Drew Allar's second career game with the Pittsburgh Steelers wasn't as strong as his first.
Against the New York Jets on Friday night, Allar was 11/23 for 110 yards. He had no touchdowns or interceptions, but was sacked three times.
The story of the game for Allar was space - or lack thereof. The Jets' defense created plenty of pressure for Allar in the backfield and didn't allow the receivers to have much room in coverage. Most of Allar's pass attempts were into tight windows.
Breaking down Drew Allar's second preseason performance
How did the pressure impact Allar in this one? Let's answer that by breaking down his throws:
- Throws on the move: 1/2
- Throws from the pocket: 10/21
The first thing that stood out was how New York kept Allar bottled up. Last week, Allar went 4/5 on passes when he got out of the pocket. This week, he was just 1/2.
We can break this down further in terms of types of throws:
- Middle-of -the-field throws: 7/13
- Throws to the flat: 2/2
- Go routes: 0/1
- Stop/comeback routes: 1/5
We are still seeing Allar be effective using the middle of the field. But one difference from last week is that these throws weren't mostly slants. Instead, there were several checkdowns, as well as a few dig routes and passes up the seams.
The stat line might make it look like Allar was too conservative, but the tape tells a different story. Pittsburgh fans don't want to see him become "Checkdown Charlie," but most of those throws came after he worked through his reads, found nothing open downfield and took what the defense gave him
Allar continued to operate with good timing and accuracy. I charted just two inaccurate passes along with two drops, then several passes affected by the Jets' defense.
How Drew Allar handled the Jets' pressure
Allar took three sacks in this game, something fans never want to see. Two of the sacks led to three-and-outs, and one of them turned a short would-be field goal attempt into a 44-yarder that was missed.
On the first sack, Allar, or backup center Ryan McCollum, didn't read the delayed blitzer, who got free down the middle. Sacks two and three were individual blocking issues. The left tackle, then the right, were both beaten clean, with the rest of the Jets' defensive line creating enough pressure from the opposite side to lead to the sack.
Between the coverage and pass rush, Allar didn't make too many obvious mistakes, but his NFL inexperience in dealing with consistent pressure reared its head Friday night.
What to watch from Drew Allar in the preseason finale
We'll see how many snaps Allar will play in the preseason finale on Thursday. Aaron Rodgers could see his first snaps of the preseason for a series or two, but I don't expect we'll see Mason Rudolph take more reps.
Every preseason rep matters for a rookie quarterback. We've seen that with Fernando Mendoza as he works through his own early growing pains with the Raiders, and the same is true for Allar as he gets more opportunities to adjust to the speed and pressure of the NFL.
It was good to see Allar get the number of plays he did. He was on the field for 40 total plays against New York, up from 26 in his first game. With Rodgers maybe seeing a few plays, and still sharing time with Will Howard, somewhere in the middle of his first two showings would be good.
In the game, fans will want to see Allar continue to show good timing and accuracy from the pocket. Bringing back more of the escapability and getting out on the move, similar to game one, would also be a sign of improvement after the Jets game.
Allar also needs to continue making different types of throws and showing more tools in his toolbox. Allar went from mostly slants in his first game to more attempts down the sideline and checkdowns. Continuing to build on that would be a plus.
More cohesion for the offense as a whole, with Allar in the middle of that, would be the final thing for fans to check off. In that first game, Allar was completing more passes, didn't take any sacks, and Pittsburgh put up more points. That's always nice to see.
And as the icing on the cake, connecting on one of those deep balls down the sideline would give Steelers fans something to get excited about.
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