Instant Analysis: Penn State tops Northwestern
The Penn State football team squeaked by with a lopsided 41-13 win over Northwestern on Saturday in Evanston. At least, that’s how it feels to fans and media members after another struggling performance from the Penn State offense, which only put up ten points in the first half. Nate Bauer offers his thoughts in our instant analysis of the game.
Penn State offense shaky to start the first half
“I thought it was a combination of both running backs not getting going on those first down plays. They were typically starting with runs to open drives, and that consistently put them behind the eight-ball,” Bauer said.
“Drew Allar didn’t have a great day; let’s be honest about this. He didn’t have a particularly accurate day. He throws a hot, fast ball, and his receivers had a hard time catching up to it.”
But Blue White illustrated publisher Sean Fitz wants to credit the defense with another smothering performance.
“But the defense is the story, to me. The defense just did what it wanted to do. Nick Singleton fumbles the opening kickoff, and all of a sudden, you’re backs are against the wall in the red zone. To only give up three points and then to take charge after that, so the story was once again the defense,” Fitz said.
Franklin positive after win
Penn State head coach James Franklin always gives his opponents credit after games but took extra time to praise Northwestern’s defensive game plan for his team.
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“Want to give Northwestern a ton of credit. That win they had last week, they used that momentum and that confidence from that 21-point point comeback and really had a nice plan for us and played well early in the game,”
Franklin went on to discuss his quarterback, who struggled on Saturday. While his box stat numbers were ugly, Franklin is still very proud of his work in one key area.
“Our completion percentage has been higher. I think there’s some things that we got to do in terms of separating at the top of our routes or also being able to run past people. We took some shots and had a chance that we dropped one of them, which would have been a huge play.
But I think the most important thing that he is doing and that we’re doing is protecting the football. I think that’s, that’s, that’s one of those things that, you know, everybody gets excited about the turnovers that we cause it’s not as sexy to talk about ball security. But I’m really proud about how he’s handled that and managed that aspect of the game.”
