The Penn State Nittany Lions return to action on Saturday evening against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. The Nittany Lions enter the weekend as the country's No. 3 team and are looking to start the season at 7-0 for the first time since 2019 when they won their first eight games of the season.
Here are three keys to the game for Penn State if they hope to leave Madison on Saturday with win No. 7.
1. Avoid a slow start
I don't necessarily think that this Wisconsin team is as good as some believe they may be coming into this week but they're still a quality opponent that is red hot and playing their best football of the season at the right time, which has to count for something. To add on top of that, the Nittany Lions will be playing in one of the more hostile environments in the country at Camp Randall Stadium and under the lights. It's going to be a raucous crowd on Saturday night, Wisconsin fans are hungry for a big win, something that has evaded the Badgers program for some time.
With that said, Penn State must avoid a slow start on Saturday, especially offensively. The best way to take the crowd out of the game early, would be a scoring drive right out of the gates. That has been easier said than done this season for the Nittany Lions, however, as through six games they have totaled just 24 points in the opening 15 minutes, an average of 4.0 points per game.
2. Get pressure on Braedyn Locke
The redshirt freshman quarterback has been admirable the last few weeks since taking over in the first quarter of the Badgers' loss to Alabama in week three. However, his inexperience is still evident in his time as the Badgers' starting quarterback. In six games played and four starts, Locke has completed just 59.3% of his passes for 1,064 yards and seven touchdowns this season with five interceptions. In all but one game this year he hasn't thrown for more than one touchdown, that lone game coming against Purdue, and in each of his four starts, he's thrown at least one interception.
The biggest struggle for Locke this season has been his abilities while under pressure. While the Badgers have done a good job of keeping him upright this season, taking just five sacks on the year, when Locke is pressured, he’s struggled significantly. He's completed just 9-of-24 passing attempts for 84 yards and has thrown one touchdown to two interceptions. It's a drastic difference from his 64% completion percentage when kept clean.
It will be imperative for the Nittany Lions to get pressure on Locke on Saturday night and it will be interesting to see how they do so as Wisconsin will look to get the ball out of the young signal caller's hands quickly Saturday. That's another reason that Penn State will need to get off to a fast start in this game. If they can force Wisconsin into having to throw the ball in order to have a chance to win this game, especially down the field, it could end up being a big game for Penn State's front seven.
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3. The re-emergence of the Penn State rushing attack
This key largely hinges on the health of Nicholas Singleton, but Penn State's rushing attack on Saturday will need to get back to where it was earlier this season.
They can win this game on the arm of Drew Allar but getting momentum back with the rushing attack prior to Ohio State coming to town on November 2 would be a big boost to this Penn State offense.
Over the first four games of the season, the Nittany Lions averaged 251 rushing yards per game and 5.8 yards per carry. In their last two games against UCLA and USC, the Nittany Lions totaled just 203 total rushing yards and averaged just 3.3 yards per carry. Notably, Nicholas Singleton missed the UCLA game and was not at full strength against USC, or at least did not appear to be so.
Presuming Singleton was able to get healthy during the bye week, Penn State will need their rushing attack to reemerge in the second half and hope that the two game struggles were more of an anomaly than a sign of things to come. They'll have a good opportunity to do so this week against Wisconsin, whose defense is allowing 139.9 yards per game and 4.4 yards per carry this season.
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