Penn State football team’s report card vs. Northwestern

On Friday night, Penn State's football team suffered a 34-13 defeat against Northwestern at Ryan Field. The grading for the team's performance is as follows:

Quarterbacks received a failing grade. Rocco Becht made several misfires on passes to open receivers and threw two interceptions, marking his second consecutive poor performance.

Running backs struggled to make an impact with only 42 rushing yards on 19 carries. James Peoples, Carson Hansen, and Quinton Martin combined for the total, which simply wasn't enough to win in the Big Ten conference.

Receivers received a C-grade. Chase Sowell and Brett Eskildsen managed to connect on 11 catches for 113 yards. However, despite being open multiple times, Becht's passes went awry.

Offensive linemen also received a D. They failed to create significant holes for the running backs and their pass protection was inconsistent, leading to less than 300 total yards for the team.

Defensive linemen fared poorly as well. Their tackles often occupied two blockers, but the ends faced pressure and were unable to generate much pressure, allowing Northwestern's misdirection to work.

Linebackers scored a D. Tony Rojas tallied 12 tackles, including 3.5 in the backfield, but Kooper Ebel missed three tackles that led to long runs by Northwestern.

Defensive backs earned a C-grade. They allowed one long pass on a run fake and had limited action due to Northwestern's Aidan Chiles not having to throw often.

Special teams received a C-grade as well. Nathan Tiyce had a decent punting game, but Ryan Barker missed a field goal, and the return game yielded little production.

Finally, the coaches received an F. The blowout loss was deemed a complete failure by Matt Campbell and the coaching staff. Both the offense and defense were dominated, especially at the line of scrimmage.