Penn State football’s wide receiver room is starting to trend in the right direction.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the group, especially when it was held to just three catches for 49 yards against Ohio State a week ago. But the receivers managed to play a bigger role in the 35-6 White Out win over Washington.

The Nittany Lions needed more production from their pass catchers against the Huskies. The national champion runner-ups from a season ago boasted the second-best pass defense in the nation coming into the game.

However, Drew Allar was able to find his pass catchers eight times for 137 yards. Trey Wallace led the offense with 84 receiving yards and Julian Fleming got his first touchdown as a Nittany Lion.

“It was really good to see Julian do some things and Trey do some things today,” James Franklin said postgame. “We need more of that. We’ll continue to invest in that throughout the week.”

Although the receivers were held to 123 yards — under Washington’s average of 142 yards allowed per game — they played a bigger role in the offense.

Wallace, Fleming, and Liam Clifford made up 55.9% of Drew Allar’s 220 passing yards. It was the highest percentage since the UCLA game when the receivers made up 77.2% of Allar’s 237 yards. The USC, Wisconsin, and Ohio State game shares were 32%, 50%, and 32.7%, respectively.

Not only were the receivers a bigger part of the game plan, but they were more explosive too. Wallace and Clifford accounted for four of the offense’s five explosive plays. Of those, Wallace had 67 of his 84 total yards.

Allar said it was “very important” to get the receivers going again in the White Out game.

“The wide receivers make a ton of plays throughout games,” Allar said. “They get a lot of criticism, but I don’t think that’s fair at all. We had Julian show up with a touchdown today. Trey had a really good game. Liam had a big-time catch down the seam. They played really well today.”

But not every receiver was involved in the passing game. Omari Evans has been in a slump recently.

The junior didn’t have a catch against Wisconsin, Ohio State, and now Washington. He also hasn’t had more than one catch in a game since the Kent State game in September.

“We’re trying to scheme him open because we know how big of an explosive threat he is to us,” Allar said. “We’re trying to get him the ball in so many different ways, like the reverse play today.”

The reverse play went for just one yard and Evans ended up on the receiving end of a targeting call on Washington’s Thaddeus Dixon.

Evan’s big-play potential has been his biggest strength. He has 11 catches for 236 yards and two touchdowns while averaging 21.3 yards per catch. His best game came against the Golden Flashes when he had four catches for 116 yards and a score.

Allar said opposing teams have game planned for Evan’s skillset and are double-covering him when he goes deep.

“Unfortunately, the defense is taking away at some points but eventually, we’re going to get him going,” Allar said. “I definitely want to get him involved in our game plan as much as we can.”

This game was merely a step in the right direction for the wide receivers and the offense. It wasn’t a milestone game or one of the best games of the season, numbers-wise, from the group. But it did show that the receivers can hold their own against one of the best pass defenses in the country.

It will be something the Nittany Lions will look to continue going forward and potentially into the College Football Playoff.

“We need those guys, so we’ll continue to invest in that,” Franklin said. “We’re going to need that as the season goes on.”