STATE COLLEGE - In the game of football, win or lose, there are usually positives you can take away from the way you played.

That statement might of been true up until Penn State took the field against Northwestern on Saturday. The Nittany Lions simply did not look ready to play and the Wildcats took advantage handing them their worst home loss since 2001, coming away with a 29-6 BigTen victory.Anytime you start the game with three consecutive three and outs, the day probably isn't going to go well. The same problems that haunted the Nittany Lions the first four weeks of the season were exploited to the fullest by Northwestern. Poor offensive line play and an inability to run the football is what did Penn State in. Sophomore quarterback Christian Hackenberg was constantly under duress and his play was significantly affected because of that. Penn State's rushing attack on the day gained just 50 yards at two yards per carry. It doesn't matter who you are or how many fans are in the stands, if you can only rush for two yards a carry then you're probably not going to be on the winning end of a football game."I take full responsibility. We weren't ready to play today. On offense and defense, I thought we could've played a lot better," said Penn State coach James Franklin. "We made a lot of mistakes. We're having the same issue that keeps popping up all year long; that's consistently running the ball and being able to protect the quarterback. The bye week couldn't come at a better time. We have to spend some more time cleaning some things."Northwestern was the first team to score on Penn State in the first quarter in the last eight games. Two Trevor Siemian one-yard runs erased that streak with Siemian using his arm to get the Wildcats in position to score. Siemian had a solid day passing the football, throwing for 258 yards. The Nittany Lions were giving about 220 yards passing per game, but it's not so much the numbers it was the timing of Siemian's passes. He was able to gut the middle of the Penn State "D" time and time again and it was evident that the Northwestern receivers weren't getting challenged enough at the line of scrimmage. With all that being said, the Nittany Lions defense was on the field a ton and made some stops, but the offense just couldn't gain any momentum throughout the afternoon."On defense, I thought overall, we played solid, but we did not tackle as well as we have in previous weeks," said Franklin. "We were throwing shoulders, not wrapping up, things like that. Again, I take full responsibility and we will get it fixed."Penn State's red zone woes continued as they tacked on a field goal in the second quarter and third quarter, with the defense holding the Northwestern offense scoreless in the second and third. That brought the score to 14-6 and then came the nail in the coffin. Hackenberg perbrought the score to 14-6 and then came the nail in the coffin. Hackenberg perhaps made his biggest mistake of the 2014 season, throwing a pass directly to Northwestern's Anthony Walker, who returned it 49 yards for a touchdown. Then on the Nittany Lions next possession Hackenberg was hit hard and fumbled with Northwestern recovering the ball at the PSU 15. That led to a Wildcats field goal, putting the ball game out of reach for PSU.Hackenberg's back-to-back turnovers pretty much summed up the theme of the day for the young quarterback, which was simply terrible. The true fact of the matter is that Hackenberg was hit way too much and Franklin acknowledged that must be fixed in Penn State's bye week."There's no doubt that we want to limit the hits that Christian is taking. He's taking way too many hits right now," said Franklin. "We have to get that resolved. We have to get the running game going and we have to be able to protect our quarterback."Penn State's performance wasn't pretty and it may be hard to find a positive from Saturday's debacle.However, one positive is that the Nittany Lions are 4-1, with the chance to go into Michigan and gain back some momentum. Another positive is that they get two weeks to rest up and prepare. A win in Ann Arbor could get the Nittany Lions back on track, but it's obvious the offensive line must grow up fast between now and October 11."I want to thank the 102,000 fans and all the media that came out to support us," said Franklin. "We will get this fixed. I promise you and guarantee you we will get it fixed."