STATE COLLEGE - Highlights, lowlights, and in-betweens from Penn State's 39-28 win over Northwestern Saturday at Beaver Stadium:
PLAY OF THE GAME: Matt McGloin's 5-yard touchdown dive over the pylon gave Penn State a 32-28 lead with 5:38 to play, the most critical touchdown of a 22-point fourth-quarter rally.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: McGloin hit 35 of 51 passes for 282 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions, though he came close to a turnover on a couple first-half passes.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Gerald Hodges led the Lions with 11 tackles, including 1 for a loss. He also forced a fumble.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE GAME: Punter Alex Butterworth, who put his first three punts inside the Northwestern 20 and also had a 54-yard punt.
NORTHWESTERN PLAYER OF THE GAME: Venric Mark was Northwestern's best weapon, rushing 13 times for 72 yards and a touchdown. He also returned a punt for a touchdown.
WILLIAMSPORT: Jacob Fagnano replaced Malcolm Willis at free safety in the second quarter. He was not credited with a tackle, but played a good chunk of the game.
BEST RUN: Mark's 75-yard punt return gave Northwestern a 28-17 lead late in the third quarter.
BEST PASS: Trevor Siemian hit Tony Jones high in traffic in the back of the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown pass and a 14-10 lead late in the second quarter.
WORST PASS: McGloin needs to do better than a fourth-and-4 incomplete late in the second quarter, a weak 5-yard chuck that didn't even go halfway to an eligible receiver.
BEST CATCH: Allen Robinson wrestled the ball from Ibraheim Campbell in mid-air over the middle for 13 yards and a second-quarter first down.
BAD HANDS: Jesse Della Valle made a rare special teams mistake, bobbling a second-quarter punt that sustained a second-quarter Northwestern drive all the way to the PSU 17.
WORST KICK: Butterworth did shank a second-quarter punt into Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald's hands for 22 yards.
BEST TACKLE: Campbell stood up Zach Zwinak in the open field after a 9-yard pickup early in the third quarter.
WORST PENALTY: Questionable pass interference against Stephon Morris helped sustain a Northwestern drive late in the second quarter that ended with a touchdown and a 14-10 Wildcat lead.
BEST EFFORT: Della Valle chased down a sidespinning first-quarter punt to down it on the Northwestern 1-yard line.
TELLING STAT: Nittany Lions were 5 of 6 on fourth-down conversions
HIDDEN STAT: McGloin hit 10 different receivers.
BEST CALL: Great idea of PSU going for it on fourth-and-4 on the touchdown to Robinson in the fourth quarter. Kick a field goal and it's 28-20 Northwestern, and if a shaky defense can hold the Wildcats to a field goal on the next drive, there's still a reasonable shot at a game-winning touchdown.
UNSUNG HERO: Zwinak was probably the PSU player of the game until McGloin's go-ahead touchdown. He finished with career highs of 28 carries for 122 yards and a score.
PERSONNEL: Wildcat LG Brian Mulroe walked off the field after a second-quarter injury timeout. Head linesman Tripp Sutter left the field on a cart after an apparent leg injury from a second-quarter collision. A sideline report said he had a ruptured quad tendon. Zwinak played so much because he was running well, Bill O'Brien said, and that there was nothing wrong with Bill Belton.
MILESTONES: Mark's second-quarter touchdown run was the first first-half touchdown scored against Penn State this season. Northwestern's post-game notes said the series with Penn State stands at 13-3 PSU, which would count the 8 vacated wins from 1998-2011 the NCAA vacated after the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The two teams do not meet again until at least 2017. Robinson has 41 catches for 524 yards this season. The PSU single-season reception record is 63 by O.J. McDuffie in 1992.
BEST QUOTE: O'Brien said McGloin would come in Monday and claim he could run a 4.3-second, 40-yard dash after his go-ahead touchdown. "Yeah, and we can time that with a sundial," said O'Brien.
NEXT WEEK: Penn State is off until Oct. 20 at Iowa (8 p.m. BTN).
