MORGANTOWN — WVU’s defense got very little pressure on PSU quarterback Drew Allar on Saturday.
Recognizing that, Penn State started calling long-developing pass plays, allowing Allar to sit in the pocket and go through his progression until he found an open receiver. Allar finished with 216 yards and three touchdowns on only 11 completions, an average of 19.6 yards per reception.
“We had them in third and long two or three times in the opening drive (of the second half) and we didn’t get them off,” WVU coach Neal Brown said. “The quarterback really hurt us with his scrambling.”
The clean pockets also allowed Allar to scramble when needed. He converted several third downs, rushing six times for 44 yards in total.
“There were some times when we had everything covered and he just scrambled out of the pocket and made some plays with his legs,” said safety Anthony Wilson.
Allar’s scrambling helped PSU score a touchdown on it’s first drive after halftime, opening up a 27-6 lead that WVU could not overcome.
“On the edge, you lose contain and we didn’t have very good eyes,” Brown explained. “And we missed some tackles on him…He executed at a higher level than we did.”
Bad Snaps
A pair of bad snaps hampered WVU’s offense in the first half.
After recovering a Penn State fumble in plus territory, a shotgun snap hit off of receiver Jaden Bray, who had come in motion, and WVU fumbled the ball right back to the Nittany Lions.
“We talk about the quarterback-center exchange more than anybody and that was a disaster,” Brown said. “We had a chance for a really big play and we snapped the ball at the wrong time.”
WVU’s defense held tight and forced a punt on the ensuing PSU drive, but the very next WVU play had another bad snap that cost the Mountaineers five yards on first down.
“It was the first real game with (center Brandon) Yates and I messed up the timing with one of them,” WVU quarterback Garrett Greene explained. “It’s on me.”
The back-to-back miscues caused Brown to shy away from calling plays with pre-snap motion, which is a staple of the Mountaineer offense.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” Brown said. “We motion and shift a bunch and it hurt us because they didn’t adjust to us well early on but when we had those snaps, we had to get away from it because we weren’t able to handle it. We had to get away from our game plan a little bit there until we got back on track.”
Red Zone
Being better in the red zone was WVU’s top priority on offense this offseason. Whatever gains the Mountaineers may have made in that area did not come to fruition against Penn State.
WVU’s first scoring chance came after recovering a PSU fumble at the 28-yard line. The Mountaineers fumbled the ball back on the very next play.
West Virginia’s next drive got to the Penn State 16-yard line but ended with a failed quarterback sneak on fourth down.
“I feel like in the red zone and on third downs, they were really, really good at them and we were really, really bad at them,” Greene said. “We’ve just got to continue to improve that.”
WVU did manage two scoring drives before halftime, but both resulted in just field goals, never getting closer to the endzone than 20 yards.
The team’s only productive drive in the second half resulted in a touchdown, a CJ Donaldson one-yard plunge, but it was too little, too late as Penn State had built a 27-12 lead.
Officially, WVU went 3-4 on scoring in the redzone and 4-14 on third down, but it wasn’t enough to stay with the Nittany Lions, who were 3-3 and converted 5-11 third downs.
Replay
Brown was upset with two plays that led to Penn State’s last-second touchdown before halftime.
Brown said the 55-yard completion to Omari Evans was offensive interference.
“I thought it was offensive (pass interference),” Brown said. “After watching it on film, I think there was no question about it.”
Evans got tangled up with WVU safety Aubrey Burks and appeared to push Burks away with both hands before catching the ball.
“Aubrey got into him first, but there were two hands and extension and that’s the definition of offensive pass interference,” Brown said. “With that being said, Aubrey did not play in his correct coverage lane.
Brown also took issue with the next play, an 18-yard pass from Allar to Harrison Wallace. Brown believed Wallace did not have full control of the ball before diving our of bounds, but the play was not reviewed and the touchdown counted.
“I want some explanations on that because having the ability to watch video at halftime, I don’t understand,” Brown said. “You have replay so plays get checked. On the touchdown at the end of the first half, the ball looked like it was moving and it never went to replay.”
WVU’s defense played man coverage on the touchdown play. Brown said in hindsight they probably should have been in zone coverage.
“We wanted to be aggressive in the game so we played man coverage and they called a go-ball,” Brown said. “If we had to do it over again, we probably would’ve played some zone and made them throw it underneath, but I’m not sure that was a catch.”
Injuries
WVU star left tackle Wyatt Milum did not play at all in the second half dealing with what Brown described as severe cramping.
“He locked up,” Brown explained. “We tried everything and he could not go. He went into just full body cramps.
“He played extremely well but he didn’t get to play in the second half and that hurt us.”
The temperature at kickoff was 86 degrees and it got as hot as 89 as several Mountaineers dealt with cramps throughout the game.
Safeties Burks and Wilson both went down at different times in the second half, but returned to the game later.
Running back Jahiem White exited the game in the second quarter following a play in pass protection. He made a chip block on a defensive lineman and then went down to a knee one play later.
White returned to the game in the second half.
