Penn State improved to 5-0 on the year and 3-0 in Big Ten play with a road win at Northwestern that was, as they say, closer than the experts expected. Penn State overcame a solid fight from Northwestern on Saturday afternoon in Evanston and returned home with a 41-13 win fueled by another strong defensive showing.
Penn State’s defense turned in another fine outing for the Nittany Lions. It was the defense that bailed Penn State out right from the start of the game. After [autotag]Nick Singleton[/autotag] fumbled the opening kickoff away to the Wildcats, the defense came on the field, drive the Northwestern offense a couple of yards, and forced the home team to settle for a field goal. While it was the first deficit of the season for Penn State, the defense answered the call.
Northwestern quarterback Ben Bryant was knocked out of the game following a sack by [autotag]Zane Durant[/autotag] on a third down deep in Penn State territory in the fourth quarter. The sack by Durant knocked Northwestern out of position to consider going for a touchdown and forced the Wildcats to settle for a field goal. But any threat of a comeback by Northwestern for a second week in a row may have been put to rest with the loss of Bryant for the remainder of the game.
Penn State’s defense racked up a total of 7 sacks for a loss of 47 yards for the Northwestern offense.
[autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] had a tough outing, similar to his last road test at Illinois two weeks ago. Allar did not turn the football over and he did pass for 152 yards and a touchdown, but the passing game was out of sync for the majority of the afternoon. Singleton led the team with 5 receptions and [autotag]KeAndre Lambert-Smith[/autotag] had 3 catches despite being targeted 7 times by Allar.
Penn State also dealt with some injury concerns during the game. [autotag]Kaytron Allen[/autotag] left the game in the first half and did not return to the field. [autotag]Trey Potts[/autotag], who scored a game-tying touchdown in the second quarter stepped up to help the running game alongside Singleton.
Penn State will get next week off before returning to action in Week 7. Penn State will host UMass at that time for the final non-conference game of the year in the regular season. A massive road trip to Ohio State is on deck after the home game with the Minutemen.
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