No. 11 Penn State escapes the Week 5 matchup at home with a 17-7 win over Northwestern in a weather-induced soaked field that gave senior Sean Clifford one of the worst performances in his collegiate career.

Clifford finished the game completing 10-of-20 passes for 140 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception, and a QBR of 37. In his 42 previous games played for Penn State, Clifford has 10 games where he threw for under 140 yards, but only three of them were games where he had 20 or more passing attempts.

After the game, Franklin confirmed the outing was not up to Clifford’s standard. While the head coach is not going to let the weather be an excuse, Franklin still felt Clifford’s job as a runner and lead the offense were solid.

 

There were 8 total turnovers in the game, with 5 coming from Penn State.

Despite the troubles passing the ball, Penn State head coach James Franklin said he and offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich never considered switching out Clifford for Drew Allar.

We’ll see how Clifford looks in his next game. Penn State will definitely need him to be at his best when going up against the best teams the B1G East has to offer.