Lions’ offensive showing is cryin’ shame
PSU football commentary
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Drew Allar didn't try to hide his emotions.
The Nittany Lions' quarterback was in tears following Penn State's 20-12 loss to Ohio State on Saturday afternoon at Ohio Stadium.
Allar was well aware that he and the offense were almost entirely responsible for the outcome.
He didn't play well, and the collective offense authored an embarrassing showing that Penn State fans will have a tough time forgetting.
Every time the Lions had a third-down opportunity to convert -- until a meaningless one at the end -- they failed.
The final count was 1-of-16.
"It sucks to lose," Allar said before attempting to look ahead. "But we've got to take tomorrow to get better. We can only control what we can control. If we do what we did the first six weeks -- obviously today wasn't good enough at all -- but if we attack each week, we can still be the position we want to be at the end of the year."
Allar said the team needs "to keep the faith in each other and not worry about the outside noise."
Rest assured, there's plenty of outside noise -- especially when it comes to Penn State's chances to compete against Ohio State and Michigan.
The loss was the Lions' seventh straight to the Buckeyes, who are 9-1 against James Franklin, who is just 4-15 vs. the big boys.
Not. Good. Enough.
It's one thing to lose to Ohio State, even in surrendering late leads, which Penn State has mastered.
But it's another thing to lay such an egg offensively and maintain the faith of the fan base. That took a definite hit Saturday.
Thanks to an outstanding defensive effort, despite its offensive ineptitude, the Lions were within a touchdown of taking the lead or winning the game until deep into the fourth quarter.
But their receivers generally couldn't gain separation or when they could, Allar was errant.
Some of that goes to the top -- offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich and, of course, Franklin.
Allar attempted 42 passes. Anybody who thinks a first-year starter is winning in the Horseshoe throwing that often is sadly mistaken. That's not even counting the times he scrambled and ran.
The Nittany Lions' receivers were to blame, too, cutting routes off short of first-down yardage along with three-four drops.
Generally, though, Allar was rushed because Ohio State's defense is a step up in competition than the Lions are used to. Maybe Penn State will learn something from scheduling Delaware and UMass.
Franklin said afterward, "I'm not sure if we didn't just watch two of the best two teams in college football, specifically on the defensive side of the ball."
Good thing he clarified that.
While we knew Ohio State's receivers were superior, that doesn't explain how often Marvin Harrison Jr. and Cade Stover were running free. Clearly, Penn State's schemes are lacking.
Where is the Lions' creativity?
On the other hand, their identity is lacking.
They ran the ball decently early and Franklin acknowledged afterward that the Lions got away from the run.
"We were at a one-possession game, and I feel like we could have ran the ball more," he said.
A couple of those instances that struck me came as the game was being shaped in the first quarter. Kaytron Allen opened the game with a 6-yard gain. What's next? Two incompletions.
Then -- worse -- facing third-and-1 at the Penn State 45, tied 3-3, the operation was confused. Allar said something to Nick Singleton, checking the protect ion before throwing an incompletion to KeAndre Lambert-Smith.
The Lions lined up on fourth down as if they were going to go for it, and called timeout (smartly deciding to punt) -- but the entire sequence lacked decisiveness.
Penn State has been a pretty good shortage team this year by using its jumbo tight-end backfield and mushing the 6-foof-5 Allar for a first down. Instead, they have Allar in the shotgun on third-and-1?
Even still, the Nits were in the game well beyond halftime. They were gifted the fact that Ryan Day ate three first-half timeouts in the last minute.
Without two of the Buckeyes' injured standout offensive players -- TreyVeon Henderson and Emeka Egbuka -- this was the Lions' best opportunity to end their losing streak to the Buckeyes.
And, down 10-6, after Pennsylvania product Julian Fleming muffed an Ohio State fumble, the Lions had the ball at midfield with every chance to win this game.
Except they needed to make one offensive play -- one -- and they neither had the personnel or the ingenuity to do it.
It was Penn State's most disappointing offensive showing in memory.
Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.