Penn State Football Halftime Report: Penn State 27, Northwestern 24

Matt McGloin started at quarterback for Penn State Saturday night against Northwestern and he never stopped throwing.

The way Penn State’s defense was playing, he couldn’t afford to.

In his first start of the 2011 season, McGloin completed 14 of 19 passes for 145 yards and two touchdowns, and led the Lions to a pair of field goals and a quarter-ending TD drive as well. All in the first half.

That last drive was the fifth time Penn State’s offense had the ball – and the fifth time it scored.

With just 46 seconds left in the second quarter, the Nittany Lions covered 63 yards in seven plays. The key play on the drive was a 42-yard run by Silas Redd. An 11-yard pass from McGloin to Devon Smith set up a one-yard TD run by Stephon Green.

Anthony Fera’s PAT gave Penn State a 27-24 halftime lead.

Redd already had his fourth straight 100-yard game by halftime, carrying 11 times for 119 yards. Smith led all PSU receivers, with five catches for 88 yards.

McGloin has six TD passes against Northwestern in two games. In Beaver Stadium against Northwestern 2010, McGloin had four TD passes to lead Penn State back from a 21-0 deficit to win 35-21.

That win gave Joe Paterno his 400^th career victory. If Penn State wins against NU on Saturday night, Paterno will tie the late Eddie Robinson of Grambling as No. 2 as the second-winningest coach in college football history, with 408 victories.

The Wildcats, hosting Penn State at Ryan Field in Evanston, Ill., gave no indication it was going to be easy.

The Northwestern QB duo of Dan Persa and Kain Colter shredded the Nittany Lion defense, leading the Wildcats on scoring drives of 70, 87, 75 and 72 yards. The first three drives all went for TDs.

(Penn State’s other quarterback, Rob Bolden, did not play in the first half for the first time in 2011.)

Penn State scored twice in the first quarter, on a 4-yard touchdown pass from McGloin to Justin Brown – his first of the year – and a 45-yard McGloin TD pass to Smith.

Fera added field goals of 37 and 33 yards for the Nittany Lions.

The Penn State defense, which netted the game ranked sixth in the nation in fewest points allowed (11.6 per game), had no solution to the Persa-Colter pairing.

Persa completed 12 of 15 passes for 170 yards and a touchdown pass to Colter, while Colter ran for 61 yards on four carries, with a TD on the ground as well. Colter completed 2 of 2 passes for 18 yards.

Northwestern opened the scoring in the first quarter, after Penn State’s Chaz Powell fumbled the opening kickoff. Northwestern quickly turned the miscue into a score, when Persa capped a 7-play, 70-yard drive with a one-yard TD run.

McGloin answered with his two TD passes for a 14-7 Penn State lead, but Northwestern came back with an 87-yard drive capped by Persa’s 12 –yard touchdown pass to Colter.

After a Fera field goal for a 17-14 PSU lead, Colter scored from four yards out to cap a 75-yard Northwestern drive that gave NU a 21-17 lead.

Fera’s second field goal pulled the Lions to within 21-20, but Northwestern countered with Jeff Budzien’s 25-yard field goal at the tail end of a nine-play, 72-yard drive.

Northwestern punted just once, while Penn State did not punt at all the first half.