Oct. 31, 2009
- Northwestern fell to 5-4 overall (2-3 in the Big Ten). The Wildcats now hit the road for back-to-back games, visiting No. 4 and Big Ten leader Iowa (9-0, 5-0) next Saturday at 11 a.m. CT (ESPN).
- Northwestern fell to 6-2 overall in home games played on Halloween. This was NU's first Halloween home contest since 1992, and just its third since 1936.
- Northwestern gained 246 yards in the first half and 371 for the game. Coming into the game, Penn State was allowing a Big Ten-best 240.2 yards per game. The Wildcats also totaled 119 rushing yards, 40 more yards than Penn State allows.
- Coming into the game, Northwestern led the Big Ten with 77.3 plays per game. The Wildcats ran 80 plays today.
- Walk-on Ricky Weina made his first career start at cornerback (in place of Sherrick McManis, out with a leg injury) making him the 20th different player to start at least one game on the defensive side of the ball. He is also the ninth different player to start in the secondary.
- On NU's first scoring drive, QB Mike Kafka completed passes to six different receivers.
- Before succumbing to a left leg injury, Kafka completed 14-of-18 passes for a 77.8 percent completion rate, marking the third time he has completed over 70 percent of his passes this season. Kafka currently has a .668 completion percentage in 2009. He led the Big Ten in that category at the start of the day.
- Kafka moved into 10th place on NU's career total offense list with 3,870 yards, passing Mike Kerrigan (3,856) and and Darnell Autry (3,793).
- Kafka and QB Dan Persa led Northwestern in rushing with 42 yards apiece. Kafka is NU's leading rusher with 248 yards. He has been responsible for 69.6 percent of NU's offensive yardage this year (2,443 of 3,512).
- Kafka scored NU's first touchdown and leads the Wildcats with six rushing TD's this season. He has nine career rushing scores.
- Kafka's 7-yard touchdown run in the second quarter marked only the second first-half touchdown allowed by Penn State this season.
- Persa set personal single-game career bests for completions (14), attempts (23), passing yards (115), rushing attempts (14) and rushing yards (42).
- Persa's 25-yard gain tied as the longest rush for an NU player this season (Arby Fields had a 25-yard run vs. Syracuse).
- Eleven different NU receivers caught passes today, the most in a game this season.
- WR Zeke Markshausen, who led Northwestern with nine receptions today, was one catch shy of nabbing at least 10 passes in three of the last five games. He has 49 catches in five Big Ten contests (9.8 per game). Markshausen now leads NU with 67 receptions and 613 yards. His 67 receptions ranks seventh on NU's single-season list. (Lee Gissedander had 68 catches in 1992, and D'Wayne Bates had 75 receptions in 1996). NU's single-season record for receptions is 94, set by Richard Buchanan in 1989.
- DE Corey Wooten moved into a tie for fifth place with three other players for career TFL's (34).
- LB Nate Williams and LB Quentin Davie led NU with seven tackles each. Williams has led or shared the team lead in tackles four times this season, while Davie has led NU three times in 2009.
- LB David Arnold's six tackles (all solos) are a personal single-game best.
- K Stefan Demos is now 13-of-15 (.867) on field goal tries for the season and his career. His 45-yarder in the second quarter is the third-longest of his career. Both of Demos' misses this season were blocked.
- Demos' first career pass attempt was a 9-yard completion (off a muffed punt attempt) to SB Mark Woodsum, his second catch of the season.