Penn State Football vs Indiana: 5 Nittany Lions who need to step up

Derrick Tangelo (DT)

Penn State Football’s defense has been excellent so far, but I have said it before, if I am going to nitpick and find a weakness on the defensive side of the ball, it would certainly be stopping the run.

Arguably, defensive tackle is one of the most important positions when is comes to shutting down an opponent’s running game.

Duke transfer Derrick Tangelo has not played bad this year, but he certainly leaves something to be desired for this defense to be elite. Through four games, Tangelo has eight total tackles, two of them being solo tackles, and 1.5 tackles for loss. He did, however, have a key fumble recovery in the Auburn matchup.

For the most part, Tangelo has seemingly been the guy to eat up a lot of blocks up front.

While there is something to be said about that, if he is able to get off blocks and make tackles around the line of scrimmage, it would help this run defense immensely. At the very least, you would like to be able to see him get an arm free to slow down ball carriers until help from the second level gets there.

As great as Penn State Football’s linebackers are in run support, if a defense is constantly relying on the second level to stop the run, then opposing running backs might consistently get at 3-5 yards per carry, as opposed to maybe 1-3 yards if they are getting met around the line of scrimmage by the defensive line.

With all of that being said, Indiana is not that great of a running team, averaging 3.5 yards per carry, but the Nittany Lions not being great against the run might allow them to have some success on the ground.

If Derrick Tangelo and the rest of the defensive line are able to prevent Indiana from having any form of success on the ground, their offense should be completely shut down as they will also struggle to throw the ball against Penn State’s secondary.