UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As he approached a camera taped above a sign labeled “Win Cam,” a typically soft-spoken Drew Allar took a deep breath and screamed with every bit of power in his system.
Allar connected with wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith on a game-winning, 57-yard touchdown pass just moments before, redeeming himself after throwing his first career interception and losing a narrow lead with just five minutes to play in Penn State’s 33-24 victory over Indiana on Saturday.
“I think we just found out more about ourselves — that we are who we say we are,” Allar said postgame. “We're gonna bounce back even if we're pushed back into a corner, so I think we were just a really resilient group today.”
It took 312 pass attempts for Allar to toss his first pick, an NCAA record. It also took him six games since the Nittany Lions season opener to successfully complete a pass over 50 yards, a streak that snapped against the Hoosiers.
The sequence of Allar’s turnover and the touchdown that followed it could’ve been the breakthrough moment the Nittany Lions have been waiting for from their first-year starting quarterback.
“Drew being able to sit in there and deliver that ball, KeAndre being able to make the play and finish and stay in balance, it was awesome,” coach James Franklin said. “As you guys know, we've talked about it enough and talked about a bunch. We got to continue to be able to do that.”
Allar’s game-winning touchdown pass was the type of breakaway score that never came in a one-possession loss to Ohio State last weekend. Despite the tears that followed in his postgame interview after the defeat, Allar never wavered throughout the past week of practice.
When it came to Saturday morning, Allar was no longer rattled by the Buckeyes, a similar mentality when it came to shaking off the pick.
“I didn't even know I threw an interception until I got to the sideline because I got hit and usually you hear the crowd react, but honestly, there was no reaction to it,” Allar said. “So, honestly, I thought it was just an incomplete pass or something.”
It won’t be Allar’s last interception, and the incompletions will come, too — some out of his control.
Lambert-Smith had to fight through his own piece of adversity after dropping a pass that would’ve put the Nittany Lions in prime scoring position in the second quarter. With the drop, Penn State kicker Alex Felkins was forced to attempt a difficult 51-yard field goal and missed.
Brushing off the drop the same way Allar bushed off his interception, Lambert-Smith trotted into the end zone with the game-winning score. He attributed wide receivers coach Marques Hagans with teaching an analogy to help move on from drops.
“When you get in a car, you don't think about crashing, so when you're receiving, I don't think about dropping the ball,” Lambert-Smith said.
The Nittany Lions stumbled their way to victory amid some ugly play on both sides of the ball, out-of-rhythm offense and allowing a season high in points allowed. Regardless, Penn State found a way to win and keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive with two weeks before hosting Michigan.
“We were not perfect in any phase today. We're the first to admit that,” Allar said. Definitely not as clean as we would have liked on the offensive end. But at the end of the day, we found a way to win.”
First Published: October 29, 2023, 10:00 a.m.