Penn State’s defensive line hopes historic day at Indiana carries over vs. Maryland

James Franklin sat down in the Beaver Stadium media room and went through what seemed like a typical opening statement Tuesday. He thanked reporters for being present, both in State College and on Zoom. He assessed the Indiana game through the lens of the turnover battle, the explosive play battle, the usuals. Then, he got to naming players of the game on offense, defense and special teams.

Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton were the offensive players of the game after rushing for 161 yards and four touchdowns. Fair enough. On special teams, it was kicker Jake Pinegar. As for the defense?

“We went with the defensive line,” Franklin said, before rattling off every contributor by name.

Coziah Izzard. Hakeem Beamon. Zane Durant. Dvon Ellies. PJ Mustipher. Nick Tarburton. Adisa Isaac. Amin Vanover. Chop Robinson. Dani Dennis-Sutton.

At first, it seemed like a bit much. But Franklin had his reasons.

“Obviously, when you break the all-time tackles for loss record at Penn State, it’s hard not to make sure you give those guys some love there,” the coach said. “They earned it and deserve it.”

Technically, Penn State’s 16 tackles for loss at Indiana didn’t break the program’s single-game record. It tied the mark Odafe Oweh, Yetur Gross-Matos and the Nittany Lions set against Kent State in 2018. However, 11 players recording a TFL was the most in a game for Penn State since TFLs became an official stat.

In that sense, it was a historic performance at Indiana. And frankly, it was one the Nittany Lions wanted, if not needed, after their showing against Ohio State the week prior.

In the 44-31 loss to the Buckeyes, quarterback CJ Stroud was rarely under duress. The Nittany Lions generated a couple sacks. But for the most part, they failed to get home with four rushers, and Stroud was effective against the blitz. Seven of his nine passes of 15-plus yards came when Penn State sent extra rushers.

The Nittany Lions had to have a palate-cleansing performance up front.

“There were certain things we made mistakes (against Ohio State) that didn’t necessarily help us,” defensive tackle Ellies said Wednesday. “We took it, learned from it, moved on and built on it.”

That was evident against Indiana. The Hoosiers, one of the worst pass-blocking teams in the country, were clearly overmatched. But it still says something about Penn State’s defensive line that not only did it bounce back with six sacks, but so many players contributed to the dominant effort.

It wasn’t just Robinson, one of the top pass rushers in the country, getting after it. Ellies and Izzard, second-team defensive tackles who made nice plays against the Buckeyes, each logged a sack. Isaac had a sack. Tarburton had two TFLs. Beamon had one TFL. And Dennis-Sutton, a true freshman, had a tip-drill interception.

This was a collective effort, one that could propel Penn State’s front four as it gets ready to face Maryland. The Terrapins have quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, one of the most accurate passers in the country (69.9%, 11th nationally), who had plenty of time to hit his receivers the last time he was at Beaver Stadium in 2020. Maryland also just allowed five sacks in a loss to Wisconsin last Saturday.

Whether the Terrapins can protect Tagovailoa — and whether the Nittany Lions can build on their disruptive day at Indiana — will go a long way in deciding who wins this weekend.

“I believe that performance (at Indiana) was a culmination of all the hard work that we’ve been putting in, all the efforts that we put forth,” Ellies said. “The little frustrations we had from the week before, it all just came out. We performed and we executed well. You’re just seeing the results. It was really good for us.”

Said Isaac: “It’s always like a domino effect. We’re a tight group in that defensive unit. Any time one of our brothers makes a play, that just fuels the rest of us to go get it.”