What drives a QB nuts?

Is it bad blocking? Poor offensive line play? No good receivers to throw to?

Probably all of the above. But what may be the most gut-wrenching? A player dropping a pass.

Penn State QB Trace McSorley is a prime candidate to win the Heisman Trophy this year. Despite the Nittany Lions losing by one point to No. 3 Ohio State, McSorley has been great.

He could look even better statistically though, if it weren’t for many of his passes being dropped:

As Pro Football Focus said, McSorley is having his passes dropped at a higher rate than any other Power 5 signal caller. Again, this has to be a bit frustrating.

Here’s a bit of what Thomas Frank Carr at PFF wrote about the Nittany Lions do-it-all QB:

“The last game against Ohio State was the game of McSorley’s life. He set the Penn State single-game yardage mark with 461 combined yards to go with two passing touchdowns and he did all this while suffering five drops throughout the game.

“That is essentially a microcosm of the season so far for McSorley. The Penn State receivers have dropped 17 balls through five games, which is tied for fourth-most in the country and tied for most among Power-5 quarterbacks. In fact, he has the worst drop percentage of any quarterback and is double that of any other quarterback in the AP Top 25 at 12.4%.”

As long as McSorley keeps playing the way he is, Penn State should continue to do just fine. After all, the Nittany Lions are ranked No. 8 in the country.

But if he was getting a little more help from his pass-catchers, Penn State might still be unbeaten.