Penn State Football 2021: Keys to success on defense

Last season, the Penn State football defense as a whole was not much to blame for their slow start, and losing record. This season, the Nittany Lions return a lot of production on defense, especially in the second and third levels.

In 2020, Penn State football was sixth in the conference in points allowed per game, and third in yards allowed per game. The Nittany Lions gave up 38 points against Ohio State, who was able to score 49 points against Clemson in the College Football Playoff.

There were two games (Iowa and Michigan) in which the Nittany Lions did not allow a passing touchdown, and two others (Rutgers and Michigan State) where they did not allow a rushing touchdown.

There are a lot of things this defense would like to replicate from a season ago, as well as some things that they need to clean up.

Lets take a look at three keys for this Penn State defense in 2021, as well as three key players.

Penn State Football Key No. 1 – Stopping the Run

Excluding three outlier games last season (Indiana, Rutgers, and Michigan State), the Penn State Football defense allowed 163 rushing yards per game last season.

Two of those three outlier games were against teams that were not very good, so that partially explains the drop in yardage in those matchups. Indiana being the one exception, the Nittany Lions did still allow three rushing touchdowns against the Hoosiers in that game.

This Penn State Football team will need their defensive line to get off blocks, and for the linebackers to play fast and fill the running lanes effectively.

Penn State’s secondary should be great, so when a play is covered downfield, defensive ends and linebackers need to do a good job of not letting the quarterback scramble for positive yardage.

If they can stuff the run at the line of scrimmage consistently and force opposing offenses into passing downs, their secondary can take over.