Mark Wogenrich of AllPennState discusses why the Nittany Lions' pass rush has been so stout this year.
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00:00 The pass rush, I guess, is the area that I want to focus on here because Ohio State's
00:06 offensive tackles have been, I would say, average this year.
00:10 They certainly haven't been what Ohio State's used to seeing.
00:16 I think Ohio State fans are justifiably concerned with their ability to really run the ball
00:23 well.
00:24 Penn State's defensive line in general has played well, but to your point, the edge rushers
00:28 have been excellent.
00:31 With their ability to really run the ball well, Penn State's defensive line in general
00:37 has played well, but to your point, the edge rushers have been excellent.
00:43 How much have you seen those guys be true game wreckers as opposed to overpowering UMass,
00:54 where you kind of expect that you're a big Power Five team and you're going to control
01:01 the line of scrimmage against a lesser opponent?
01:05 We haven't seen that necessarily.
01:07 I think probably the best comp, at least size-wise, would have been Iowa, but they didn't have
01:13 any of the dynamism that Ohio State can bring in order to attack those elements of Penn
01:20 State's pass rush.
01:23 The game wrecker concept, I think Chop Robinson absolutely is one, and Adisa Isaac has been
01:28 one as well.
01:30 But there's the relentlessness of it with three defensive ends, and they'll play them
01:36 on the field at the same time.
01:38 They've done that a couple times.
01:39 I think it started with the Iowa game, where they played all three of those defensive ends
01:44 on passing, essentially on passing downs, and you'll see Chop Robinson in the middle
01:49 taking on guards, things like that.
01:51 They will move, guys.
01:53 They're comfortable moving those players around, feeling like they have the corners
01:58 who can go into man coverage and protect the ball that way.
02:04 They're comfortable with corner blitzes.
02:07 They've done that a lot.
02:08 They used a retro freshman cornerback last week, had a couple of sacks because they blitzed
02:15 him.
02:16 They're very comfortable with bringing different kinds of pressures as well, not just the defensive
02:21 ends.
02:22 They will use their linebacker, Abdul Carter, in pressure quite a bit.
02:27 And Abdul Carter can be that kind of game-wrecking defensive player too, because he can move
02:33 really, really well.
02:34 He can get into the backfield, but he can also hang in coverage with players too.
02:40 They have a lot of versatility with him.
02:42 I think that's probably the biggest thing I see, is that, again, I've seen three defensive
02:46 end looks from them.
02:48 I've seen four linebacker looks from Penn State, and you'll see them sometimes in dime
02:53 coverage.
02:54 They have a prowler package, they call it, where they'll bring a safety in, and that
02:57 safety can blitz and do a bunch of different things.
03:03 The amazing thing, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but the amazing thing, their
03:06 leading tackler is around 20 tackles on this team.
03:10 They rotate so many players in, and so many players contribute, that I could sit here
03:15 and say, "Chop Robinson is the guy that you want to watch in this game, and he might not
03:21 get a sack.
03:22 It might be somebody entirely different."
03:24 And that, to me, is one of the bigger things with this defense, is just depth-wise, and
03:28 the talent of that depth, being able to really kind of cover each other.