Penn State wide receivers finish Orange Bowl with abysmally bad stat

Penn State's season is over. The Nittany Lions lost to Notre Dame 27-24 on Thursday night in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Orange Bowl. Despite scoring 24 points against a stout Notre Dame defense, Penn State wide receivers were a non-factor. In fact, they were a zero factor. Penn State finished the game with zero, ZERO, receiving yards from their wide receivers.

Nittany Lions with receiving yards included tight end Tyler Warren, running back Nicholas Singleton, tight end Khalil Dinkins, tight end Luke Reynolds and running back Kaytron Allen. No wide receivers involved. Penn State joins Navy and Air Force as FBS teams this season to finish a game with no yards from wide receivers.

Crazy but true: Penn State did not have a single catch from a wide receiver in tonight's game.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) January 10, 2025

The group's goose egg is not on them. Penn State quarterback Drew Allar looked awful Thursday night. He finished the game 12-for-23 with 135 yards and an interception. He seemed to be overthrowing or underthrowing everyone he was throwing to and at one point he was so bad that ESPN flashed a stat on the screen that made one fan poke fun at a current NFL quarterback.

What in the Tua statline is this pic.twitter.com/aChAlCUnBT
— Drink More Water | Get More Sleep 🐬 (@hughart_michael) January 10, 2025

At that point in the game, Allar was 4-for-12 with only two passes completed downfield. According to ESPN Stats and Research, Allar was 0-for-5 with an interception when targeting wide receivers. That interception came at the worst possible time. Penn State was on their own 28-yard line with under a minute to play in a tie game. Allar missed his wide receiver low and to the right and Christian Gray picked it off, setting up Mitch Jeter's game-winning field goal.

On the other side of the ball, Notre Dame wide receiver Jaden Greathouse made a game-changing play in the fourth quarter, scoring a game-tying 54-yard touchdown with under five minutes to play. Greathouse finished the game with 105 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions.

The game came down to more than just each team's wide receiver play, but there's no denying that the team who had the better passing game won in this age of football. Zero yards from your wide receivers is not a recipe for success in a high-level College Football game.