead it in overtime.
Penn State also has eight regular-season games left.
“It’s a long season ahead of us,” Allar said. “We’re going to have more opportunities down the road to fix this. I’ll be the first to go into the fire. There’s no other coaching staff or team I’d rather go to war with and make the most of this opportunity and learn from it and grow from it.”
“We want to play better and we will play better, so I know we’ll get it fixed.”
For Drew Allar, this one hurt the same as the Orange Bowl that ended last year’s Penn State football season.
“I mean, every loss is the same to me,” he said.
Penn State takes on UCLA Saturday at 3:30 in the Rose Bowl on CBS.
