The surging Penn State Nittany Lions head to Evanston, Illinois to take on the Northwestern Wildcats in a Big Ten Conference showdown. Since losing to second-ranked Alabama during the second week of the season, the Nittany Lions have reeled off five straight wins to move to 6-1 and sit atop the conference’s Leaders Division (3-0 Big Ten). Granted, many of those victories have not been pretty — outside of a 34-6 win over Eastern Michigan on September 24, the average margin of victory has been just six points. The Nittany Lions are coming off a 23-18 win over Purdue and need to keep racking up wins as they enter a final stretch that will see them face Nebraska, Ohio State and Wisconsin to close the regular season.

Meanwhile, Northwestern enters the weekend trying to avoid a fifth straight loss. This is only the third home game of the year for the Wildcats, who have dropped three of their four road contests so far. Last Saturday, they were dealt a 41-31 setback at Iowa to fall to 0-3 in conference play. Penn State has won 11 of the 14 all-time meetings with NU. The Wildcats’ last victory in the series came back in 2004.

The Wildcats wont be an easy push over but the Lions should be able to stay tight for 2 quarters and then take control by the 4th. Take the Lions in this release.