Penn State finds another way to lose and Drew Allar is out for the season

I really wanted to believe that Penn State hit rock bottom when it lost to 0-4 UCLA last Saturday, but now I see that the abyss goes deeper than I could have imagined. That’s because Penn State lost for the second straight week as a favorite of more than 20 points. This time the unthinkable defeat came at home against Northwestern, 22-21.

After a muffed punt by Penn State led to a Northwestern field goal and a 16-14 lead for the Wildcats, the Nittany Lions appeared to regain control of the game early in the fourth quarter when Devonte Ross turned a shallow cross into more than 50 yards after the catch for a 67-yard gain. Kaytron Allen followed with an 18-yard run to set up Drew Allar’s one-yard end zone plunge that gave Penn State a 21-16 advantage. Now all we needed was for the defense to do what it had done for most of the second half and keep the Wildcats out of the end zone.

Of course, that did not happen. Northwestern quarterback Preston Stone found Griffin Wilde for three key first down completions to move the Wildcats down the field and Caleb Komolafe finished the drive with a nine-yard touchdown run to put his team back in front. Penn State stopped the two-point try and had plenty of chance to respond, but Allar was injured while trying to scramble on 3rd and 4. On the next play, Ethan Grunkemeyer also tried to scramble for the first down, but he was stuffed to end Penn State’s hope of a comeback.

After the game, we learned that Drew Allar will miss the rest of the season due to the injury he suffered on that final drive. It’s probably best for the program that Grunkemeyer gets an extended look with the College Football Playoff out of reach, but who knows what the roster will look like next year with James Franklin’s job status in doubt? He deserves to be fired because of his team underperforming drastically when expectations were at their highest. However, due to Franklin’s buyout that costs almost $50 million, letting him go at this point is a huge financial undertaking.

If Penn State changes coaches, it will be tough to put a roster together without the transfer portal, and without $50 million, it’s hard to attract players in the transfer portal. It’s not a great situation.

The one thing that drove me craziest while doom scrolling after the loss was fans treating Drew Allar like he was let down by Penn State. I feel bad for Allar because of how his college career is ending and because he is injured, but acting like he didn’t have his destiny in his own hands is ridiculous. Allar played with an incredible tight end in Tyler Warren last year and two great tailbacks. He had the ball in his hands in the national semifinal with a chance to drive his team to victory, and he threw a horrible interception. Allar is just as much of a disappointment as anyone else involved with the Penn State program. The program didn’t fail him. He failed alongside the program.

This year, Penn State went into the transfer portal and dug up three talented wide receivers for Allar to throw to. He had the ball in his hands with a chance to complete an epic comeback victory against Oregon, and he threw another awful interception. It sucks, but he’s just not that good. Penn State will try to end its three-game losing streak and earn its first Big Ten win of the season at Iowa next week.

So how about that ALDS marathon on Friday night between the Tigers and Mariners? Seattle is headed to its first ALCS in 24 years where it will battle for its first ever American League pennant thanks to Jorge Polanco’s walk-off single in the bottom of the 15th off of Tommy Kahnle. It was a classic game, but it was also a game affected by the babying of pitchers that has become too normal in today’s game.

First, Seattle skipper Dan Wilson took George Kirby out of the game after five shutout innings and 66 pitches because he allowed a leadoff double in the sixth to Javier Baez. The next batter, Kerry Carpenter has five career home runs off of Kirby, with the fifth coming in Game 1 of this series. Maybe an aggressive pull like that is okay when the batter is so dominant against the starting pitcher, but in this case it wasn’t because Carpenter ended up hitting a home run anyway off of reliever Gabe Speier.

With Tarik Skubal being his usual excellent self on the mound for Detroit, Carpenter’s dinger could have lifted the team to victory, but AJ Hinch decided to lift Skubal even after his one-two-three shutdown inning in the bottom of the sixth that ended with a strikeout of AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh. You see, Skubal was at 99 pitches, and he’s not used to throwing more than 105 or so. In the first inning without Skubal on the bump, Seattle tied the game with a pinch-hit single from Leo Rivas and Detroit won’t score again until next season. This is why you don’t baby pitchers in the regular season. They need to be prepared to dig deep in games like this one that decide destinies.

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