Penn State Football: biggest surprises from the first five games of the 2022 season

The defense could be even better than last year’s

After losing many key members from last year’s defense–including defensive coordinator Brent Pry–fans were uncertain of what to expect out of the 2022 Penn State Football defense.

Well, it looks to be as good, if not better than it was a year ago.

Last year’s defense was one of the best scoring defenses in the country, allowing just 17.3 points per game. So far this year, the Nittany Lions are allowing just 14.8 points per game. Of course, they haven’t faced some of the better offenses on their schedule, but I would imagine when this season comes to a close, that mark won’t be too far off of last year’s.

The biggest weakness of last year’s defense was their inability to defend the run. That’s changed in a big way though, as the Nittany Lions are fifth in the country in that department allowing less than 80 yards per game on the ground.

Another weakness last year was the pass rush, aside from Arnold Ebiketie of course. They accumulated just 27 sacks in 13 games last season, but this year they have 13 sacks through just five games–so they’re on pace to comfortably surpass last year’s sack total.

The linebacking corps may have regressed a little from last year; and they started slow, but they’ve been playing better. The secondary seems just as good, and perhaps even better than last year despite losing Jaquan Brisker and Tariq Castro-Fields. Finally up front, the Nittany Lions are far deeper and more talented than in 2021, and that’s a unit that can give them a chance in every single game.