UNIVERSITY PARK — It has been a while since the Penn State football team has had to come back from consecutive losses—2021 to be exact—but here we are.
After three opening wins, the Lions have now lost two games in a row after the stunning 42-37 loss in Pasadena to UCLA on Saturday.
It was a game at UCLA in which Penn State started terribly, down 27-7 at halftime, made a comeback attempt in the second half, but in the end, came up short in its second loss in five games.
The defeat also changes the complexion of the season for the Lions, but it does not end it.
There is a lot of football still to play, beginning at home on October 11 against 3-2 Big Ten foe Northwestern.
The Wildcats so far have wins over Western Illinois, UCLA (17-14 at home), and UL Monroe with losses to Tulane (23-3) and Oregon (34-14).
Against UCLA on September 27, Northwestern scored all its points in the first half, going ahead 17-3, and then held off the Bruins in the second half to take the 3-point win.
UCLA scored a touchdown with six minutes to play to make it 17-14, but Northwestern held on.
And last week against ULM, the Wildcat offense took over in the second period and never stopped in a 42-7 win.
Northwestern ran up 510 yards of total offense, 250 on the ground, led by the passing of Preston Stone who went 20-for-31 for 262 yards and 3 touchdowns without an interception.
Running backs Caleb Komolafe and Dashun Reedere chipped in with a combined 158 yards on the ground and two touchdowns, while receivers Hayden Eligon, Griffin Wilde, and Drew Wagner each caught TD passes.
For the season so far, Stone has 83 completions for 918 yards and 7 touchdowns, and he’s also run for 97 yards and 23 attempts with a touchdown.
Komolafe is the top rusher with 344 yards on 76 attempts with 4 scores, and Wilde is the leading receiver with 375 yards on 25 catches and 2 touchdowns.
Defensively, Northwestern gives up just 17 points per game with an average of 311 total yards per game.
The Wildcats have two interceptions, nine sacks for 65 yards and they have scored 14 of the 15 times they’ve been in the red zone.
Penn State has a 14-4 overall record advantage over Northwestern with the last win coming in 2023 by a score of 41-13 in Evanston.
Penn State has won the last three games since the Wildcats claimed wins in 2014 and 2015.
The story of the Penn State loss at UCLA is all about Bruin quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
Iamaleava had a career day against the Lions with 17-of-24 completions for 166 yards and 2 touchdowns and 16 rushing attempts for 128 yards and three more touchdowns.
UCLA gained 435 yards total, and the Bruins came up with two critical second-half touchdowns to keep clear of the Lions.
The last TD came on a 7-yard Iamaleava run with 6:41 to play that put UCLA ahead 42-28.
Penn State would score again on a Drew Allar pass to Kyron Hudson with 4 minutes left, but the Lions would not get the ball back again.
Penn State’s offense gained 357 yards on 57 plays with 200 yards and two touchdowns coming through the air.
But UCLA recovered a fumble, recorded 6 tackles-for-loss, and held Penn State to just 4-for-9 on third downs and 1-for-3 on fourth downs.
UCLA did not punt in the game and ran 77 plays to 57 for Penn State.
This was at least the fourth game, and maybe the fifth, in which Penn State started slowly and had to gain momentum as the game progressed.
The Lions had to score 14 points late against Oregon to tie the game, but against UCLA the rally fell short.
It will no doubt be a Penn State priority to start games more aggressively on both offense and defense, and that will hopefully begin this week against Northwestern.
Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. at West Shore Home Field at Beaver Stadium.
