Penn State Football: Grading the Nittany Lions vs. Iowa

It wasn’t much different than the norm Saturday night for the Nittany Lions’ front seven. This front seven may just be the best in the country, and they proved that once again at Kinnick Stadium.

The Penn State defense held Iowa to 70 rushing yards on 30 carries, good for only 2.3 yards per carry. Additionally, Penn State had two sacks as a team, seven tackles for loss, and five quarterback hurries.

The most important play for this unit came on what was the first turnover of the game, where P.J Mustipher forced Iowa’s Tyler Goodson to fumble. Jan Johnson recovered it, and eventually set up a Nittany Lion field goal.

For the defensive line, defensive tackle Robert Windsor had one of the best games of his career as he had a sack and a half and two and a half tackles for loss total. He also had six tackles, and two quarterback hurries in the game. The other half sack came by defensive end Shaka Toney. Toney also had a quarterback hurry.

P.J Mustipher tied for the team lead in tackles with seven, and also had a tackle for loss. Defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos had five total tackles, including a tackle for loss. Defensive tackle Antonio Shelton had a quarterback hurry, and defensive tackle Fred Hansard had a quarterback hurry.

In terms of the linebackers, Micah Parsons had four tackles and a quarterback hurry. Cam Brown had four tackles, a half tackle for loss and a pass defended. Ellis Brooks also chipped into the effort with four tackles.

This unit has continued to make Brent Pry’s job easy. There’s so much talent and speed on both the defensive line and linebacker units, that there might not be a single team who even remotely succeeds at running the football against Penn State all season.