Going into the season, there were a lot of eyes on Penn State quarterback Drew Allar. In his second season with the Nittany Lions, Allar was on a lot of scouts’ radar as a potential first-round pick in next April’s NFL Draft in Pittsburgh.
Through Penn State’s first three games, Allar cruised against lesser opponents, Nevada, Florida International, and Villanova. Then, this past Saturday night against Oregon, questions began to be raised about Allar after his performance against the Ducks in a double-overtime loss.
ESPN Analyst Says Drew Allar’s Draft Stock is Dropping Early in the Season
Through his first four games, Allar has a completion rate of 62.8% and he has thrown for 763 yards. He has six touchdown passes and two interceptions, with the biggest pick coming in the second overtime against the Ducks. Jesse Rodgers of ESPN said that Allar’s stock is going in the wrong direction through the first month of the season.
“The stock is down,” said Rodgers. “Look, when it looks good for Drew, it looks really good. The problem is, we haven’t seen it very much, and it’s really glaring — his inability to create when things break down. You see that on third downs. You see it in the red zone, where his QBR is 122nd and 128th in college football.’’
Allar led Penn State back from a 14-point second-half deficit against Oregon to get to overtime. Rodgers was concerned with Allar’s inability to create things with his legs against a defense that didn’t really blitz him much.
“Especially in the Oregon game, they didn’t blitz him. They only blitzed on 16.7% of downs, but they had a 40% pressure rate,” said Rodgers. “When you’re a quarterback and it’s a four-man rush, you have to be able to create with your legs, break the defense down. Time and time again, we saw him hold on to the ball too long. We saw his inability to make somebody miss or extend the play to the outside to help break the defense down and create explosive plays. He just wasn’t able to do that.’’
Drew Allar Needs More Consistency Against UCLA
Seventh-ranked Penn State will look to turn things around at UCLA this weekend. Allar’s inability to make plays against a good defense in Oregon was not great. He will be playing against a Bruins defense that is struggling and coming at the right time for the Nittany Lions‘ signal caller.
“The big-time throws to the perimeter every now and then, you’re like, ‘Man, that looks good.’ I think that’s what we hold on to,’’ Rodgers said. “But I think it’s just inconsistency in making big plays happen when it’s not perfect.”
Allar ranks 14th in the Big Ten out of 18 quarterbacks with an RTG of 133.5. Only Nico Iamaleave of UCLA, Bryce Underwood of Michigan, Mark Gronowski of Iowa, and Preston Stone of Northwestern are ranked lower. It feels like a bounce-back performance is needed for Allar this weekend. If he can do that against the Bruins, his stock should be trending in the right direction again.
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