Penn State Football overcame a slow start to beat the Northwestern Wildcats 41-13 on Saturday afternoon in Evanston, despite the offense never finding a rhythm.

Saturday’s game was was tied at 10 at the half, and in the second half, the Nittany Lions outscored Northwestern 31-3.

Penn State enters the bye at 5-0, but with plenty of question marks and areas to improve — especially on offense, before looking ahead to late-season showdowns at Ohio State and against Michigan.

3 Penn State Football takeaways from Saturday’s win:

Defense Dominates … Again

Once again, it was the Nittany Lions’ defense leading the charge.

The Wildcats only gained 175 total yards on the No.1 ranked Penn State defense.

Northwestern only rushed for 45 yards on 32 attempts, suitable for 1.4 yards per carry. Also, Northwestern passed for only 130 yards.

Penn State’s defense had seven sacks and forced one turnover.

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Nicholas Singleton

Nicholas Singleton played well for the Nittany Lions, gaining 119 yards from scrimmage with a rushing and a receiving touchdown.

Penn State rushed for 134 yards as a team against Northwestern and had three rushing touchdowns. Kaytron Allen leaving the game could be a cause for concern moving forward from here, but Singleton once again looked like a lead-back.

Drew Allar

Drew Allar did an excellent job managing the game; he completed 19 passes for 189 and one touchdown but did not turn the ball over.

Allar gave Penn State a 17-10 lead when he sneaked in from the one-yard line on fourth down after keeping the drive going with a 35-yard pass to KeAndre Lambert-Smith on third-and-10 at the 50.

When you have a great defense like the Nittany Lions, sometimes your quarterback must take care of the ball and not do too much more than that.

 

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