Three Takeaways From Penn State’s 31-7 Win Over Northwestern

Penn State went into Evanston and absolutely suffocated the Wildcats at Ryan Field, here are our takeaways from that game:

1. Penn State’s defense is for real

Your Nittany Lions now have the number one scoring defense in Division I FBS football, allowing just 9.0 points per game. Not only does Penn State have the ability to win the battle at the line of scrimmage, they’re also forcing a ton of turnovers. That combination makes this defense extremely dangerous and gives Penn State far more ways to beat you than it had in 2016.

2. Penn State’s secondary may be the best in the country

Amani Oruwariye had yet another interception on Saturday. Christian Campbell added one of his own and allowed just a 16.1 passer rating against. Grant Haley had a number of big plays to stop drives and force punts while Marcus Allen and Troy Apke continue to be solid as hell at the safety spots. Penn State’s secondary shined on Saturday, yet again. This time they did it without highly touted freshman Lamont Wade for the entire game and fellow frosh Tariq Castro-Fields for the majority of it. All of this comes without potential All-American cornerback John Reid, who will miss the season with a knee injury. I’ll take Terry Smith and Tim Banks’ crew against any in the country.

3. Trace McSorley, still pretty good

Penn State’s offensive line did a decent job of keeping quarterback Trace McSorley upright on Saturday and McSorley showed good pocket presence en route to a 25 of 34 performance for 245 yards and touchdown. He added another touchdown on the ground and at one point set a school record with 15 consecutive completions. When McSorley has time and his wide receivers actually create separation, as they were able to do against the Wildcats, he’s shown to be a well above average college quarterback.