Drew Allar made it look easy in his debut, Penn State vs West Virginia review
The film review is complete, and the Keystone Kickoff Show is here to break down Penn State football’s 38-15 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday. Join the show for the final word on the win and how Drew Allar managed to put on an impressive performance before the calendar shifts to the next game.
Host Jim Galanti and I discuss Allar, the offensive line, and skill positions before shifting our focus to the defense. The show also takes questions from KSN listeners. Join the show at 10 a.m. on YouTube for the exclusive video airing of the show, which is broadcast regionally across the state on local radio.
Subscribe to the BWI YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of our upcoming content, including James Franklin’s post-practice comments and interviews with players.
Drew Allar makes it look easy in his Penn State debut
Allar’s performance against West Virginia was nothing short of spectacular. The sophomore Penn State quarterback completed 72.4% of his passes, going 21-29 for 325 yards and three touchdowns. Those figures earned him a Big Ten Player of the Week honor by the conference and his team’s offensive MVP for the game.
We discuss how Allar made dissecting a somewhat complicated defense look easy. If you’d like more information, check out this week’s film study on the passing game.
The main thrust of how Yurcich attacked the West Virginia defense dealt with unbalanced formations and safety manipulation within those looks.
The first-time Penn State starter was also effective over the intermediate middle of the field, which is typically difficult for a first-time starter. He completed 100% of his six passes for 118 yards during the game.*
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*PFF updated their statistics upon review and charted one incompletion over the middle that was originally elsewhere.
Defensive review
The Penn State defense didn’t have the shutdown performance that most fans expected, with multiple big-time plays. However, head coach James Franklin pointed out on Tuesday they were good at the right time.
“I thought defensively what stood out to me is we played our best when it was needed most. There’s some things that we’ve got to get cleaned up for sure. But when we needed to make plays on defense, we did. That was important,” Franklin said.
However, he expects more from the backups, who allowed a late score in the fourth quarter.
“Then I think back to the point I made earlier whoever is in the game, the standard is still the same. When we got a lot of those backups in the game on defense against mostly the 1s of their offense, the expectation is to still play up to our standard of defense.”
