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STATE COLLEGE – Drew Allar said last week at Illinois that protecting the football is his top priority as Penn State’s starting quarterback.
It showed again Saturday night in the Nittany Lions’ 31-0 blowout win over Iowa on a rainy night at Beaver Stadium.
Allar completed 25-of-37 passes for 166 yards and four touchdowns without an interception or a fumble. He has yet to commit a turnover in his college career, which spans 14 games, 185 pass attempts and 41 runs.
“Drew’s doing a good job of getting rid of the ball and throwing it away,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “Sometimes that’s as big of a play as anything. It would have been a 6-yard sack and he throws it away and you either give yourself another down to pick up the first down or you reserve the right to punt, which is the right thing to do sometimes.
“He’s managing the game well.”
For the season, Allar has completed 67.2% of his passes for 903 yards and eight touchdowns and no interceptions. He’s third in the Big Ten in pass efficiency behind Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy and Ohio State’s Kyle McCord.
Patient backs: Penn State running backs Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton, the former Gov. Mifflin star, have had pedestrian numbers through four games mostly because defenses are taking away big plays.
Allen has carried 63 times for 280 yards (4.4 average) and two touchdowns, and Singleton has rushed 53 times for 203 yards (3.8 average) and five scores.
They combined for 121 yards on 38 carries against Iowa. Singleton had Penn State’s biggest gain of the night, a 19-yard run in the third quarter.
“We were trying to control the clock,” Singleton said. “It was a long game, a rainy game. Iowa’s defense is really good, so we just tried to pound the ball, get them tired and take some shots.”
Singleton had seven 40-yard runs last season, including his memorable 87-yard touchdown in the Rose Bowl. He admitted it’s been difficult to remain patient.
“For me, a little bit, yeah,” he said. “I look for the long runs, but if I can get 5 or 8 yards, as long as we can move down the field and score, I’m fine with that.”
New look: Penn State used three defensive ends on the field at the same time and it resulted in three sacks and six quarterback hurries.
Defensive ends Chop Robinson, Adisa Isaac and Amin Vanover had the sacks.
“It just adds another element of speed to the D-line,” defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton said. “Chop can pass rush from anywhere, inside or outside, so Coach Manny (defensive coordinator Manny Diaz) is just trying to use him everywhere and put pressure on the interior guys on the line, too.”
Big Ten rankings: Penn State leads the Big Ten in scoring offense, rushing offense and total defense through four games.
The Nittany Lions are scoring 40.4 points per game and are allowing 8.8 points, third in the conference behind Michigan (5.8) and Ohio State (8.5).
They lead the Big Ten in rushing with 210.0 yards per game and are second in total offense (449.8), behind Maryland (450.5).
Penn State has held opponents to 219.5 total yards per game, 12 yards ahead of second-place Michigan.
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