Sunday Column: Allar Sets The Bar High as Nittany Lions Deliver Win That Suggests Best is Still Yet to Come

There was a lot of Week 1 stuff on Saturday night in Beaver Stadium. Missed tackles. Confusion on blocking assignments. Burned timeouts in the middle of both halves. We won’t talk about the field goal kicking.

But there was also a lot of stuff that you could see — and, if you’re a Penn State fan, desperately hope to see — holding up in October and November. And while the Nittany Lions’ season-opening 38-15 win over a game but outmatched West Virginia team won’t turn many heads around the country away from, uh, Deion Sanders postgame interviews, it can be a pretty damn encouraging night if you view it as pretext for the season at large.

Some of the stuff we thought we knew — Nicky and the Fatman would again be awesome, Manny Diaz would bring pressure, Mike Yurcich would draw up some fun stuff — turned out to be true, but some of the stuff we thought we knew — Whither Chop Robinson? Was the offensive line really any better? Is linebacker truly a strength on this defense? — will perhaps require further examination at later dates.

On the other hand, stuff we thought we had to be concerned about turned out to be pleasant surprises. Drew Allar looked very little like a quarterback starting his first game, and in doing so made a group of receivers that had been casting a lot of doubts on the offense look more than capable. Avoiding pressure, making decisive reads and throwing darts, Allar (21-of-29, 325 yards, three scores and no interceptions) showed terrific chemistry with top targets KeAndre Lambert Smith (four catches, 123 yards, two tuddies) and Harrison Wallace (7-72) and potential sleeper Malik McClain (4-58 with one touchdown). Instead of Penn State leaning on the defense and the running game while Allar got his figurative feet wet, as some of us had predicted for not only the opener but much of the first part of the season, Allar and the passing game carried the banner for a solid but not super explosive running game and what at least in the first half was a somewhat sleepy defense.

Eventually, the defense caught up, putting the clamps on slippery QB Garrett Greene and a Mountaineer offense that seemed determined to turn the ball over on downs in the second half. And you could very easily make the argument that the play that put the game on ice — McClain’s 25-yard touchdown on a 3^rd-and-6 — was as much of a sharp call and well-executed play as it was Allar’s on-time throw.

And yet, it was hard to view anything the offense did—anything the team did Saturday, really—and not put Allar in the center of it. The talent, as predicted, smacked you in the face from the game’s opening series and the 72-yard strike to KLS. But it was the poise, the confidence, the improvisation, the guts to stand in and take a shot, the willingness to take what the defense was giving him—basically, all the stuff you want in a quarterback—that was so damn encouraging and almost unbelievable when you add it all up. Yes, there were a couple of near-picks, and yes, the play clock got away from him a couple of times, but graded on even the toughest of curves, Week 1 was a resounding “A” for Allar.

What does that mean for the larger context of the season that we mentioned at the top? Oh, just everything. Look—Penn State was not sharp in any of the three phases Saturday, at least not for more than a series or two at a time. And again, that’s to be expected in the season opener. But whether it takes six days or six weeks to figure out the various minor issues that popped up in Game 1, if Penn State gets anywhere near the sort of QB play it got Saturday, the margin of error will be much, much greater. The exact strengths and weaknesses of the 2023 Nittany Lions will be made known by the time the meat of the schedule hits, but if Allar can be not just a functional piece of the machine but its engine, as he was Saturday, the perceived strengths—the running game, the tight end group, the pass rush—have a chance to be that much stronger and the perceived weaknesses—interior run defense, kicking game—will be that much easier to bear.

So enjoy this one, Penn State fans. It was a comfortable if not surgical “W” on a gorgeous late summer night in a packed house against a Power 5 opponent (for whatever that’s worth these days). For that alone, Saturday was a good day. It was also a win that left more than a few hints that it was only the beginning for the new quarterback and a new era of Penn State football.