Introduction

Welcome to Part 2 of our in-depth look at Penn State’s defense since the promotion of Brent Pry to Defensive Coordinator in 2016. In Part 1 we analyzed the Nittany Lions’ performance in standard statistical categories and compared those numbers against the rest of the Big Ten over the past 5 seasons (2016 – 2020). The main takeaway was that the “bend, don’t break” reputation that the Penn State defense has earned recently is deserved. Pry’s group tends to give up a fair number of total yards but does an excellent job of preventing teams from scoring and limiting big plays (the low YPP). Additionally, Pry’s teams have been better than average on 3rd down and generating Havoc plays in the form of sacks, tackles for loss, and fumbles. 

Today, we will take a deeper look at the defensive performance in some of the more advanced statistical measurements. Again, all stats herein are only for conference games from 2016-2020. 

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As we crawl closer to the Year 1 finish line of this largely sophomoric/sparsely informative venture, more than one Friend Of The Blog has inquired whether we ever foresee a day when FTB morphs into a legit journalistic entity – you know, with real reporters asking real questions, jotting down real quotes instead of us embedding 1990s Simpsons clips in our stories.  

The answer is an emphatic NO…for a few reasons. 

For starters, our site’s philosophy has always been (and will always be) to complement, not copy, Penn State’s existing beat coverage. Doesn’t make sense to do what dozens of other outlets are doing…and doing better than we ever could. So for traditional Penn State coverage, go to sources like Donnie Collins in Scranton, Audrey Snyder at The Athletic, Ben Jones in State College, and BoFlo, Pickel and discount college t-shirt enthusiast Dave Jones in Harrisburg. They all do an awesome job. 

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