The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State’s 27-24 season-ending loss to Notre Dame
Penn State’s 27-24 loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff brought its season to a close before it expected.
Let’s take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from the heartbreaking defeat.
Good
Run game: There aren’t many teams that can do what Penn State did to Notre Dame’s defense on the ground. The Nittany Lions gashed the Irish over and over again, sometimes with Kaytron Allen, sometimes with Nick Singleton and on occasion it was even Drew Allar and Tyler Warren. That led to 204 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns on 42 attempts — with both running backs going for over 80 yards. There may not be a lot of positive feelings for Penn State coming out of the loss, but it is abundantly clear that it has established a culture of physicality in the trenches and has cultivated one of the best offensive lines in the country. There will inevitably be departures from that group — guard Sal Wormley, for instance, is out of eligibility — but I have to imagine the offensive line will continue being a strong point moving forward.
Andy Kotelnicki: And a lot of the credit for that line improvement and increased physicality has to go to offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. He was masterful in the game, consistently getting Warren the ball in important situations and lightening the load on Allar when it was clear he was struggling. The pockets of ineffectiveness from the offense didn’t have anything to do with the plays that were called. Some of the biggest moments — like Allar’s poor throw that Singleton dropped for a potential first quarter touchdown or the quarterback’s late interception — were about the players’ execution rather than any shortcomings from their coordinator. Kotelnicki has already stated his intention to return to Penn State for the 2025 season, and that’s a massive win for the Nittany Lions. He created an offense with an identity that could dictate how a game was played, and now he’ll have the opportunity to take it to the next level.
Dani Dennis-Sutton: I could include Abdul Carter here too, who played through a shoulder injury and had a fantastic game, but Dennis-Sutton hasn’t received nearly enough recognition for how he’s played this season, especially in the postseason. He lived in the Notre Dame backfield, earning two sacks in the game, including one where he stripped Riley Leonard of the ball. And then, in what looked like a game-changing play at the time, he dropped into coverage and pulled in an interception with 10:15 left in the game, giving Penn State the ball and allowing the offense to go down and take a 24-17 lead. Carter will — rightfully — receive the adoration of the masses for playing through his injury, but Dennis-Sutton was one of the best players on the field Thursday night, much like he has been since the Big Ten title game.
Bad
Drew Allar: In the biggest game of his career, Allar was unable to meet the moment. He was erratic as a passer, missing throws he has to make, like the aforementioned one to Singleton, and not giving his pass catchers a chance to succeed. Of course, it’s not like they were doing much to help him out (don’t worry, we’ll get to the receivers later), but it’s still on him to make plays and lead the team. That’s what elite quarterbacks do. And Allar has the potential to be just that — elite. But right now he’s not. He’s a good quarterback who is inconsistent and struggles to get out of his own way in big moments. It’s not that he can’t make good decisions or put throws where they need to go, it’s that he can’t do it often enough for the Nittany Lions to succeed. And now he and the rest of the offense will have an offseason to ponder where it goes from here.
Lack of aggression: There were two key moments where Penn State head coach James Franklin had an opportunity to be bold and aggressive — phrasing he has leaned on this postseason — but instead he took the easy way out both times. The first was after Singleton’s drop with seconds left in the first quarter. He chose to kick a field goal on fourth down from the three-yard line rather than trusting his offense to punch the ball in and get six. And even failure there isn’t fatal, as Notre Dame would’ve been pinned deep in its own territory.
The second came in the fourth quarter, when on fourth-and-3 he decided to punt from his own 32-yard line. Yes, that one will raise some eyebrows to bring up, but Penn State’s offense had dominated the Irish on the ground all game, and converting there would have put the Nittany Lions to march down the field and kill the rest of the clock — giving them the regulation win or sending them to overtime. I understand worrying about handing the Irish the ball on the 32 only needing a field goal to win, but far too often what could go wrong is valued drastically more than what can go right. And what could go right is a potential trip to the national title game.
Ugly
Wide receivers: Penn State is elite at so many positions and at least good at almost all the other ones, but it may have the worst wide receivers in the Big Ten. Franklin even heaped praise on the group in the lead up to the Orange Bowl, seemingly trying to evoke some type of performance that would justify his words. But that didn’t happen. The group finished with zero receptions and -3 yards thanks to a lateral from Tre Wallace to Allar after Warren originally pitched it to the wide receiver. That’s right. No catches, but still negative yards. If that doesn’t sum up how they played, I don’t know what does. There were plenty of chances for the receivers to help the offense out, with Notre Dame relying heavily on man coverage, giving them 1-on-1 opportunities. But none of them could take advantage. Even Allar’s game-losing interception was helped out by a poor route run by Omari Evans that relinquished too much space to Christian Gray to make the pick. And yes, they do block well, but at some point they need to get involved in the passing game in a more meaningful way.
The group will look different next year, with Kyron Hudson and Devonte Ross transferring in from USC and Troy, respectively. But there has to be internal development, too, to get meaningful contributions. Otherwise we’ll be right back here talking about how Penn State’s receivers once again vanished to help end the team’s season early.
