In Penn State football’s locker room, you could hear a pin drop.

Multiple things led to the demoralizing 27-24 loss against No. 7-seed Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinal in the Orange Bowl. But the game was sealed when Fighting Irish cornerback Christian Gray intercepted a pass intended for Omari Evans.

“I don’t know what happened,” the dumbfounded wide receiver muttered while holding back tears.

“We just ran one of our base plays. The [defensive back] just undercut the pass and made a good play on it, and that was kind of it,” Liam Clifford said.

One mistake – or a perfect read by an opposing defensive back – does not define this loss. What was problematic, though, was that not a single wideout in blue and white made a catch in the program’s biggest game of the season. When a key group contributes nothing to the stat sheet, it’s pretty hard to win a football game.

According to CBS Sports, Drew Allar was 0-for-5 when targeting wide receivers and 9-for-10 for 103 yards when targeting tight ends.

“The ball just didn’t really find us,” Clifford said.

Although Notre Dame’s secondary was comprised of talented players such as Gray and Xavier Watts, it wasn’t like the group played lights-out. Nickelback Jordan Clark’s pass breakup was the only one the Irish had. However, Penn State receivers said there was more to the story.

“They have a good secondary 100%, but the game plan is the game plan,” Julian Fleming said. “Production doesn’t always necessarily mean that your stats are going to be great. Just affecting the game in any way possible. We affected the game in a lot of different ways, even though we didn’t show up 100% on the stat sheet.”

Penn State will soon have the chance to review what happened on film, but it’s hard to see how the group positively impacted the game. The wide receivers had five chances to do it, and they didn’t capitalize on them.

What also might have complicated things was Notre Dame’s style of play. Irish defensive backs did a good job staying on receivers throughout the night, which made it difficult to make tight catches.

“They’re a man coverage team,” James Franklin said. “Early on, we had some throws, tightly contested balls that we didn’t come down with.”

Penn State’s wide receiver struggles are nothing new. The Nittany Lions never found consistency at the position this season, and nobody emerged as a true No. 1 option. Trey Wallace led the group with 723 receiving yards, but he didn’t step up enough. After amassing 100 yards against West Virginia in August, he didn’t get more than 50 until Penn State played USC in October.

Additionally, Evans, who showed flashes of becoming a home-run threat, went three consecutive games without a catch. Clifford had seven games without a catch. Fleming, who was viewed by some as a potential hit in the transfer portal, never fully lived up to those expectations.

All four of those players have positive traits and plays that demonstrate their capabilities. But they never found a way to mesh or become consistent this season, and that came back to bite in Penn State’s biggest game of the year.