Penn State Football: Inside the defensive numbers for the regular season
How did the Penn State football defense do over the course of the 2017 regular season?
Penn State just wrapped up its second consecutive 10-win regular season. While the Nittany Lions fell short of the expectations for a berth in the College Football Playoff, the season was still very successful. A big part of that success was the play of the defense. Penn State put together a very good statical season on the defensive side of the ball.
Points came at a premium in several games against the Nittany Lions. The defense started the season strong by shutting out Akron and following that up with allowing just 14 points against Pittsburgh. The next week, amid a bit of conntreversy by icing the kicker late in the game, Penn State held Georgia State off the scoreboard.
The Nittany Lions only gave up more than 20 points just three times during the regular season — two of those were road losses to Ohio State and Michigan State. Penn State ended the season by giving up just a field goal at Maryland.
Penn State finished the regular season ranked No. 7 with an average of 15.5 points given up per game. If not for the debacles at Ohio State and Michigan State, and a lot of “garbage time” points allowed against Nebraska, the Nittany Lions would be ranked even higher in scoring defense.
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As far as total defense, the Nittany Lions finished the regular season ranked 20th with 329.3 yards given up per game.
Both of those numbers were improvements from the previous season.
Penn State was stout against the run, coming in at No. 17 in rush defense with an average of 119 rushing yards allowed per game.
The secondary became a problem area for the Nittany Lions as the season went on and opposing quarterbacks started taking advantage. The Nittany Lions finished the regular season ranked 43rd, giving up 210 yards per game through the air.
The Nittany Lions did an excellent job when it came to getting into the opposing backfield and disrupting plays. Penn State averaged seven tackles for loss per game (seventh in the nation) and three sacks per game (eighth).
Overall, despite the hiccups against Ohio State and Michigan State, it was a solid season for the Penn State defense. There will be some big holes to fill next season, but the play of some of the youngsters this season bodes well for the future.