Penn State Football: Defensive line creating exciting pass rush
Brent Pry creates havoc with so many options. Penn State football comes after quarterbacks from so many angles that it’s hard to pinpoint who to block.
Shareef Miller, Shaka Toney, Curtis Cothran, Ryan Buchholz, Robert Windsor, the names go on and on when it comes to a talented defensive line. Penn State football just knows how to apply pressure in whatever way possible. An improved secondary helped expedite the improvements, but these guys are relentless.
Miller started the whole widespread pass rush movement after losing Evan Schwan and Garrett Sickels. Those two led the team in sacks and made most of the plays up front. Facing low production on the outside, Miller became a force in just his sophomore season. His rangy, 6-foot-5, 255-pound frame and lightning quick speed aid him in getting around the edge.
In a short amount of time he’s risen to star status recording seven tackles for loss, three sacks. Although he’s the ringleader of pass rush, youngster Shaka Toney has made great strides in his freshman year. He came up with one big game against Northwestern recording two of his 2.5 sacks this season against the Wildcats (Video Courtesy of Nittany Nation).
These two underclassmen lead the speedy pass rushers on the team, but there’s plenty of space eaters that help the team produce as well. Even with the team using more athletic players up front, the defense has stout stoppers in the run game. Right now, the defense allows just 285.2 yards per game.
In addition to Miller and Toney, Windsor, Buchholz, Cothran, Parker Cothren, etcetera can handle opposing run games. The bulkier part of the defensive line helps get push up front and forces offenses to reroute the run game. None of them have high production, but the group has combined for 51 tackles to go along with the pass rushers on the outside.
The lineup doesn’t wow anyone because none of the guys really standout as a singular dominant presence. However, the D-Line continues to create pressure. A lot of it has to do with the rotation. Pry likes to rotate multiple players in and it has clearly worked. The line swarms to the backfield and has forced many poor decisions because they’re fresh.
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Although the team has played like this for one half of the season, it’ll be interesting to see if they can continue to produce the rest of the way.