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"You want to talk about being mad? I was never so mad in my life [as] when I had a handful of text messages [saying], 'Hey, great battle back,' " Fitzgerald said. "That's not what we do around here. We put our- selves in a hole and we should fight back. We shouldn't have put ourselves in the situa- tion. A game ends up being a nine-point difference. We throw a pick [for a touch- down] and have a safety. There's the differ- ence in the damn game. So, for all the negatives and all the garbage that was out there for a quarter, there were three quarters that I thought our guys fought their asses off. And you must do it for four quarters. If you do it for four quarters, you give yourself a chance to win a Big Ten football game." The good news for Northwestern is that it only has to wait three more days for another shot at a highly ranked opponent. With No. 4 Penn State heading to Evanston, the Wildcats will get to apply the lessons from their loss to Wisconsin and maybe start to build some momentum heading into a stretch of seemingly winnable games. Northwestern wasn't that far from win- ning at Camp Randall. The Wildcats led at halftime, 10-7, but Wisconsin scored 24 points during a 14-minute stretch bridging the third and fourth quarters. The last of those scores came on Natrell Jamerson's 36-yard pick-six. Undaunted, Northwest- ern responded with touchdown drives of 13 and seven plays. The Wildcats trailed 31-24 and had the ball at their own 2-yard line with 1 minute, 9 seconds left, but their hopes ended on second-and-3 from the 9. Thorson, who had completed a career-high 29 passes, was rolling right. With his eyes downfield, he didn't notice safety D'Cota Dixon approaching until it was too late. Dixon dropped him behind the goal line to clinch the game for Wisconsin. It was the eighth sack of the game for the Badgers, and that number has no doubt got- ten the attention of Penn State's defensive staff. The right tackle position, where fresh- men Rashawn Slater and Gunnar Vogel are 1-2 on the depth chart, was of particular concern after the Wisconsin game. "We must play better at right tackle, there's no doubt about that," Fitzgerald said. "That's not a mystery. That perform- ance was not good enough for us to be con- sistent on Saturday. Those two guys are going to keep working at it, there's no doubt about that, and we're going to keep coaching the heck out of them, and they're going to get better." Northwestern entered October sporting a 2-2 record, with road losses to Duke and Wisconsin and home wins over Nevada and Bowling Green, but it has a favorable Big Ten schedule. The Wildcats don't have to play Ohio State or Michigan, and they only have three road games remaining – against Maryland, Nebraska and Illinois. With an upset over Penn State, they would be in strong position to earn a bowl invita- tion for the eighth time in the past 10 sea- sons, and maybe, with a little help, even contend for a spot in the Big Ten Champi- onship Game. Having led Northwestern to bowl victories in two of the past three seasons, Fitzgerald has helped to reshape the expectations for Northwestern's football program. Those text messages notwithstanding, he has de- veloped it into the kind of place where moral victories are not considered satisfactory. At the same time, he's mindful of the chal- lenges the conference poses. "I tell our guys all the time, the hardest thing to do is to win a Big Ten game," he said on Monday. "The teams are very talented, well-coached, and it just comes down to the team that executes the most. To Wisconsin's credit, they did that [in the third] quarter. We put ourselves behind schedule, and we must build off the momentum that we had for most of the first half and the fourth quarter. "But our performance in the third quarter, if emulated, will get us beat every time. We can't do that. It's disappointing, but you 'fess up to it, you fix it, and you move for- ward, and that's what I saw from the guys today. I expect us to have a great week and get ourselves ready to go." O C T O B E R 4 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2 NATE BAUER 5-0 | Penn State's most recent visit to Northwestern was a stomach-punch of a game in which the visitors managed to take a 21-20 lead, only to see it evaporate on a 35- yard Wildcat field goal with nine seconds to play. While that memory may elicit some con- sternation among Penn State fans entering this weekend's contest, it shouldn't. That game, and many like it, are part of a distant past for the Nittany Lions. The Wildcats' defense is unlikely to stymie PSU, and their best offensive asset – their passing game – will be up against one of the Lions' defensive strengths. Simply put, Penn State has a lot more paths to victory over Northwestern than vice versa. | PENN STATE 37, NORTHWESTERN 17 PHIL GROSZ 5-0 | Even with the status of Mike Gesicki and Chasz Wright in doubt, all the matchups seem to favor PSU. The one surprising aspect of Northwestern's performance so far has been its inability to consistently run the ball. For the most part, the Wildcats have been one-dimensional, relying heavily on the passing of Clayton Thorson. Defensively, they rank 11th in the Big Ten at 384.3 yards per game and have displayed a tendency to give up the big play in the passing game. Not what you want to hear with Penn State coming to town. I'm not worried about the 11 a.m. start. | PENN STATE 48, NORTHWESTERN 17 MATT HERB 5-0 | Penn State has only played one road game this season, and it needed some last-second heroics to pull it out. Northwestern has more offensive firepower than Iowa, but it also appears to have a few defensive holes that should allow Trace McSorley and Saquon Barkley to enjoy some success. Two caveats: Penn State's place-kicking unit and its nicked-up offensive line have been inconsistent all season. If those trends con- tinue, this could indeed turn out to be the trap game that alarmists have been predicting for the past few months. | PENN STATE 35, NORTHWESTERN 20 TIM OWEN 5-0 | This was one of five games that I had highlighted on the schedule to begin the season as a potential setback. Since then, I've grown more confident in a PSU win. It won't be a gimme, as a slow start at Northwestern is always probable, but the Wildcats fit into PSU's strengths. Their run game has been lacking, and while QB Clayton Thorson is talented, PSU's secondary is the strength of the defense. Meanwhile, Thorson was sacked eight times last week at Wisconsin and he averages more than one intercep- tion per game. PSU's DL will be all over him again and if they can force him into another couple miscues, they will be the biggest difference. | PENN STATE 31, NORTHWESTERN 10 RYAN SNYDER 5-0 | The Wildcats have given the Nittany Lions some tough matchups in recent years, but they also haven't seen a Penn State squad this talented in a very long time. I expect the Nits to take care of business on Saturday, despite the early kickoff time. | PENN STATE 45, NORTHWESTERN 23 S T A F F P R E D I C T I O N S

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