Penn State's offense sputtered through four quarters and was unable to find the end zone even once, as the Nittany Lions dropped their first game to Northwestern at Beaver Stadium since 2004.
Christian Hackenberg had a rough day, which was exacerbated by the offensive line's complete inability to protect him in the pocket or provide him any time to find open receivers.
Northwestern's defense did a great job of locking down receivers on coverage while pressuring Hackenberg and plugging up any running lanes. All in all, Penn State had a terrible afternoon in nearly every aspect of the game, so we're going to need a parent or guardian to return this report card with a signature by Monday.
Box score via NCAA.com.
Pass Offense
Christian Hackenberg was 22-of-45 for 216 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. While Hackenberg certainly struggled, a good deal of the issues rest solely with the offensive line that was so ineffective today. Hacknberg rarely had time to let the play develop, and when he did, he often short-hopped the passes to his receivers.
A few deep completions make the yardage numbers look respectable, but overall, a very ugly day for the Penn State passing game. A "C" is, we think, generous.
Run Offense
It really doesn't get much worse than it did today. Granted, Penn State is a pass-first kind of team, but when the O-line struggles to protect the quarterback against a team like Northwestern, there's little hope for the running game to make up the difference.
Northwestern was swarming to the ball-carrier all afternoon and limited the Lions to just 2.1 yards per carry on 20 attempts. Finishing with 50 rushing yards and no touchdowns barely allows us to pass the Nittany Lions—and we do that only because there was some improvement over the first half's performance of seven yards on 13 carries.
Pass Defense
The defense for Penn State wasn't nearly as atrocious as the offense, but there were still some glaring issues. First off, as much as Penn State is a passing team with a passing quarterback, Northwestern is not. Still, Trevor Siemian was able to find enough room to build up 258 yards through the air.
The Penn State defense did keep the areal attack out of the end zone, but Northwestern did use the passing game to set up several rushing touchdowns.
Run Defense
Like the pass defense, things weren't a complete loss here, but neither was there anything particularly impressive. Northwestern was held to just 103 yards on 38 carries, but all three Northwestern touchdowns were scored by Siemian on the ground.
We have to mark the run defense down for giving up three touchdowns, but anything less than a "C" wouldn't be too harsh.
Special Teams
The special teams unit's biggest contribution to the game came in the form of punting, but Sam Ficken did add two field goals (on three attempts), giving Penn State its only points on the day.
That missed field goal was blocked, but what makes that so extra terrible is the fact that Northwestern only rushed four, as the Wildcats were in a "safe" formation, looking for the fake.
A punt return from Jesse Della Valle of 41 yards gives the Nittany Lions enough extra credit to earn a "C" here, but only just.
Coaching
James Franklin now has his first loss as the head coach of Penn State, and what concerns us most is the inability of his team to make any substantial adjustments in order to crawl back into the game in the second half.
Penn State had been building its reputation on late comebacks, but today, it finally caught up with the Nittany Lions. We'll be very interested to see how Franklin, his staff and his team respond to this loss in two weeks, but for today, we're giving the coaching a "C" for being unable to show us anything worthy of anything better.
Unless otherwise noted, quotes or references to quotes were obtained firsthand by the writer.
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