Allar's struggles epitomize Lions loss
Oct. 22—COLUMBUS, Ohio — Drew Allar's homecoming went awry quickly.
He completed just one of his first six passes against a swarming Ohio State defense.
He had a nine-pass incompletion streak at one point. And worse for him, his team's offense that came in averaging better than 41 points per game seemed hamstrung by the stingy Buckeyes in a 20-12 loss at Ohio Stadium on Saturday.
Fighting through tears, he compared the feeling of his first collegiate loss to the last game of his high school career. He summed up his effort in one word: "Sucked." Asked why he was so critical, he added simply, "Because, I did."
While the Nittany Lions have to answer questions about where they really stand in a Big Ten that is only going to get more competitive with the addition of four Pac-12 powers next year, the sophomore quarterback is a mere seven starts into his career.
Tight end Theo Johnson said the Nittany Lions needed to rally around Allar, emphasize that the offense's failures in the passing game, which saw 24 of 42 pass attempts fall incomplete, were more a team issue than a quarterback issue, and build from there.
But for his part, he offered few excuses.
"It sucks to lose like this, especially on the road," Allar said. "There were a lot of emotions in the locker room, and for good reason. Nobody wants to feel this way. We put countless hours of hard work in, and it sucks to have a result like this. But we have to wash it, learn from it, because if we don't learn from it, we're fooling ourselves. We have to really be critical of this film, and really learn from it and not let this happen again."
The turning point
The Nittany Lions did, for a brief moment, appear to have turned the game in their favor.
In the second quarter, with the Buckeyes driving at the Nittany Lions' 26, linebacker Curtis Jacobs rushed off the right edge, knocked the ball free from Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord, scooped it up and returned it for a touchdown that appeared to give the Nittany Lions a 10-3 lead.
However, officials threw a flag on cornerback Kalen King for holding in the secondary, negating the touchdown and extending the drive for the Buckeyes, who wound up scoring on a 2-yard run by running back Miyan Williams.
"It was just a play that worked out," Jacobs said. "The quarterback stepped up, and I made a play on the ball. That's just how it works. You have to play the next play."
Penn State coach James Franklin said he didn't get an explanation on the timing of the penalty, but Penn State players admitted the momentum swing turned out to be a lot to overcome.
"It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. It was just tough," defensive end Adisa Isaac said, searching for words. "Obviously, we would have loved that on defense. It would have made the game a lot different. But that's life. You have to learn how to bounce back and keep it moving forward. It is what it is."
Going for it
Penn State's biggest strategy decision in the game, meanwhile, didn't work out either.
Facing a fourth-and-4 from their own 43 with 7:24 left in the game — and just minutes after the Buckeyes' Jayden Fielding kicked a 37-yard field goal to push their lead to 13-6 — Franklin elected to go for it, trying to extend the drive and capitalize off a strong 30-yard kickoff return by sophomore Nick Singleton.
But Allar's pass was tipped by Ohio State defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau, giving the Buckeyes the ball at that spot.
"You feel like you have to be aggressive there," Franklin said of the decision to eschew the punt and play the field position game. "You may not get the ball back. We needed to be aggressive in that situation."
Seven plays later, McCord threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison that broke the Nittany Lions, handing Ohio State a 20-6 edge with 3:59 to go.
Injury report
Penn State once again didn't get out of a matchup with the Buckeyes unscathed on the injury front.
Star defensive end Chop Robinson left the game in the first half with an apparent head injury, not to return. On a running play for the Buckeyes, Robinson lowered his head absorbed a block to the side of his helmet from Ohio State pulling guard Matt Jones. He lay on the field for several minutes before being helped to the sidelines. He was carted to the locker room and not seen on the field during halftime.
The Lions' defensive line depth took another hit in the second half, when fellow end Amin Vanover left the game with an undisclosed injury. It left the Nittany Lions rotating just three ends — Adisa Isaac, Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zuriah Fisher — in the fourth quarter.
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