James Franklin provides honest assessment of first half vs. Northwestern

Heading into Saturday’s game against Northwestern, Penn State had never trailed. The Nittany Lions, however, faced their first deficit early on before heading to the locker room tied with the Wildcats, 10-10, at halftime.

It was a rough half on multiple fronts for Penn State. The game started with a muffed kickoff return by Nick Singleton to help Northwestern strike first, and the Wildcats used a 10-play drive to score a touchdown and take a 10-3 lead in the second quarter.

Although Penn State wound up responding on the ensuing drive, Franklin saw plenty of areas the offense needed to clean up in the second half.

“We’ve just got to be more efficient on first and second down, and then, we’ve got to convert on third down, obviously,” Franklin told Big Ten Network’s Brooke Fletcher on his way to the locker room. “The kickoff return to start the game wasn’t ideal, as well. But we’ll handle our business. We’ll be good in the second half.”

Northwestern only totaled 59 yards of offense — including -10 rushing yards — but did just enough on offense to make things interesting in the first half. Franklin said Penn State can’t let the Wildcats get too comfortable, but pointed out the defense’s success at times.

“Getting them off schedule,” Franklin said of what Penn State needs to do on defense. “I think they’re having a hard time protecting with our guys. We’ve got to get them off schedule on first and second down, too.”

Inside the box score: Penn State vs. Northwestern

Drew Allar had an up-and-down first half, completing 8 of 16 passes for 91 yards. Trey Potts scored Penn State’s lone touchdown of the first two quarters on a 13-yard carry just before halftime to make it a tie game.

On the Northwestern side, Ben Bryant was efficient, completing 8 of 12 passes for 69 yards. He also ran in Northwestern’s touchdown. Otherwise, the Wildcats’ running game was stalled as Cam Porter went into halftime as the only player with positive yardage, totaling nine yards on five carries in the first half.

Northwestern is coming off a come-from-behind victory over Minnesota last week, defeating the Golden Gophers 37-34 as they came all the way back to get the overtime win. Penn State, meanwhile, cruised past Iowa in the White Out game with a 31-0 shutout victory to remain undefeated on the season.

The Nittany Lions are looking to play spoiler in the Big Ten East this year, but they’ll now have to come out firing after halftime to pull off a win in Evanston.