Drew Allar and the Penn State Nittany Lions are moving on from the shocking overtime loss to Oregon last Saturday night. In a game with high expectations, the Ducks ended up getting the job done in double overtime to seal the deal.
The Nittany Lions were favored to win at home in front of a White Out crowd. Both offenses struggled most of the game until the second half, when the scoring started to open up. Penn State stormed back from down 14 points to tie the game and force overtime. However, an interception on the first play of double overtime from Allar allowed the Ducks to storm the field with joy.
The loss sucks, but it does not end the Nittany Lions' season. They will have other opportunities against Ohio State and Indiana to bounce back from the loss, and if they win those games, they could set themselves up for excellence.
Drew Allar believes that this loss will only make them better.
“Reflecting on this last week, it could be the best thing that's happened for us, but we have to take the right approach into this week,” Allar told Dell. “It starts today with our practice habits and that sort of thing. It doesn't matter who we're playing. The standard's the standard, and every week, we have to be finding a way to elevate it and get better because at the end of the day, the championship isn't won in September. Obviously, that comes in January, and that's where we hope to be. And we can definitely use this as a catapult onto that hopefully.”
The future NFL quarterback also understands that his offense needs to start faster. It's been too common a theme for this program over the years. They start out slow, and sometimes force an almost perfect second half to escape with a win.
“I think the things we wanted to learn from was just starting faster,” Allar said. “I think that kind of hurt us in the beginning of the game, really the first half. It was a slow first half for us, but then we really got rolling towards the back half of the third quarter, once we went down 14 points. I think that's the type of offense we can be every possession. Now it's just about really going out there and doing it.”
Penn State and UCLA meet in Southern California tomorrow.
