Penn State vs. Northwestern: What to know about the Wildcats
The Penn State Nittany Lions, coming off a dominating 31-0 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes, will look to continue their hot start by taking on Northwestern on Saturday afternoon in Evanston.
The Wildcats enter this week with a surprising 2-2 record. Despite being considered one of the worst programs in the country entering the season, the Wildcats have played hard under interim head coach David Braun. This past weekend, the Wildcats erased a 31-10 deficit against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the final 12 minutes of regulation before finishing off the comeback with a touchdown on their first play of overtime to defeat Minnesota 37-34.
But what should Penn State fans know about Northwestern entering this weekend? Happy Valley Insider takes a closer look below.
HEAD COACH: DAVID BRAUN
Braun was put in the unenviable position of taking over the Wisconsin program after the firing of Pat Fitzgerald this summer following a hazing scandal. The former North Dakota State defensive coordinator was originally hired to be the Wildcats' defensive coordinator this fall before being named the interim. That being said, as mentioned before, the Wildcats are playing hard under Braun, and that's a testament to the culture he's built in a short time span. He would appear to be a logical candidate to take over the position full-time after this season.
OFFENSE
While the Wildcats are playing tough under Braun, it's also fair to say this is a program that, on paper, isn't overly talented and has a long way to go in their rebuild. This season, The Wildcats offense is averaging 24.0 points and just 337 total yards per game. Most of their success has come through the air while struggling to run the ball at any consistent rate on the ground.
In their four games this season, the Wildcats have totaled just 392 total rushing yards, an average of 98 rushing yards per game. Against their three Power Five opponents, they've totaled just 12, 104, and 92 rushing yards. This is an excellent matchup for a Penn State defense and front seven that has been phenomenal over the last three weeks against the run. After allowing 146 rushing yards in their week one win over West Virginia, the Nittany Lions have allowed just 180 yards over their last three games. Furthermore, outside a single 66-yard touchdown by Delaware's Marcus Yarns in week two, the Nittany Lions defense has allowed just 114 yards in their last three games on 69 carries on an average of 1.69 yards per carry.
Northwestern's leading rusher this season is running back Cam Porter, who has totaled 203 rushing yards on 49 carries.
The Northwestern passing attack isn't generally dangerous, either. This past weekend against Minnesota, quarterback Ben Bryant did throw for 400 yards, but this is still a passing attack that shouldn't be feared by any means. In the three games before Northwestern's win over Minnesota, Bryant totaled 559 passing yards while completing 59% of his passes. Bryant is a quality and efficient quarterback, but the Wildcats' main issues offensively come down to their lack of explosive playmakers in the passing game. Bryce Kirtz leads the Wildcats in receiving yards with 274. However, 215 came this past weekend against the Golden Gophers. Former Vanderbilt and Arizona State wide receiver Cam Johnson has been their most consistent receiver, with 16 receptions for 176 yards, totaling 35 or more receiving yards in each of the Wildcats' four games this season.
It might be a passing offense coming off a promising performance, but overall, it's a matchup that highly favors Penn State's elite secondary.
The Wildcats' offensive line struggles have not been kept to their running game either. The Wildcats, in four games, have allowed 11 sacks on the season, an average of 2.75 sacks per game. For a Penn State defense that has dominated in the trenches over the last two weeks, the Nittany Lions could be in for a big game from a sacks perspective.
DEFENSE
Defensively, Northwestern has struggled against Power Five opponents, allowing 24, 38, and 34 points against their three Power Five opponents this season.
Much like the offense, the Northwestern defense is hurt by an overall lack of game-changing talent. On the ground, the Wildcats have been easily susceptible, allowing 738 rushing yards on the season, including 240+ yards in each of their last two games. Their pass defense, on paper, may look quality, allowing just 187 rushing yards per game. However, the lack of opposing passing yards is more due to opposing offenses being able to run the ball at will than Northwestern's defense doing anything overly special against opposing passing attacks. Quarterbacks this season have been very efficient against Northwestern, completing 66.3% of their passes and averaging 7.6 yards per attempt.
Expect Penn State on Saturday to employ a similar strategy to each of the last two weeks. The Nittany Lions will likely look to grind out this game more than anything; they're not going to look to be overly explosive in the passing game, and against a poor Northwestern run defense, there's no reason the Nittany Lions shouldn't feature a heavy dose of the run game. The Nittany Lions offense should have plenty of success on Saturday while not doing anything flashy or special.
SPECIAL TEAMS
On the special teams side of things, it's much of the same story for Northwestern. Placekicker Jack Olsen has made each of his kicks this season 12-for-12 in extra point opportunities and made both field goal attempts. Punter Hunter Renner has struggled to average just 38 yards per punt this season. Over the last two games, he has especially struggled, averaging just 36 yards per punt. Don't expect their punt or kick return games to be overly explosive either, as they're averaging just 23.8 yards per kick return while only returning one punt this season for -3 yards.
OVERALL
Quite simply, the only thing that will allow this to be a game is if Penn State comes out and plays extremely sloppy football. These two teams matched up last year in Happy Valley, and the Nittany Lions only came out with a 17-7 victory. It was the last time the Nittany Lions didn't score 30 or more points in a game. However, that matchup was played on a terrible weather day in Happy Valley and featured five Penn State turnovers. The weather in Evanston isn't expected to be an issue this weekend, and the 11:00 a.m. kickoff time local time shouldn't be a huge issue considering the Nittany Lions is just two weeks removed from a trip to Champaign, where they defeated Illinois 30-13.
Penn State won't need to do anything special on Saturday as long as they avoid being overly sloppy like last season; they should win this game going away, and covering the near-four touchdown spread seems very likely.
--------------------------------------------------------------
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel