Northwestern could not get its offense and defense to play well at the same time Saturday night.
The Wildcats (2-5, 0-4 Big Ten) scored 24 points and racked up 281 yards of offense in the first half, but trailed at halftime as a result of a defense that surrendered nearly 300 yards and 27 points.
The defense settled down in the second half, limiting Penn State to 88 yards and seven points, but the offense could not take advantage, getting shut out in the final stanza for the second straight home game.
“It’s tough,” sophomore quarterback Kain Colter said. “This whole season: offense is playing good, defense is playing bad; defense is playing good, offense is playing bad. We’ve got to be able to come together and put it all together. Once we do, we can flip the season back around.”
NU implemented five new defensive starters against Penn State in hopes of shaking up a struggling defense. The changes paid no immediate dividends as the Nittany Lions (7-1, 4-0) scored the most points they have in a half all season, while the Cats gave up more yards in the first half than they had in a single half all year. The personnel changes included the demotion of All-Big Ten defensive end Vince Browne to third down duty, where he has had success in the past.
“We’re trying to find combinations,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “It’s not necessarily demoting guys, it’s more trying to put guys in roles that might spark them a little bit better.”
While its defense struggled, NU’s offense flew out of the gate, converting a fumble on the opening kickoff into seven points. The Cats scored on four of their six first-half possessions, with senior quarterback Dan Persa lighting up the box score with 180 yards and a score through the air to go along with a quarterback sneak into the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line. Colter also shined, catching his first career touchdown pass and running for 61 yards and a touchdown, including a 46-yard scamper in which he split the Penn State defensive line and ran down the sideline before stepping out at the seven.
When the teams entered the locker room after 30 minutes of play, a Freaky Friday-like switch occurred. Persa was picked off on the Cats’ first drive after halftime, while the defense buckled down after giving up the early score off the interception return. After a 19-yard touchdown run by running back Silas Redd put Penn State in the lead, NU gave up only 69 yards over 27:39 and 27 plays.
“In the first half, we looked like a defense that was pressing,” Fitzgerald said. “Once they settled down, the guys got to the locker room, they looked each other in the eye and said we’re going to do something about it and I thought they responded pretty boldly. That’s the defense we need to see the rest of the year. We’re capable of doing that against everybody that we play and hopefully (the second half) will give (the defense) some confidence as we move forward.”
As the defense glistened under the lights, the offense wilted. The Cats gained a meager 125 yards in the last 30 minutes, despite running the same number of plays, 38, that they did in the first half. The offensive line, which gave up 16 yards on two sacks in the first half, surrendered 48 yards on five sacks in the second stanza. Two of those sacks came when Colter tried to escape pressure deep in Penn State territory and ended up losing 28 combined yards, knocking the Cats out of field goal range.
The Cats’ offense literally dropped the ball when it mattered most. Down 10 points with about 12 minutes left in the game, Persa went deep to senior receiver Jeremy Ebert, who had the ball fall through his hands. Persa then found Jacob Schmidt wide open down the field, but the senior running back dropped an easy first-down grab.
“Anytime you self-inflict a wound, it’s tough,” Fitzgerald said. “We went 0-for-3 on three of the shots we thought we had on them. If we were able to connect on one of those three deep balls, it’s probably a little bit of a different game.”
With the Cats now needing to win four of their last five games to qualify for a bowl game, senior safety Brian Peters understands NU needs to figure out a way to get the defense and offense to gel.
“No one has a secret recipe for it,” Peters said. “You just have to go back to the grindstone, put in the work and fix what is going on. If we keep working at it, it’s going to happen and that’s what we have to do.”
