James Franklin has developed a reputation for struggling in some of the biggest games during his tenure at Penn State. Unfortunately, starting quarterback Drew Allar is now facing similar questions after struggling in a Peach Bowl loss to Ole Miss.

In his first season as Penn State’s starter, Allar completed 61.1% of his passes and had 23 touchdowns to just 1 interception entering Saturday. However, he completed less than 45% of his passes twice in the regular season during losses to Ohio State and Michigan.

While Allar did eclipse the 45% mark against the Rebels, he struggled while going 19-for-39 (48.7%) for 295 yards and 2 touchdowns with an interception. Admittedly, some of those numbers were buoyed by a couple of late drives in garbage time.

After the game, Franklin was asked about Allar, and he admitted the offense needs to do a better job of staying on schedule for the QB. He also says the unit needs to make plays for Allar when the opportunity arises.

Franklin also pointed to a need to be scarier on the perimeter, presumably with better talent at wide receiver:

“I think it’s all of it, right? We’ve got to stay on schedule like we talked about,” said Franklin. “We’ve got to make plays for him when we have the opportunity to make plays for him.

“I think there’s some things that he can do and be more consistent as well, but I think the biggest thing, which I think was a question earlier, is we’ve got to be able to scare people and be a threat consistently on the perimeter. That’s something I think we’ve shown flashes of at times, but we need to be able to do that on a consistent basis.”

Those issues do not entirely make up for the fact Allar needs to improve, but Franklin wanted to focus on how the full package of the offense fits together:

“So it’s a little bit of Drew. I think it’s a little bit of the offensive line. I think it’s a little bit of the coaches. I think it’s a little bit of the wide receivers,” Franklin explained. “It’s a piece of all of it.

“We’ve got to make some plays for him, and he’s got to make some plays as well.”