Penn State remains undefeated, defeats Northwestern in sloppy weather 17-7
Penn State played on a rain soaked Beaver Stadium field Saturday afternoon and came away with a sloppy 17-7 victory over the Northwestern Wildcats to move to 5-0 on the year.
The game was riddled with miscues from the start. Neither team was trying to throw the ball much with the wet conditions and when they did they started to makes mistakes. The first turnover of the game was a fumble by Penn State running back Nick Singleton, but it was soon followed by interceptions by each team.
Redshirt senior starting quarterback Sean Clifford threw the first pick, but Northwestern couldn’t take advantage. Starting quarterback Ryan Hilinski lofted a ball that went straight to Penn State safety Ji’Ayir Brown for his second pick of the year.
The Brown interception was the start of the first scoring drive of the day for either team. The Nittany Lions moved down the field and Clifford eventually hit starting tight end Brenton Strange for a touchdown to give Penn State a 7-0 lead.
They took advantage of another Wildcat miscue in the second quarter. This time it was a botched snap that Nick Tarburton recovered. Singleton helped lead the ensuing drive down the field and punched it in for a touchdown to make it 14-0.
The rain continued pouring down in the second half and that only made the ball handling issues worse for both teams. The Nittany Lions turned it over on the first drive after Keyvone Lee gave them their third lost fumble of the game.
They didn’t pay for the miscue thanks to another stand by the defense to force a three-and-out.
The Wildcats were able to get on the board later in the third quarter thanks to a drive while the rain let up momentarily. Hilinski hit Jacob Gill down the sideline for a 47-yard score to make it a 14-7 game.
Penn State was able to get its lead back to two scores with a 38-yard field goal by Jake Pinegar.
The Nittany Lions held on from there, earning the 17-7 win and moving to 5-0 on the season.
Player of the game
S Ji’Ayir Brown: This was always going to be a defender with how the game played out and Brown stood out for a unit that was really good. The weather played into the defense’s hands but the group still took advantage of almost every opportunity it had. Brown led the way on that front, including earning a big tackle for loss that stalled out a Northwestern drive and an interception return that set up Penn State’s first touchdown of the game. He’s been the unit’s best player so far this season and carried that momentum into Saturday’s matchup with the Wildcats.
What the win means
Penn State took care of business against a clearly inferior team for the second week in a row in Beaver Stadium. There was more adversity this week thanks to the weather but PSU was able to close out the victory nonetheless. Now the Nittany Lions are heading into their bye week with some extra time to prepare for an undefeated opponent. They’ll travel to Ann Arbor to take on the Michigan Wolverines Oct. 15 in a matchup of should-be unbeaten teams, assuming the Wolverines can take down what has been a bad Indiana team. That’s the start of a big three-game stretch that features that game, a White Out matchup with Minnesota and a big game against Ohio State at Beaver Stadium.
This story was originally published October 1, 2022 at 6:52 PM.
