It took Penn State eight and a half games to start throwing the ball downfield, and QB Drew Allar was asked via Zoom Thursday if he wished the offense would have started throwing it deep sooner.
Allar suffered a season-ending injury in Penn State’s sixth game of the season against Northwestern.
Through those six games, many fans complained that the offense wasn’t establishing a deep passing game, and this continued into Ethan Grunkemeyer’s first two starts.
Against Indiana two weeks ago, Penn State got the deep passing game going, with a 43-yard pass from Grunkemeyer to Trebor Pena opening the flood gates.
The next week against Michigan State, a 75-yard touchdown pass from Grunkemeyer to Devonte Ross gave Penn State a lead it wouldn’t lose.
In between the Indiana and Michigan State games, interim coach Terry Smith said “It took me three weeks to accomplish getting the ball thrown down the field, so I wish I could have got that done sooner.”
Here’s what Allar said when asked by Mike Gross if he wished the team started throwing deeper sooner.
WHAT ALLAR SAID
Drew Allar gets set for the Nittany Lions second game of the season.
“I mean, honestly, I felt like we did throw the ball down field. As a quarterback, obviously, I want to thrown the ball downfield every play. That’s just not how it works out sometimes, and you have to find different ways to win. We’ve done a great job the last couple weeks of hitting different things, play action passes… for me, I think when I was playing, we did hit shots downfield and we called a fair amount of shots. It’s just that, sometimes, the defense takes it away. We always talked about, in the quarterback room, take what’s given.
“Sometimes, it’s the deep post or the go route, but sometimes, it’s not. You just have to take care of that ball, stay on schedule, and you know all those plays will obviously come to you when you let them. You don’t force it and you just let them come to you in the flow of the game. But obviously, you just have to play the game how the game is called. No matter if somebody things it’s the best play fall or the worst play call in the history of football. My job as the quarterback and our job as players is to go out and make plays.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“If we go out and make plays, if I make throws, if I make one or two more throws throughout the games that I was playing, maybe it’s a different perspective and maybe people have different opinions, but you can’t really judge it now. You just have to learn from it and grow from it.”
‘IF I WOULD HAVE MADE A COUPLE MORE PLAYS’
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
Toward the end of the call, Audrey Snyder asked Allar to reflect on Penn State’s season as a whole.
Not too long ago, Penn State was No. 3 in the country with the chance for a signature win against Oregon.
Penn State lost in double overtime, and wouldn’t win again for almost two more months, and Allar feels responsible for that loss.
“We wouldn’t be in this position if I find ways to make more plays throughout the game,” Allar said. “If I find different ways to get going early, or make the game finish a different way at the end of the game, I think that kind of changes our outlook on the season.”
Allar then pointed out that football “is not a one coach-game, a one-player game.”
“It’s a total team buy-in, team collective,” he said. “I know Coach Terry said it at halftime this week, as players, we have to go out and make plays. I know I left a little bit out on the field. More than I would have liked to going into this year. If I find ways to make maybe three or four more plays in every game, no matter if we wom the game or lost the game, I think it’s a different perspective on our outlook on the season so far. I think we’d be in a different spot. But sometimes it just doesn’t shake out the way you want it. That’s football. Out of our six losses this year, one-score loss. We’ve done a lot of good things. It’s just unfortunate we haven’t found ways to come out and win the games that we wanted to win.”
“It’s just how it played out unfortunately. If I would have made a couple more plays and that sort of thing, I think we’re in a different spot.”
