Penn State Football: Examining Nittany Lions’ biggest strengths, weaknesses in 2022
By Nick Kreiser
Penn State Football’s biggest weakness – Pass rush
The caveat to the Nittany Lions being great in pass coverage, is that their pass rush might just be their biggest weakness in 2022.
Arnold Ebiketie was a force in the pass rushing department last season, recording 9.5 sacks on the year, the third best mark in the conference. However, the defense as a whole accumulated just 27 sacks in 13 games, tied for 74th in the country in that category.
Additionally, 15 of those 27 total sacks were recorded by individuals no longer on the Penn State Football team.
So, who do the Nittany Lions turn to, to be able to apply pressure on opposing quarterbacks?
Well, Penn State’s most productive pass rusher just might be a young phenom who is not even on campus yet, Dani Dennis-Sutton.
As great as Dennis-Sutton is, having to rely on a true freshman, who wasn’t even able to enroll early and get a head start on development, to be your primary pass rusher, isn’t necessarily an ideal situation.
Aside from the five-star freshman, the Nittany Lions will primarily look to get pressure from defensive ends Nick Tarburton, Smith Vilbert, and Zuriah Fisher, none of which have proven yet that they can be dominant pass rushers at the Power 5 level.
Adisa Issac also returns at defensive end after missing all of 2021 with an injury, but how well will he be able to perform after missing an entire season?
PJ Mustipher is the Nittany Lions’ best defensive tackle, but he is more suited to be a run-stuffing nose tackle than a dominant interior pass rusher.
Linebacker Curtis Jacobs did have three sacks from the SAM position last year, and moving him in to play a box linebacker position will allow him to have more opportunities to rush the quarterback, whenever Manny Diaz decides to dial up a blitz.
As of this moment, there is not much reason to believe that the Nittany Lions’ pass rush won’t be the team’s biggest weakness in the upcoming campaign.
It will be interesting to see how the defense as a whole looks in terms of defending the pass, combining great coverage with a poor pass rush.
On one hand, great coverage can provide more time for pass rushers to get to the quarterback, but on the other hand, a poor pass rush will force the secondary to have to cover receivers and tight ends for a longer period of time.
Which will prevail as the stronger force, the negative force of an inadequate pass rush, or the positive force of great pass coverage? Whichever force wins that metaphorical tug-of-war will ultimately decide how well the Nittany Lions will defend great passing attacks in 2022.