It’s hard to narrow down what’s been the most disappointing part of Penn State’s 0-4 start to Big Ten play under Matt Campbell, but at least on the defensive side of the ball, it’s probably the pass rush. Penn State ranks No. 112 in the country by sacks per game and doesn’t have a player with a pass-rush win rate over 12%.
There are 23 players in the Big Ten with 15 or more QB pressures this year. Penn State doesn’t have a single one. Its sack leader, off-ball linebacker Tony Rojas, has five sacks on eight QB pressures, almost an unsustainably high rate of converting pressure into a sack, so from that vantage point, it could get even worse.
It wouldn’t take a bye week to recognize that Penn State’s pass rush is a problem, but with the opportunity to self-scout, defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn sounds like he’s ready to start cranking up the pressure, trusting a secondary that has talent, and seeing if he can manufacture more advantageous matchups for his underwhelming defensive front.
“We need to rush better up front, we need to do a better job putting guys in position to do that. We do have some inside backers and some DBs who can blitz,” Lynn told reporters on Tuesday, “finding a way to get more of those guys involved.”
It’s the right idea from a DC who blitzed at a 37.8% rate at USC last season and who blitzed Buffalo on 74.1% of its dropbacks in Week 3 and Northwestern on 52.9% of its dropbacks a few weeks later. But this may not be the week for it, with a Purdue offense that shreds the blitz coming to town.
Ryan Browne and Purdue are begging Penn State to blitz
This season, Purdue QB Ryan Brown has been blitzed on 33.2% of his dropbacks, with ranks No. 126 in the country among qualified quarterbacks. When blitzed, he’s been absolutely nails, ranking No. 29 among that same 167-QB sample in yards per dropback, and has been sacked just four times.
Ryan Browne | Blitzed dropbacks | Unblitzed dropbacks |
|---|---|---|
Comp% | 66.2% | 64.1% |
YPA | 9.2 | 7.6 |
TD/INT | 6/0 | 4/3 |
Rating | 121.6 | 87.9 |
Time to throw | 2.38 sec | 3.03 sec |
The Boilermakers run a super-spread, RPO-heavy offense that makes it incredibly difficult to bring extra bodies, and even harder to disguise it when you are. If you’re bringing heat, Browne will recognize it, and he’ll burn you for it.
Penn State is a 6.5-point favorite at home vs. Purdue in Week 9, but to get Matt Campbell's first Big Ten win, the offense is gonna have to score some points.
— Josh Yourish (@JYourish3) October 28, 2026
I broke down why Purdue's offense will be a tough matchup for D'Anton Lynn's defense pic.twitter.com/NV9RRU0J0F
It’s why Browne hasn’t been blitzed at greater than a 30% rate since facing Notre Dame in Week 4, and why over the last two games heading into Purdue’s Week 8 bye, he's been blitzed on just 11 of his 73 dropbacks and still managed 99 yards and a touchdown on those plays.
Penn State’s reshuffled spine will be tested right away
The only plays that Minnesota and Washington, Purdue’s last two opponents, technically brought more than four rushers were on RPOs, and a few of those times, those second-level players were fitting the run.
Purdue spreads defenses out and attacks the linebackers and safeties in the middle of the field and forces them to make tackles in space. That hasn’t been a problem for Penn State at all this year (he writes with clenched teeth as visions of Northwestern and USC running wild as Kooper Ebel and Jeremiah Cooper tackle air flash through his mind).
Ebel doesn’t have the sideline-to-sideline speed to match up with this offense. So, Lynn may have to throw former safety Marcus Neal Jr., who was moved to linebacker during the bye week, into the deep end with former nickel Zion Tracy playing the majority of snaps at safety, and hope the communication is clean enough not to have coverage busts left and right. It’s either that or risk getting outleveraged all day because you don’t have enough speed on the field.
Meanwhile, Lynn’s ability to bring pressure, or even to bluff it if he does give Neal a significant number of snaps at a new position, could be compromised. The panacea for stopping any offensive scheme: getting pressure with four, and defenses that have done that have stopped Purdue. Penn State can’t, and it can’t bring pressure, either. So, to get Big Ten win No. 1, Rocco Becht and the Penn State offense may have to carry the Nittany Lions home.
Let’s just hope Koby Howard is healthy.
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