EVANSTON, Ill. — Penn State was riding high on a wave of late-game momentum that could only carry coach James Franklin’s team so far.
When the opportunities were ripe for the picking — and there were quite a few on offense, defense and special teams — the Nittany Lions didn’t capitalize, ultimately digging themselves into a hole that was too deep to escape. As the clock ticked down to nine seconds and Northwestern kicker Jack Mitchell trotted on to drill a 35-yard field goal, Penn State’s comeback bid was dashed as the Wildcats won, 23-21.
“At the end, we had opportunities,” Franklin said. “Four-minute offense, four-minute defense, opportunities to break tackles and make people miss for first downs, opportunities for interceptions, just opportunities across the board. … We weren’t able to play winning football at the end when we needed to.”
Penn State (7-3, 4-2 Big Ten) didn’t play winning football early in the game on offense, either, slogging through a first quarter in which it posted 22 yards of offense on 17 plays. Franklin’s team, one that practiced without music all week in an effort to prepare for making its own energy, punted six times in the first half before freshman running back Saquon Barkley capped a nine-play drive with a 7-yard touchdown run.
By that point, Northwestern’s dual-threat quarterback Clayton Thorson already was knocked out of the game —after exiting late in the first quarter with a lower-body injury — and Thorson, whom the Lions spent all week preparing for, was replaced by backup Zack Oliver. Before the Lions were on the board, Northwestern already led, 13-0.
Oliver relied on a punishing ground game led by running back Justin Jackson, who gashed the Lions for a career-high 186 rushing yards on 28 carries.
When the Wildcats (7-2, 3-2 ) needed Oliver to make a clutch play, he answered on Northwestern’s final drive. Sending pressure on third-and-15 at the Northwestern 41, cornerback Grant Haley was beaten in man coverage by Austin Carr, who picked up 23 yards to extend the drive and turn the ball back to the Wildcats’ workhorse in Jackson.
“We made a couple critical mistakes,” said linebacker Jason Cabinda, who picked off Oliver late in the third quarter after a touchdown pass from receiver Geno Lewis to DaeSean Hamilton put the Lions within six. “We had a couple opportunities to really kind of finish them there on the third-and-long. Grant had him, almost had a pick there, got beat on a corner route, but again, you can go back in the game, there are many other plays we could’ve made, a lot of other long runs we could’ve stopped.”
Jackson ripped off runs of 48, 30, 25 and 17 yards, but arguably the most important came at the Penn State 31 late in the game on third-and-5 when he picked up 7 to make life easier for his kicker, who had missed on field goals of 39 and 47 yards. Franklin waited and elected not to burn a timeout, ultimately costing Penn State about 25-30 seconds. By the time the Lions got the ball back after Mitchell’s field goal, they were down by two with just seven seconds left.
“That was my missed opportunity. I should’ve called a timeout, no doubt about it,” Franklin said. “That was one of 12 different things we had opportunities to win that game, but didn’t get it done.”
Defensive end Carl Nassib kept his sack streak alive, taking down Oliver early in the fourth. It gave Nassib 151⁄2 this season, which set a Penn State single-season record and moved him ahead of Michael Haynes and Larry Kubin. Nassib wasn’t on the field late in the game, though, and Franklin said “hopefully we’ll be able to get him back soon.”
Barkley put Penn State in a position to pull out the comeback after trailing, 20-7, at the half, as he finished with 120 yards on 25 carries. The Lions cut loose with the wildcat offense, giving Barkley direct snaps and allowing him to slash and dash his way to his fourth 100-yard rushing game to go with two touchdowns.
Quarterback Christian Hackenberg had gone 201 passing attempts without an interception before Nick VanHoose stepped up with 7:13 left at Northwestern’s 28 to snap Hackenberg’s streak. Hackenberg completed 21 of 40 passes for 205 yards while sophomore receiver Chris Godwin continued to be his top target, catching eight passes for 104 yards.
The Lions gave up a 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the second quarter, just another play that was one of many missed opportunities for a team that now has an off week to reflect and correct.
“This is a tough loss for us, definitely one that you’d like to have back,” Godwin said. “At the same time, you have to learn from something like this.”
Audrey Snyder: asnyder@post-gazette.com and Twitter @audsnyder4.
First Published: November 7, 2015, 8:58 p.m.
Updated: November 8, 2015, 2:09 a.m.