Penn State has been getting bad injury news for the past three weeks, and that might continue Friday night against Northwestern.
Daryus Dixson, the team’s top cornerback, was listed as questionable on Tuesday night’s Big Ten availability report.
This would be a big blow.
DIXSON’S IMPACT
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Per Pro Football Focus, Dixson has played 131 snaps, 25 behind Audavion Collins for the team lead. He’s allowed just three receptions on eight targets, with the longest one being just 16 yards, and his passer rating against is 8.3 per PFF. Dixson made his biggest play of the season against Wisconsin Saturday, picking off QB Colton Joseph in the second quarter, which led to a touchdown that put Penn State ahead 17-0. Inexplicably, Penn State lost the game, but it was hardly Dixson’s fault. Penn State needs to beat Northwestern, and without Dixson, that task would be much harder.
With the season just a third of the way done, Penn State has already been bitten by the injury bug on both sides of the ball.
Defensively, Max Granville could have become one of the unit’s most dominant players, but suffered a season-ending injury between Week 1 and Week 2.
On offense, Koby Howard was one of America’s best receivers through three weeks, but during the Buffalo game, he got hurt and will miss “an extended period of time.”
Hopefully, that isn’t the case with Dixson.
THE FULL REPORT
Here’s Penn State’s full injury report.
Out: WR Koby Howard, DE Max Granville, DE Lavar Arrington II, TE Cooper Alexander, DE Dayshaun Burnett, CB Joshua Johnson, CB Tyler Armstead, DE Mason Robinson, OL Will Tompkins (season-ending)
Questionable: CB Christian Askew, LB Cam Smith, CB Daryus Dixson, K Cristiano Rosa
Penn State-Northwestern is scheduled for 8 Friday in Evanston. The game will be broadcast on Fox.
