Penn State defense smothers Rutgers for best showing of season so far

Facing fourth-and-1 on its first drive of the game on Saturday, Rutgers turned to Johnny Langan, its bulldozer disguised as a quarterback, who thrives on turning that type of situation into a fresh set of downs.

It was an early chance for the Scarlet Knights to grab the momentum after stopping Penn State on a fourth down try on its first offensive series, and maybe even come away with points.

Instead, Rutgers’ bulldozer came out on the losing end of a collision with a brick wall. Langan went nowhere, and neither did the Rutgers offense for most of the day in a 23-7 Penn State win.

“Our defense played very, very well two weeks in a row, especially in short yardage situations,” Penn State coach James Franklin said.

“That offense had been pretty much able to move the ball and score points on everybody, and our defense was able to play at a really, really high level. Even when we turned the ball over on our side of the field, our defense stepped up in sudden change situations and played extremely well.”

Boosted by that early stop — the first of three fourth down stops on the day — Penn State’s defense turned in its best performance of the season.

The seven points allowed by Penn State were the fewest since allowing just six in a win over the Scarlet Knights in November of last season.

Slogging its way to just 205 yards of total offense, the Rutgers attack had the worst total output against the Penn State defense since Purdue managed just 105 yards of offense in an early October game last season.

Perhaps most significantly, it could signal the start of a trend in the right direction for Penn State, which has now held its opponent to under 300 yards in two straight weeks after holding Michigan to 286 yards last Saturday. In fact, the Nittany Lions have done that in three of their last four games, after doing so just four times all of last season.

The conditions helped to box Rutgers in. Wind gusts made throwing the ball downfield an exercise in futility for both teams.

With the game in front of them, Penn State was sure it would win most of its one-on-one battles.

“It’s fun to us,” Penn State corner Joey Porter Jr. said. “Because if we can’t get our work in the passing game, then we’re going to get our work in the running game. We’ve just got to put our hard hats on and be physical. Some people think that us corners aren’t physical enough, so we’re trying to show them that we’re just as physical as everybody else.”

For the most part, they succeeded. Penn State’s defensive backs combined for 18 tackles, with Porter Jr. contributing seven of his own.

Against a Rutgers offense that aims for deception with motion and other pre-snap tactics, Franklin said Penn State’s defensive strategy was to leave the inside runs to the players in the box. He was confident that the rest of Penn State’s defense could handle everything else, and players like Porter Jr. didn’t let him down.

Had it not been for an offense that turned the ball over twice, and a bizarre fourth-down jump ball that Rutgers wideout Bo Melton managed to corral in the end zone, Penn State’s defense might have pitched a shutout.

Instead, the Nittany Lions will settle for seven, lauding the improvements that they demonstrated in the process.

“I just think we’ve gotten back to playing how we’ve played for six years, which is to limit explosive plays, making people earn it, run to the ball, gang tackle, the basic fundamentals of defense, which we’ve done a pretty good job of here for a long time,” Franklin said.

“I think a lot of it deals with our defensive line and our front, being explosive and being able to handle the run or get penetration. I still think we can be a little bit better when it comes to pressuring the quarterback and sacks, but overall it’s hard to argue with what we’ve done the last two weeks.”

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