Drew Allar gives emotional reaction to Ohio State loss

Penn State football fell to the Ohio State Buckeyes 20-12 Saturday in Columbus. The first loss of 2023 for the Nittany Lions, there are very few other places where the blame can be laid for this defeat than at the hands of the Penn State offense. Off rhythm from essentially the opening snap, the offense made a one-score deficit for most of the game feel insurmountable. After the game, Penn State QB Drew Allar gave an extremely emotional response to his own play and discussed the next steps for this now 6-1 football program.

Penn State offense flatlines in loss at Ohio State

It’s hard to not be concerned about where the offense is at for Penn State football following Saturday’s loss to the Buckeyes. Going into the weekend, there were still many questions about a unit that was putting up large amounts of points but lacking explosivity against lesser competition.

Unfortunately for Penn State football fans, Saturday turned into a nightmare scenario. The Nittany Lions amassed 240 yards on the day, only 49 of which came on the ground. Penn State QB Drew Allar finished with a less-than-stellar stat line, going 18-42 for 191 yards and a touchdown.

The offense looked out of sorts from the opening whistle. The Nittany Lions only had five of 14 drives go for more than 20 yards. With nine punts and two turnover-on-downs for the day, Penn State finished a pitiful 1-16 on third and 1-3 on fourth down.

Drew Allar gives an emotionally charged response to first loss of the season

After the defeat, Drew Allar met with the media for the first time as a losing QB in his college career. The 19-year-old was visibly shaken by the day’s outcome, at times fighting back tears as he spoke to reporters.

While Allar does not bear the brunt of the burden for the offense’s performance, as the QB, he will shoulder that blame. “[I] sucked,” Allar said when asked how he thought he played. When pressed why he felt that way, the sophomore QB simply responded, “Because I did.”

WR Kaden Saunders also spoke to Allar’s emotional response to the loss, noting that he’s never seen the sophomore QB act that way and that Allar was being too hard on himself in the locker room after the game.

Kaden Saunders said he’s “never seen Drew like this.”

He said Allar was emotional and too hard on himself after the loss to Ohio State pic.twitter.com/kdxyXfNIgY

— Sam Woloson (@sam_woloson) October 21, 2023

Penn State QB looks forward despite crushing blow

As disappointing as Saturday’s loss to Ohio State was to the Nittany Lion faithful, the defeat was not a fatal blow to the 2023 Penn State football team. Looking forward, Allar says the team must use the game as a learning opportunity.

“Obviously, it sucks to lose. It’s not fun to lose at all,” he said. “But we got to take tomorrow to get better. We can only control what we can control. And at the end of the day, we have to go out and do what we did the first six weeks. Obviously, today was not good enough at all. But if we attack each week and don’t lose faith in each other, we can still be in the position we want to be in at the end of the year.”

Drew Allar talks emotions, game. pic.twitter.com/4S4jNUCFJ9

— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) October 21, 2023

“There’s a lot of emotions in the locker room, and for good reason,” Allar continued. “Nobody wants to feel this way. We put countless hours of hard work in. And it sucks to have a result like this, but we have to wash it, learn from it. Because if we don’t learn from it, we’re just fooling ourselves. We have to be really critical of this film. Just really learn from it, and not let this happen again.”

Penn State football will look to rebound next week against Indiana. Kickoff is set for noon EST.

Thank you for reading Basic Blues Nation. Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news and insights on your favorite Penn State athletics. For feedback, questions, concerns, or to apply for a writing position, please email us at basicbluesnation@gmail.com or direct message us on our social media. Also, be sure to check out our new site shop. It’s due to your support that we can become one of the market’s fastest-growing Penn State sports outlets!