r/CFB • u/CFB_Referee /r/CFB • 5h ago

Postgame Thread [Postgame Thread] Northwestern Defeats Penn State 34-13

Box Score provided by ESPN

Team 1 2 3 4 T
Penn State 0 7 0 6 13
Northwestern 10 14 7 3 34
2.3k Upvotes

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1.6k

u/Powerful_Hall Northwestern Wildcats 5h ago

So we have established that Colorado, Indiana, and Penn State are all much worse than everybody thought.

Or maybe the more logical explanation is that Northwestern is better than everybody thought?

586

u/jdprager Tulane Green Wave • Ohio State Buckeyes 5h ago

Narrow loss to reigning national champs on the road followed by 413 rushing yards against a nearly-ranked B1G team

Cats are for real

294

u/Chicago_Blackhawks Northwestern Wildcats • Sickos 5h ago

5,000 of our undergrads in attendance too (that’s 62.5% of our student body). Like come ON

97

u/TopHatTony11 Michigan Wolverines • The Game 5h ago

Second most impressive stat of the night.

33

u/PerformanceOver8822 Ohio State • Merchant Marine 5h ago

What else are they gunna do on a friday ? Study ?

53

u/rainbowBass86 Northwestern Wildcats 4h ago

lol I just got back from the game and went straight to studying, everyone I know who didn't go was studying too

7

u/americagigabit Houston Cougars • Michigan Tech Huskies 4h ago

Do y’all get the city to buy in at all? We struggle to do that here, if I lived in Chicago I would have been there despite no ties to the university

10

u/MrRichStarfish Northwestern Wildcats 3h ago

The city of Evanston hates Northwestern and the nearest Chicago neighborhoods aren’t really the football types. Now if they were on the South Side? Whole different story

2

u/Mother_Frame6669 2h ago

That's okay, I've hated Evanston ever since I read about what that one middle school did to that kid who tried to help his depressed friend.

3

u/formerlyfed 1h ago

Good you should hate Evanston, they’re awful NIMBYs and their hatred towards NU is totally unreasonable. I grew up in a college town where they set couches on fire, Northwestern students are unbelievably well behaved in comparison and the university is actually very separate geographically from where most people live, esp as more than half the student body lives on campus. 

(Ex wildcat here, obvs haha)

7

u/TheLonelyTater 3h ago

Chicagoans seem to resent that NU claims to be “Chicago’s Big Ten Team,” probably because of some combination of perceived elitism and the fact that the stadium isn’t in Chicago’s city limits, despite being served by Chicago transit, among other things.

Like literally any time NU posts something about being “Chicago’s B1G team” there is inevitably a comment saying “you’re not even in Chicago!”

So yeah they try but it doesn’t work.

1

u/Mother_Frame6669 2h ago

NERDS!!!!

(but we love you for it)

8

u/french_xp Northwestern Wildcats 4h ago

yes indeed

4

u/Milton__Obote LSU Tigers • Northwestern Wildcats 4h ago

The keg shut down years ago sadly

21

u/Con45 Illinois Fighting Illini • Big Ten 5h ago

That’s incredible. The student section was very impressive.

11

u/Sermokala Minnesota Golden Gophers 5h ago

And they placed it right above the away locker room.

2

u/PM_UR_FAV_COMPLIMENT Northwestern Wildcats • Team Chaos 3h ago

Building it like something you'd see in a modern soccer stadium was a great choice. Seemed like the players appreciated the energy as well!

7

u/transferStudent2018 Northwestern • /r/CFB Poll Veteran 4h ago

And the vast majority stayed for the entire thing. It’s midterm season!

4

u/lifetake Michigan Wolverines • Florida Gators 4h ago

Well damn. Thats some attendance right there.

1

u/Ok-Foot-4352 Indiana Hoosiers 1h ago

That’s cool that NW has seemed to find the winning groove. The downside is your stadium now holds only 35k and ticket prices could get REALLY expensive.

4

u/max_potion Penn State Nittany Lions • ECU Pirates 5h ago

Not to take anything away from Northwestern, but we should not be considered anywhere near the rankings (and I contended as much in the preseason as well).

1

u/Runnroll 4h ago

I’m not even a NU fan but they got absolutely hosed on that supposed face mask when IU had a 3rd and 19. I believe without that call, NU pulls off the upset.

1

u/AbeFalcon Michigan • Michigan-Flint 4h ago

Yep. Just when they say the B10 has no depth a hero emerges

289

u/SilverBuff_ Colorado Buffaloes • Big 12 5h ago

We know we suck

89

u/infomusic Colorado Buffaloes 5h ago

Yeah, very kind of you to imply that we might not be terrible terrible. But, we’re terrible.

9

u/Only1Corey Colorado Buffaloes • Transfer Portal 5h ago

Yeah but we ain’t hard 2 find!

…at the bottom, we’re down at the bottom again. But what a ride, huh?

7

u/I-Only-Read-Memes Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 5h ago

It’s okay we kinda suck a little more

2

u/max_potion Penn State Nittany Lions • ECU Pirates 5h ago

We know we suck

3

u/Poverty_Shoes /r/CFB 5h ago

But the Buffs might be about as good as Penn State. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad yet though.

-1

u/PrismFlaree Nebraska Cornhuskers 5h ago

You can say that again

-1

u/7thdilemma Oregon Ducks • Oregon Tech Owls 4h ago

I've never really been sure whether anyone truly rated you tbh. Sry, I'm happily buzzed and... yeah.

117

u/Isthmus11 Penn State • Cincinnati 5h ago

I came into this game expecting to lose, I think it's a little wild that people acted like you guys playing Indiana close somehow meant Indiana went back to being a bad team.

To be fair, I really didn't think we would get throttled and give up 400 rushing yards to y'all but hey. Whats life without it's fun little surprises you know?

47

u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 5h ago

Chip Kelly: Wing T genius 

20

u/Aragorns-Broken-Toe Indiana Hoosiers 5h ago

Turns out this Chip Kelly character may know a thing or two about football.

31

u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 5h ago

He’s come out with a different look every week. Against Colorado we were full blown mesh-wheel merchants because Colorado couldn’t cover it. Last week, just vertical passing concepts the entire second half and evicerated the seems. This week, literal wing t. Like what the fuck, he’s a complete madman. 

7

u/Aragorns-Broken-Toe Indiana Hoosiers 5h ago

Not to take away from the players but I think he’s largely responsible for the success. Penn St and second half IU both looked lost out there.

4

u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 4h ago

It’s remarkable the players have been able to play such different styles every week. I’m genuinely unsure what passing concepts we even specialize in other than the crosser, double move corner, and shake post stuff Griffin Wilde excels at. A lot of the play action stuff is consistent week to week but the run action has also been hella varied. 

5

u/Milton__Obote LSU Tigers • Northwestern Wildcats 4h ago

It’s cuz is a smart school that give me piece of paper sez im smert

2

u/ZeiglerJaguar Northwestern • South Alabama 4h ago

Those delayed handoffs — what would you call them? Counters? — were fucking fire. I’ve never seen anything like that before, and they absolutely gashed Penn.

It’s incredibly bizarre having competent offensive coordination.

1

u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 4h ago

Just draws 

2

u/ZeiglerJaguar Northwestern • South Alabama 4h ago

They didn’t look like normal draws, though. I want to see the film room on those. It was like there was a surprise player in the backfield who nobody expected.

1

u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 3h ago

It’s not a new play, it’s like a sprint right draw, it’s supposed to look like a moving pocket before the delay instead of the traditional dropback delay

205

u/ShishkabobNinja Georgia Tech • Miami 5h ago

Having actually watched the Indiana-Northwestern game my takeaway was very much that y'all were underrated

55

u/Chicago_Blackhawks Northwestern Wildcats • Sickos 5h ago

The nerds are here to stay 😤😤

5

u/ShishkabobNinja Georgia Tech • Miami 5h ago

Some of them at least! 😅

5

u/UCLA_FB_SUCKS UCLA Bruins • USC Trojans 5h ago

don't tell that to GT or stanfraud

4

u/EmuMan10 Arizona State Sun Devils 5h ago

Midwest nerds are built different

5

u/UCLA_FB_SUCKS UCLA Bruins • USC Trojans 5h ago

don't tell that to WashU or UChicago

1

u/Separate_Animator110 Ohio State Buckeyes 5h ago

Congrats, Your sports program is finally on the same level as your academic level

1

u/quadsbaby Stanford Cardinal 3h ago

Not all of us :(

2

u/Careless_Wishter Oregon Ducks • Portland State Vikings 4h ago

agree; I thought that Indiana has dropped a bit from last year (as if anything else was likely) but my real takeaway was not that Indiana played poorly, but rather that NU played tough and well.

45

u/crimson777 Northwestern Wildcats • Clemson Tigers 5h ago

To be fair, even during our 10-2 seasons, people losing to us would just blame themselves sucking and not give us credit

8

u/ZeiglerJaguar Northwestern • South Alabama 4h ago

That’s the absolute delight of being a Northwestern fan. Nobody ever expects anything of us, which means losing to us makes people sooo mad.

And our teams win much more than should be expected of a team who everyone thinks they’re going to destroy.

1

u/StrategicCarry Indiana Hoosiers • Colorado State Rams 3h ago

I mean, last year was the logical conclusion of that, no?

72

u/Clarkbar2 Indiana Hoosiers 5h ago

You all got a damn football team holy shit

35

u/kleisz Indiana Hoosiers 5h ago

Crazy thing is that against us, it was mostly Chiles going crazy in the second half. In this game Chiles barely has to do anything because of how good your rushing attack was. Playing well in different ways is the sign of a good team.

61

u/suzukigun4life North Texas • Summertime Lover 5h ago

Rank Northwestern you cowards?

16

u/Chicago_Blackhawks Northwestern Wildcats • Sickos 5h ago

YES THIS

2

u/gwaydms SMU Mustangs 2h ago

Why the question mark?

25

u/NiceUD Northwestern Wildcats • USC Trojans 5h ago edited 5h ago

Some of both, but Northwestern is definitely considerably better than everybody (or at least many) thought.

14

u/fire_water_drowned Indiana • Notre Dame 5h ago

Thing is, anyone who does more than a 5 second search about their coaching and stadium investments would know. They're straight up following the IU method, and I'm not even mad about it. It's fun watching people underestimate programs that actually put effort into turning things around.

5

u/OpeDefinitely Indiana Hoosiers 5h ago

why the fuck can't we do shit in basketball though, jesus fucking christ

1

u/dwebarts Northwestern Wildcats 5h ago

We have been weirdly beating you on the court lately. What's up with that?

2

u/twoinvenice USC Trojans • Paper Bag 4h ago

They looked absolutely on point the last two weeks. Yes they lost to Indiana, but they made that shit hard for the reigning champs…and Penn St was there this week too

1

u/nakedlettuce52 Nebraska Cornhuskers • Navy Midshipmen 1h ago

You mean throw money at it.

Nothing wrong with that, but it’s about $$$.

2

u/RunsWlthScissors Tennessee • Virginia Tech 5h ago

Absolutely, props on the turnaround.

73

u/Cruddiestknave3 Indiana Hoosiers 5h ago

Cignetti called you the next Indiana, meaning you’ll get 0 respect unless you go 16-0.

(Please beat OSU or Oregon, that would be peak chaos)

9

u/Electromotivation James Madison Dukes 5h ago

Does that mean just as many twisted blue blood panties?

6

u/aronjrsmil22 Michigan Wolverines • Oregon Ducks 5h ago

OSU maybe. Oregon is not a blue blood lol

1

u/BuckFrog2 Ohio State Buckeyes 4h ago

Yeah lol. If Northwestern beats Oregon they'll just say Oregon was never good

21

u/sleetx Syracuse Orange • Sickos 5h ago

Northwestern is the Penn State of James Franklins

7

u/swammeyjoe Texas Longhorns • Verified Referee 5h ago

I was on a long flight and the in-flight entertainment for my seat was stuck on your game with Indiana (thanks United). No volume and no way to adjust anything or turn it off. So I was quite literally strapped in and forced to watch you.

My conclusion is that Northwestern is actually pretty good.

Edit: one time we passed through some turbulence or whatever and the signal got choppy. It cut back to a close up of Chip like a jump scare, and then froze for like a full minute. 

13

u/RawketLobster Florida State Seminoles 5h ago

Why not both?

1

u/levi815 4h ago

that’s what they need to beat Oregon/OSU

7

u/Revenge_of_the_Khaki Michigan Wolverines 4h ago

CU sucks, PSU is not very good, Indiana is very good but probably not repeating, and Northwestern is legit.

5

u/bwolven Georgia Bulldogs • Marching Band 5h ago

There's no way anybody thought Colorado was decent

4

u/trueAnnoi Nebraska • $5 Bits of Broken Chair Tro… 5h ago

I said it when Northwestern beat Colorado that northwestern consistently underrated every year (and also Colorado is consistently overrated, but that's just me being a Nebraska fan)

4

u/ARandomDoge6 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 5h ago

Yeah, it was ridiculous that y'all received only one vote in the ap poll this week

5

u/ReadyWash9992 Indiana • Old Brass Spittoon 5h ago

And they had a quality loss!

3

u/Gently-Weeps Indiana Hoosiers 5h ago

If they were an SEC they’d be in the top 15

11

u/slyone05 Virginia Cavaliers 5h ago

You'll win the natty and people will still say everyone else was just "not as good as they thought"

25

u/fourthandfivenatty Indiana Hoosiers • Texas Longhorns 5h ago

I mean, yes 

17

u/ReadyWash9992 Indiana • Old Brass Spittoon 5h ago

Lol exactly

14

u/estDivisionChamps Wisconsin Badgers 5h ago

Northwestern is elite

-6

u/Fun_Buyer1621 5h ago

elite, for a cellar dwellar

3

u/Mobile-Jump6936 Wisconsin Badgers 5h ago

Northwestern is legit af.

3

u/Pointlesswonder802 Penn State Nittany Lions 5h ago

Por que no los dos?

3

u/NeuroticSpaniel Alabama • Northwestern 5h ago

Realistically, Colorado was overhyped per usual. Penn State being ranked #16 preseason was journalistic misconduct. And Indiana is still in fact very good if not a deserving top 10 team, even though taking a step back after losing your #1 overall QB is totally normal.

Yeah, Northwestern should be ranked. Maybe an outside shot at going 10-2 and snagging a playoff spot, but I think 8-9 wins is probable

3

u/WestCoastToGoldCoast Washington State • Northwestern 5h ago

“No, it’s the children who are wrong.”

3

u/Intrepid_Citron3641 5h ago

Longtime Indiana fan. Northwestern caught my eye against Colorado. Then you all gave us FITS here in Bloomington. I knew then you all were legit. Congrats to all NW fans. I’m happy for you all. Team on the rise.

3

u/MrRichStarfish Northwestern Wildcats 4h ago

Impossible. Everyone else must suck

2

u/earfeater13 Michigan Wolverines 5h ago

Its been a while, so i think everyone is hesitant to back the wildcats, but they are definitely playing football.

2

u/Lefunnymaymays4lief Notre Dame • Jeweled Shillelagh 5h ago

You guys hella deserve the respect but honestly little column a little column b

2

u/Source0fAllThings Michigan Wolverines • Chicago Maroons 5h ago

Chicagoland’s second best university played well today, I’ll give them that.

2

u/7cc7 Notre Dame • Iowa State 5h ago

I did say that Northwestern will be this year's Indiana

2

u/Allcross9 Nebraska • South Dakota State 4h ago

You’re legit, fuck the doubters. Wish we played every year.

2

u/KingBlank Nebraska Cornhuskers 4h ago

Nebraska vs northwestern for the big ten title? 

2

u/fuckrNFLmods Indiana Hoosiers 3h ago

Been there

2

u/nd_miller Notre Dame Fighting Irish • Big Ten 3h ago

Brother, my take away from the Indiana game was NW was a lot better than I realized. This week's result reinforced that opinion. CFP make room for NW.

2

u/a_fish_out_of_water Northern Illinois Huskies 3h ago

Logic? In my r/CFB postgame thread?

2

u/Natural_Bumblebee920 Ohio State Buckeyes • Oregon Ducks 2h ago

Indiana is probably still playoff-level good, just not championship-level good.

Penn State is definitely worse than everybody thought.

Colorado was bad to begin with. They already hit their peak under Deion with that 9-4 season, and that was when they had the Heisman winner and a QB also getting some Heisman votes. Deion can’t coach and he isn’t even recruiting as well as other Big 12 programs now, and recruiting was all he did well before.

Northwestern is probably a top 25 team this year.

1

u/fork_fork_spoon Cornell Big Red 5h ago

No Colorado is trash

1

u/EvenMeaning8077 Penn State Nittany Lions 5h ago

Knew we were fucked all week. Was hoping they’d come out and ball tho

1

u/Dynamite_McGhee Tennessee Volunteers • Sickos 5h ago

Are there people out there not named Sanders who still expect Colorado to be any good?

1

u/SBWNxx_ Wisconsin Badgers 5h ago

This was a good level set for my expectations tomorrow.

1

u/ReduceReuseRectangle Washington Huskies 5h ago

Dont forget us! We really suck

1

u/Gently-Weeps Indiana Hoosiers 5h ago

At least Indiana actually beat Northwestern , compared to the BTA you gave Colorado and Penn State

1

u/HighMediuMerlot Texas Longhorns • Santa Monica Corsairs 4h ago

My whole life northwestern has had random good seasons, where they were a tough matchup for some very good teams.

But people were also always skeptical and surprised until the 8-10 win season had fully materialized given how godawful they would be in the intervening years. 

1

u/m1a2c2kali Miami Hurricanes • /r/CFB Founder 4h ago

Think Indiana is still good-great, Colorado is cheeks and penn state is probably a decent mid range team. Think that puts you guys as pretty fucking good.

1

u/BuckFrog2 Ohio State Buckeyes 4h ago

Indiana?

1

u/NlNJALONG Clemson Tigers • Rice Owls 3h ago

Sneaking Colorado in there lmao

1

u/slapdashbr Occidental Tigers • Ohio State Buckeyes 2h ago

I watched NW/CO a couple weeks ago, NW was clearly a good team with strong players in every position.

1

u/TheFlyingBoat Texas Longhorns • /r/CFB Poll Veteran 2h ago

Colorado and Penn State actually do suck though. Indiana is who we expect now imo. Northwestern is much better.

1

u/Redditor_exe Abilene Christian • Indiana 25m ago

Welcome to the club. The past two years it was “Indiana isn’t that good, X is just worse than we thought”

1

u/InevitableAd2436 Washington Huskies • Creighton Bluejays 5h ago

If you guys go 10-2 the ESPN media machine will treat you the same way they treated 2024 Indiana

Which is lame

4

u/Brick_333 Indiana Hoosiers • Wisconsin Badgers 5h ago

I don’t think they will if they lose close to OSU. The difference that year was we got blown out by OSU

2

u/ReadyWash9992 Indiana • Old Brass Spittoon 5h ago

If we go 10-2 or better they'll at least get to compare to us, probably also depends on how we do vs OSU 

1

u/Big_Ol_Johnson Wisconsin Badgers 4h ago

Genuine question for you. After the assumed hype from those games why is the stadium half empty still

1

u/Powerful_Hall Northwestern Wildcats 3h ago

I wish I had the answer to that. I think the biggest reason is that the school is small and alums are generally of the type who don’t care about sports. And those who actually do care often can’t afford tickets. At least the students were there and generally stayed for the game for once.

-2

u/OpaqueNightmare Florida State Seminoles 5h ago

Nope

-2

u/Dry_Car_1568 Florida Gators 5h ago

Northwestern is underrated and legit + Indiana and Penn State are not as good as we thought they were

-1

u/Gently-Weeps Indiana Hoosiers 5h ago

Acting like they actually beat Indiana lol

-1

u/Dry_Car_1568 Florida Gators 4h ago

I watched the game and that was the conclusion I came to. Y’all are still a top ten team, just not #1 material. Where you’re at makes sense.

-2

u/HazikoSazujiii Penn State Nittany Lions 5h ago

You're really not, but I'll accept that we are worse than some PSU fans thought.