No. 6 Penn State come into Saturday’s game against Northwestern in Evanston with the nation’s stingiest defense and an 11-game streak of scoring at least 30 points.
Northwestern wide receiver A.J. Henning, right, celebrates his touchdown against Minnesota on Saturday in Evanston. The Wildcats won 37-34 in overtime.The Nittany Lions come into Saturday’s game against Northwestern in Evanston with the nation’s stingiest defense and an 11-game streak of scoring at least 30 points.They’ve outscored their opponents by a combined 127 points. They held Iowa to 76 yards in a 31-0 romp Saturday.
Coach James Franklin will take all that. He would like to see a few more explosive plays on offense too.“I’m always looking for balance,” Franklin said. “We’re always looking for balance, and we have shown the ability to run to win and we’ve shown the ability to pass to win. We need to be able to show that we can grind it out to win, which we have, but I also think we need to show that we can be explosive to win.
Iowa played soft on the perimeter, he said, and Illinois had a safety playing 25 yards deep. Both games were lopsided victories for Penn State, so he’s not complaining. But he did have to remind his players to continue to grind out long possessions. The Nittany Lions have 11 touchdown drives of at least four minutes, not to mention a 17-play possession that ended in a field goal and ate up nearly 7 1/2 minutes.Saturday. The Wildcats have won two of three after losing 12 in a row.Penn State running back Kaytron Allen carries the ball against Illinois on Sept. 16 in Champaign.
Led by one of the nation’s best tandems in Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton, Penn State ranks second in the Big Ten in rushing at 210 yards per game. And when it comes to stopping the run, Northwestern is at the bottom of the conference. The Wildcats are giving up 184.5 yards per game after getting torched by Minnesota’s Darius Taylor for 198.
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