Penn State Football: 2017 position grades vs Ohio State
Defensive Line
Much like the rest of the grades this one felt like a tale of two halves. The D-Line attacked and unloaded on Ohio State’s offense during the first half. Shareef Miller flooded the backfield with his No. 48 jersey. After the first 30 minutes, Miller and the rest of the front four fell silent.
After such a decent start to the year, the Buckeyes exploited the young line and dominated with Barrett, Dobbins and Weber. The line had some question marks entering the season, and for the most part, they answered them. It’s a lot to ask a defensive line to stop Ohio State’s offense, but I know most people expected them to contain the Bucks’ attack. They didn’t
The defensive line racked up some nice numbers overall, but a lot of it came in the first half. Miller led the way with five tackles and a sack. As a sophomore, he’s morphed into the team’s best pass rusher, but he needs help.
Curtis Cothran added a second sack as well and Shaka Toney added two tackles and some pressure. It’s quite obvious from the lack of production that the D-Line didn’t cause much chaos in the backfield.