Season-long problems strike again, Lions fall to Ole Miss in Peach Bowl

ATLANTA -- It's not even so much that Penn State lost the Peach Bowl to Ole Miss, which seemed extremely plausible given all the talented guys who were not playing.

Standouts Chop Robinson, Olu Fashanu, Kalen King and Johnny Dixon all opted out. That's four of the Nittany Lions' best players, and beating a No. 11 opponent without those studs was going to be very difficult.

And so, Ole Miss' 38-25 victory shouldn't necessarily be a big surprise.

"Just too many moving parts with the staff and with the players against a good team," James Franklin said of the opt outs and having to hire two new coordinators. "Too many moving parts, staff and players, to have the type of success that we wanted to have today."

Much worse than losing the game, though, was the manner in which Penn State did so on offense.

It's hard to believe, in all honesty, what we saw on that side of the ball from the Nittany Lions for most of the game.

The dead horse has been beaten to a pulp about how bad Penn State's wide receivers were this season. But even after ALL of that, what we saw from the Lions' passing game Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was still baffling.

What you're about to read is almost inconceivable in football:

Midway through the third quarter, Penn State's wide receivers had a grand total of zero catches. Additionally, at that point, the collection of wideouts had only been targeted one time -- a pass early on to Harrison Wallace III.

The tight ends and running backs were making some catches, but nothing from the wideouts while the game was hanging in the balance.

Once Ole Miss took a 38-17 lead, Penn State's passing game finally got going a bit as the Lions tried a desperate rally. That enabled Drew Allar and the offense to pad some stats. He hit Wallace and Liam Clifford on seven passes combined, including a 14-yard TD to Wallace and later a 29-yard gain.

You cannot win in big-time college football when your wide receivers simply are not good enough. All season, Penn State's wide receivers weren't good enough, and that was hammered home one final time in the bowl game.

Here's what Allar had to say when I asked him about not getting the receivers involved earlier:

"There was a couple passes in the beginning of the game that were going to receivers, but Ole Miss got their hand on the ball and batted it down. So, I think there would have been a lot more targets than people may realize in that aspect.

"But at the end of the day, we're gonna do whatever is best for the team, and if that's running the ball 50 times a game, we'll do that. So, it doesn't matter. We just have to do better when we have our opportunities."

Even if, let's presume, Allar was an excellent quarterback -- which he's not, but let's play along for the sake of argument -- then he would still have a tough time running an offense so devoid of wide receiver options.

Add in the fact that Allar is not really a good all-around, technically sound or accurate quarterback at this stage of his career -- not in big games anyway -- and the offensive problems just become more magnified.

Offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich was fired for a reason. But as we saw in the Peach Bowl, Yurcich was not solely to blame for the woes.

When your wide receivers aren't very good and can't get open, and your quarterback isn't very accurate on tough throws, how can an offense succeed?

"I actually thought during the bowl period that those guys had a really good bowl period," Franklin said of the receivers. "I thought that was a big part that we were excited about, and we made a big deal about with the team."

It did not, however, turn out to be a big deal in the actual game.

"It's a combination of things," Franklin said of the lack of wideout production. "I think we're really good at tight end. That's part of it. Then we've got to be able to make sure that we translate what we do in practice consistently to the games.

"One of the things that I think can be challenging is you may not get an opportunity early in the game, but whenever those opportunities come, you've got to maximize them. You've got to maximize them, and we have not done that consistently enough this year."

The wide receivers rarely seem to get any separation. And even when they do, Allar doesn't always deliver a catchable ball.

This is how Allar fared in Penn State's three biggest games, all losses.

• vs. Ohio State: 18 of 42 for 191 yards and one TD

• vs. Michigan: 10 of 22 for 70 yards and one TD

• vs. Ole Miss: 19 of 39 for 295 yards, two TDs and one interception, with a lot of that coming late after the game had been decided

Here's what Franklin had to say about Allar's inconsistency:

"It's a little bit of Drew. It's a little bit of the O-line. It's a little bit of the coaches. It's a little bit of the wide receivers. It's a piece of all of it. We've got to make some plays for him, and he's got to make some plays, as well."

This was the biggest passing play of the game for Penn State. Allar did a nice job keeping things alive, but this is the kind of pass that no coach ever wants to see a quarterback attempt -- running one way, throwing back against his body and into the teeth of the defense.

Allar got lucky here that the pass wasn't intercepted, and tight end Tyler Warren took off for 75 yards to set up a touchdown.

Besides that lucky play, this was the rest of Allar's stat line on the day: 18 of 38 for 220 yards.

It was not Allar, by the way, who made the biggest passing play of the game for Penn State. Beau Pribula pulled that off with this play that went for a touchdown to Nicholas Singleton.

"That was a great play," Pribula said. "I'm glad I was able to find Nick, and when he's in open space, he's super dangerous. So I was glad I was able to find him in open space."

After that play, there was a lot of chatter on social media about whether Pribula should get more playing time over Allar.

It didn't happen the rest of the game, and it's not likely to happen next season, either. Allar is the 5-star kid who is supposed to have the tremendous skill set, while Pribula is merely the running quarterback who may or may not be able to throw very well, we just don't know.

Regardless, it became clear all season that Allar and the passing game simply were not in sync when it mattered most. Not that all of it was the quarterback's fault, because again, the wide receiver situation was abysmal.

But when new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki takes over, his No. 1 priority has to be to develop the passing game enough to where the receivers become weapons and Allar can deliver them the ball.

Meanwhile, as Penn State's offense was struggling through the air all day, this is the kind of thing Ole Miss was doing. The Rebels just kept making tough catch after tough catch, with tight end Caden Prieskorn hauling in a pair of fantastic one-handed grabs.

Penn State was able to win 10 games this season because it had the No. 1 defense in the country, which made up for a lot of the offensive problems. But on this day, with coordinator Manny Diaz gone and missing starters Robinson, King and Dixon, the defense just didn't have enough firepower to stop Ole Miss' dynamic offense.

The Rebels finished with 541 yards, including 394 through the air. Starting QB Jaxson Dart completed 25 of 40 passes for 379 yards and three TDs.

Ole Miss came in knowing that it had to win the game on offense, and game planned to do that.

Rebels coach Lane Kiffin said he knew "This game will be won on offense in one-on-one matchups with wide receivers and tight ends."

He also knew that Penn State was playing without standout cornerbacks King and Dixon, and so the Rebels made sure to attack the backups.

"They pay us a lot of money as coaches, so we wouldn't have been really good coaches if we didn't realize that and go in and attack," Kiffin said. "That's coaching 101."

THE ESSENTIALS

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THE INJURIES

• LB Abdul Carter was banged up in the second quarter but did return.

• LB Kobe King was banged up in the second quarter but did return.

• WR Harrison Wallace III returned to action after being injured late in the regular season. He was banged up again with 1:18 remaining after catvhing a 29-yard pass.

• LB Tony Rojas was banged up in the third quarter but did return.

THE SCHEDULE

Penn State will open the 2024 season at West Virginia on Aug. 31.

THE CONTENT

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