Penn State's humiliating loss to Northwestern shows Mat Campbell's rebuild of Nittany Lions has long way to go

Coming off a loss to Wisconsin at home in Week 4, a road trip to Northwestern seemed like a good bounce-back opportunity for Matt Campbell and Penn State as they rolled into Evanston, Illinois. Instead, the Nittany Lions suffered a humiliating 34-13 loss as the Wildcats ran all over them. In the debut of a new Ryan Field, Northwestern jumped out to a 10-0 lead, and it was in full control for the vast majority of the game.

Going into the fourth quarter, the Wildcats led 31-7 as they cruised to a 21-point victory. It's not every day that Penn State suffers such lopsided losses to unranked teams. In fact, it's rarely happened in the 21st century.

Here are some of the details on the Nittany Lions' humbling defeat: For the most part, the only comparable performances for Penn State came during the probation era, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. That isn't the kind of start Campbell was hoping for when he took over in Happy Valley, and he's already wasting a favorable schedule for the Nittany Lions. Penn State's defense allowed just 93 passing yards, but the catch there is that Northwestern had no need to throw the ball.

The Wildcats gashed the Nittany Lions with one big run after another -- totaling 413 rushing yards with an average of 7.5 yards per attempt. On the flip side, Penn State's ground game got zero traction. The Nittany Lions ran for 48 yards on 22 attempts with a long run of just 10 yards.

That domination on the ground allowed Northwestern to play keep away from the Penn State offense all night. The Wildcats possessed the ball for 36:05 -- compared to just 23:55 for the Nittany Lions. When the Big Ten schedules were first released, it seemed as though Penn State could be penciled in for nine wins and status as a College Football Playoff dark horse, despite all the turnover of the roster and the coaching staff.

That's because, by Big Ten standards, the Nittany Lions got off easily. They avoided Ohio State, Indiana or Oregon, and the conference road games were against Northwestern, Michigan, Washington and Maryland. It didn't look too daunting, presuming some level of stability with Campbell bringing Rocco Becht and a large swath of the Iowa State roster with him, Penn State was poised to do some damage in Campbell's first year on the job.