Sunday Column: Well-balanced Defense Prevents Northwestern From Giving Nittany Lions Fitz

Lip reading is an inexact science. But if you looked closely at Pat Fitzgerald during the telecast of Saturday’s game, it sure looked like Northwestern’s head coach was saying, “They’re going to have to play the whole game today” following the Wildcat touchdown that cut the Penn State lead to 14-7 with 2:10 left in the third quarter.

Indeed, the Nittany Lions had not really had to play four quarters of football since the opener at Purdue, having taken care of business early, to varying degrees, against Ohio, Auburn, and Central Michigan. And until a few minutes earlier, just before Jacob Gill’s 47-yard touchdown reception, Penn State appeared to have done enough to put this one to bed on the miserable sort of rainy November afternoon that arrived in State College on the first day of October.

Fitzgerald has made a literal career out of taking under-talented teams and leaving more talented, highly ranked opponents searching for answers, but this particular version of his team, on the heels of losses to Southern Illinois and Miami of Ohio, was not designed for big upsets. And, despite Penn State’s offense providing the Wildcats with numerous opportunities to do so, the Nittany Lion defense ensured there would be no such drama.

Look, offensively, both teams had to be graded on a steep curve Saturday. The rain was relentless, and that moisture and temps in the low 50s made ball control an adventure on every snap, pass, or carry. The final turnover tallies were five for the hosts and three for the visitors.

And yet even on that curve, Penn State’s defense was consistently strong, making Northwestern running back Evan Hull, who had been averaging 181 yards from scrimmage coming in, basically a nonfactor (45 yards rushing, 28 of it on one play, and 32 receiving on 14 touches). They generated consistent pressure on quarterback Ryan Hilinski and managed to play their usual ballhawking defense on the back end of those passes.

The Nittany Lions forced five straight three-and-outs to open the game, and, despite having to defend a concerning number of short fields thanks to those five Penn State giveaways, allowed the Wildcats to cross the Penn State 20 just twice, and denied conversions on three of four fourth-down tries, including a goal-line stand. Yes, the conditions were horrible, and Northwestern receivers and backs dropped the ball quite often. But when they didn’t drop those balls, Manny Diaz’s defenders were almost always in excellent position to make a play, and they almost always made those plays.

Again, this was not a juggernaut Wildcat offense. Northwestern entered the afternoon 13^th in the conference in scoring and ninth in total offense. But Penn State’s defense showed the ability to stuff the run and to be bullish against the pass, traits that will serve it well against a schedule that will only get tougher. And Diaz was able to continue to rotate personnel, getting younger players like Abdul Carter, Kobe King, and Dani Dennis-Sutton valuable reps, which included some mistakes that will be valuable teaching points, while the defense as a unit continued to run smoothly.

This defense is doing it without a lot of, or arguably any, true stars. Ji’Ayir Brown and Chop Robinson have been quietly excellent for most of the season. P.J. Mustipher looks a little healthier each week. Joey Porter’s shutdown skills were rarely needed on Saturday. But that was the most encouraging part of the afternoon—waves of blue shirts swarmed the Northwestern ball carriers or devoured Wildcat offensive linemen. They wore different numbers each time. This is a group that is developing both depth and confidence as the weather begins to turn.

This sort of versatile, stubborn, swarming defense will be needed if Penn State’s offense continues to look as—what’s the word?—out of sorts as it has since returning from Alabama. It would be unreasonable to expect the Nittany Lions to put the ball on the ground that many times in normal weather conditions, but the turnovers were only part of the issue Saturday. The passing game struggled to develop any consistent rhythm, the 2^nd-and-short and 3^rd-and-short conversions were frighteningly difficult against a soft Northwestern defense, and the Nittany Lions, like the Wildcats, converted only four of 15 third downs overall. To make matters worse, a receiving corps that has struggled to find reliable targets beyond Parker Washington and Mitchell Tinsley lost KeAndre Lambert-Smith to injury.

The bye week comes at an opportune time for Penn State, which looked very much like a top 10 team two weeks ago and one that merely aspires to be one since. The offense can spend time on ball security, on cleaning up some of the short-yardage issues, and on simply trying to get back some of the rhythm it had appeared to be building in early September.

The defense, on the other hand, appears to have found and maintained that rhythm. The elements likely won’t be a 12^th man the way they were Saturday, at least not every week, but the rotating group of 11 Penn State has put on the field looks very much like it can hold up just fine moving forward in all sorts of weather.