Penn State Football: an overlooked aspect that the Nittany Lions need to improve upon

Recently, there have been three primary areas of complaint about Penn State Football amongst the fanbase; coaching, quarterback play, and offensive line play. Although those are all fair, and all must improve, there is another aspect of the game that held the Nittany Lions back in 2021 – and a rather important one at that.

I’m talking about the ability to rush the passer effectively.

Last season, Penn State ranked 74th in the country with just 27 total sacks on the year over the course of a 13-game season. That’s not going to get it done.

Far too often last year, opposing quarterbacks had entirely too much time in a clean pocket, so despite the Nittany Lions having one the best secondaries in America, teams with good passing attacks were able to move the ball through the air easier than they should have been able to against a great secondary.

Outside of Arnold Ebiketie – who led the way with 9.5 sacks – the pass rush was virtually non-existent in 2021.

Penn State averaged just 2.1 sacks per game a year ago. Interestingly enough, they actually averaged more sacks in losses (2.3) than in wins (1.7). So when they won, they won in spite of a poor pass rush, not as a result of a good one.

They also averaged just 2.0 QB hurries per game last season – 2.4 hurries per game in wins and 1.5 per game in losses.

Neither of those two categories – sacks or QB hurries – is going to get it done if Penn State Football is to return to reaching double-digit wins and contending for a conference championship.

For some context, in 2019 (the last time Penn State had double-digit wins) the Nittany Lions averaged 3.2 sacks per game – more than one sack per game better than in 2021. They were 10th in the country in that category in 2019.

In two of their losses last year (Ohio State and Michigan State), the Nittany Lions had zero sacks. Plus, in two more of their losses (Michigan and Arkansas), they had zero QB hurries.

To give a quarterback like CJ Stroud all the time in the world, especially when he’s throwing to the elite receivers that he has at his disposal, is a recipe for disaster.

They also had zero sacks in one of their wins (Auburn) and zero QB hurries in another one of their wins (Maryland). Again, they were winning, but it was in spite of a sub-par pass rush.

Quite honestly, it’s impressive that the Nittany Lions were one of the nation’s top scoring defenses in 2021, even without a good pass rush. That just speaks volumes to how excellent many other facets of the defense were, namely pass coverage.

With over half of last season’s sack production no longer on the roster (most of which was Ebiketie), Penn State Football needs multiple people to step up and become effective pass rushers. If not, it could be a long season for the pass defense, regardless of how great the secondary is projected to be.

Penn State’s returning leaders in sacks are Curtis Jacobs and Smith Vilbert each with three; Coziah Izzard with two; and Nick Tarburton, PJ Mustipher, and Daequan Hardy with one apiece.

It should also be noted that Demeioun Robinson had a pair of sacks for Maryland last year, and Adisa Isaac had 1.5 when he last played in 2020. Hopefully the two of them can stay healthy and play close to what their ceiling is, because the Nittany Lions will certainly need it.

Highly touted recruit Dani Dennis-Sutton also joins the mix, and Penn State will need him to step up and contribute right away.

Some good news, however, is that the hiring of Manny Diaz could help bolster the pass rush, as he features a more aggressive approach with many exotic fronts and blitzes.

Ultimately, through a combination of scheme and player execution, the Nittany Lions need to find a way to get more pressure on opposing quarterbacks in 2022 if this defense hopes to do its part in getting Penn State Football back to where they belong.