Prediction: Northwestern at Penn State

Since I did so poorly last week with my prediction (luckily), I'll try again this week.

PREDICTION:   Penn State 27, Northwestern 20

It's a fairly even matchup.  Hopefully Joe's quest for his 400th win will have the crowd revved up and that will play a factor.  Penn State's offense has shown signs of life in recent weeks, albeit against some lousy defenses.  But are Minnesota and Michigan's defenses really worse than Youngstown State, Temple, and Kent State, whom Penn State's offense looked pretty flat-footed against?  I don't think so.  I think Penn State's offense is improving.  Their defense may be also improving.  Nobody stops Denard Robinson, you can only do enough to survive against him, so don't let his big stats fool you... the Penn State D survived him, and plus some of their many injured players are slowly trickling back into the lineup.

Northwestern's performance against Michigan State scared me to death.  But their performance against other opponents makes them appear beatable.  Plus, with Michigan State getting hammered by Iowa like they did, perhaps they're not as good as we thought.

My dad was at Joe's wins #200 and #300 (not to mention the first game at Beaver Stadium 50 years ago), so hopefully he gets to see win #400.  If Penn State wins this weekend, they will be bowl eligible, Joe's win #400 will be behind them, and they've got absolutely nothing to lose in the final 3 games of the year (Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan State), which should make it fun to watch a couple of games that everyone has already written off as losses.