Penn State football team suffers blowout loss to Northwestern in stadium debut
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EVANSTON, Ill. – Construction workers carried drills and other tools inside Ryan Field, frantically trying to make sure the $865 million stadium was ready for its debut Friday night.
The stadium was ready but Penn State was not, falling to Northwestern 34-13 in a Big Ten blowout.
Now coach Matt Campbell and his staff will have to dig into their entire toolbox to fix the Nittany Lions (0-2, 3-2) after their second straight loss to the Wildcats (1-1 3-1) and their worst defeat since a 38-14 drubbing last year at the hands of Ohio State.
“I want to give Northwestern a ton of credit because they played the game and the style of game that we would like to play,” Campbell said. “They really beat us where it was really hard to find a rhythm on both sides of the football. They controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.”
Caleb Komolafe rushed 25 times for 188 yards and one touchdown and Joseph Himon II ran 10 times for 162 yards and two TDs, leading Northwestern to finish with 413 yards on the ground, the fourth-most against Penn State since 1947.
The Wildcats averaged 7.5 yards per carry by finding gaping holes and taking advantage of many missed tackles by the Lions.
“There’s somehow, some way I didn’t get this team prepared to play the physical brand of football we need to play,” Campbell said. “I do think there were a lot of missed tackles tonight. I think we had a lot of opportunities to make plays and we missed tackles.”
On the flip side, Northwestern held Penn State to 48 rushing yards on 22 carries, a paltry 2.2 average. Carson Hansen carried four times for 19 yards and one TD and James Peoples ran eight times for 14 yards.
On top of the anemic ground game, Rocco Becht missed several open receivers for the second straight week and finished 26-for-41 passing for 243 yards and one TD with two interceptions.
“We have great belief in Rocco, just like I have belief in all of our players and coaches,” Campbell said. “We have to find answers and we have to get it fixed fast.”
Becht played the entire game despite his struggles. Campbell said “we really didn’t (consider putting backup quarterback Alex Manske in the game at any point).”
It doesn’t get easier for Penn State, which takes on USC next Saturday night at 7:30 in the annual White Out Game at Beaver Stadium.
“We have the right human beings in that locker room and we certainly have the right coaches,” Campbell said. “The challenge will be getting ourselves aligned back to who we want to be and where we need to be to win games in this conference.”
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