Complimentary football.

Great defense and good offense has helped the Nittany Lions get out to a 4-0 start this season.

Last Saturday night in State College in the annual “white out” Penn State once again was able to execute on both sides of the ball to dismantle Iowa in front of the second-largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history.

There is one certainty with this season’s Penn State team, and that is that its defense is for real, and one of the best units in the country. Through the first four games of the season, the Nittany Lions lead the nation in total defense (219.5 yards per game), pass defense (138 ypg), first downs allowed (46) and turnover margin (+11). Penn State is also top five in the country in takeaways (11), scoring defense (8.8 points per game) and third down defense (24.5 percent).

The Nittany Lions’ defense was simply suffocating against Iowa. They held the Hawkeyes to just four first downs, 76 yards of total offense, 20 yards rushing and zero points. It was the first time Iowa was shutout in a game since the 2000 season.

“Kind of an amazing stat. After the shovel pass for the Iowa fumble, we ran 80 of the next 96 plays in the game,” said Penn State head coach James Franklin. “There were 96 plays in that game after the fumble, and 80 of them we ran, which is amazing. Of those 16 plays that they ran, they went for negative five yards. I thought our preparation was excellent, and it translated to the game. We’ve got to continue to build on that, our process, individually and collectively of preparing each week.”

Penn State is on the road this week in Evanston, IL, to take on the Northwestern Wildcats.

Northwestern defeated Minnesota 37-34 last week in overtime. The Wildcats showed some fight in that ball game, battling back from two different 21-point deficits.

Northwestern had a nice day on the offensive side of the ball, tallying 492 yards of total offense with 400 of those yards coming through the air. Signal caller Ben Bryant threw for an impressive 396 yards passing and wide receiver Bryce Kirtz caught 10 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns.

The Wildcats offense was good last Saturday, but on the season they have struggled. The NW offense ranks 100th in the country in total offense (337.8 ypg), 88th in scoring offense (24 ppg) and 119th in rushing offense (98 ypg).

“They’re a no-huddle offense that really, they can run tempo, but they’re more kind of the illusion of tempo, so they can see how you line up and then get to the plays they want to run. They base mainly out of 11 personnel. They want to throw the ball. I think that’s where they feel like they have the best chance to be successful,” said Franklin. “I do think Ben Bryant, their quarterback, is probably the best pure thrower that we’ve seen this year. I think he’s a four-time transfer, which is strange. Cincinnati, Eastern Michigan, then back to Cincinnati and now Northwestern. Also impressed with A.J. Henning and then their wide receiver No. 17, Bryce Kirtz.”

I predicted the Penn State rushing attack to break out last week against Iowa, but the Hawkeyes did a nice job of not letting the Nittany Lions break any big runs. Penn State was still efficient, running for 215 yards and also moving the sticks with its rushing attack. I am going to double down this week and predict yet again that this week the Nittany Lions’ run game will put together an explosive performance at noon today (BTN). The Wildcats rank 112th against the run this season giving up nearly 185 rushing yards per game, which leads me to believe that both Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen could get over the 100-yard mark on the afternoon.

Las Vegas has Penn State as a 26.5-point favorite.

The Nittany Lions are leading the country in time of possession at 37:06 per game. Northwestern is ranked 124th in the country in time of possession at 25:45 per game.

Along with the Wildcats inability to stop the run and their inability to run the football on offense, this just isn’t a good match-up for Northwestern. The Wildcats depend heavily on their passing attack, and against a team like Penn State, that has a good pass rush that could certainly spell trouble.

Coach Franklin is correct in his analysis that Ben Bryant is a good passing quarterback, but my guess is that he is going to be under significant pressure throughout the day. Look for the PSU secondary to potentially come away with a few interceptions.

Lastly, the Northwestern defense ranks 115th in the country in giving up explosive plays. That’s why I truly do believe that both Singleton and Allen are going to have huge days on the ground.

My pick is Penn State 41, Northwestern 7.