Penn State offense presented with areas for growth in win over Illinois
Champaign, Ill. — Penn State did not put its prettiest form of offense on display Saturday in a 30-13 win over Illinois. There is clearly room to grow. The good news is that the Lions are not yet running at their optimal level despite scoring 101 combined points in their first two wins before grinding out a triumph here. The bad news is that the Fighting Illini gave teams a blueprint for how to go about backing the attack into a corner.
The Fighting Illini were hellbent on bottling up the Penn State rushing attack and sending all sorts of pressure at Drew Allar. For large chunks of the game, the plan worked. Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton both did find the end zone. But, they averaged just 3.8 yards a carry between them. And, while Allar was only sacked once, he was pressured a number of times which resulted in rushed throws that dropped incomplete. It was the most inaccurate day of his first year as a starter. The sophomore finished 16 of 33 for just 208 yards and no touchdowns. There were no turnovers, which was a bright spot. But, collectively, there were far fewer of those on this day compared to the first two wins.
More: Penn State-Illinois takeaways: Offense struggles to find rhythm, defense turns up the takeaway machine, and more
“By no means was it perfect, especially offensively, by no means was it perfect, but at the end of the day,” Allar said. “We came going home with a W, and that’s all that matters to us. The talk as an offense was the only stat we want to lead the nation in is wins
“So, I think that’s all that matters at the end of the day. Obviously, there’s going to be a ton of stuff to clean up, but the defense stepped up huge. Five forced turnovers is huge for us. Obviously offense, we got to do a better job of converting those turnovers into points. Special teams stepped up when we couldn’t punch it into the endzone. So, I mean, overall, the special teams and defense had our backs today and they know we’re going to have their backs in the future.”
Penn State is focused on fixing its mistakes
Head coach James Franklin wasted little at his postgame news conference to state the obvious: After a high-flying two weeks, week three of the season showed that work remains to be done for this offense to reach its peak.
“We did have some drops that made it harder than it needs to be,” Franklin said. “Obviously we didn’t have Harrison Wallace today. So getting him back will be will be important for us. But then other guys got to step up as well.
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“We just kind of had some moving parts and weren’t as clean as we needed to be. But, [Drew] will learn from this. We will all learn from this. It’ll be great tape to evaluate.”
Penn State cannot waste this chance to improve. It was able to do enough to win on this day against an opponent who was overmatched offensively. But, it will face much better attacks down the road that require it to keep pace instead of building a lead and letting the defense hold onto it.
“The first two games, we had a lot of stuff to clean up,” Allar said. “Nothing has been perfect so far. I’m just looking forward to watching the film and getting to see what I may have missed or what we could do better as an offens. I think it’s just about looking forward with a positive mindset.
“It’s never as good as you think it is and it’s never as bad as you think it is. So, I think we’re going to have to come in with a growth mindset tomorrow. I’ll learn from the mistakes and then correct those tomorrow.”
