Penn State Football: the numbers behind the Nittany Lions’ 5-0 start

The Penn State Football defense

Manny Diaz has done a masterful job with the Penn State defense so far.

One statistic that jumps out is the fact that they are tied for ninth in the country in takeaways with 12–just three off the leader which is Coastal Carolina with 15.

The secondary has been as advertised, and the pressure that the Nittany Lions have been able to get on opposing quarterbacks has only helped. Penn State Football is tied for 33rd in the country in sacks with 13. While that’s not an eye-popping number, the pass rush has still been able to get a ton of pressure in the backfield, even when they haven’t quite gotten home.

Sacks is another stat that I said would define success coming into the season. I mentioned that it was an overlooked issue of last year’s squad, as they collected just 27 sacks through 13 games, which ranked 74th in the nation. They’ve essentially already reached the halfway mark of that total from a year ago through just five games–so they’ve taken a much-needed step forward in that department as well.

Defending the run was the Achilles’ heel of the 2021 defense, and they’ve greatly improved in that regard as they are fifth in the country in that category, allowing just 79.6 yards per game on the ground. This also doesn’t come without facing good ground games, as they have already taken on a great running back tandem at Auburn that also had a pair of dual threat quarterbacks, as well as played against the nation’s leading rusher from a year ago in Lew Nichols III from Central Michigan, and they also played against a well-rounded, veteran back in Evan Hull this past week.

Another impressive number is that this defense is 26th in the country in opponents’ third down conversion rate, as they’re allowing the opposition to move the sticks on just 29.9% of third down attempts.

This defense is also among the nation’s best in the red zone, as they’ve allowed just a 66.7% red zone scoring rate, good enough for 11th in the country.

Finally, this defense leads the country in pass breakups by a wide margin.

Combine all these factors, and you’re left with the nation’s 14th best scoring defense, allowing just 14.8 points per game, which is even better than last year’s 17.3 points per game allowed which was already an impressive number.