Penn State defense looking for rebound, affirmation against potent Buckeyes
Oct. 29—A year ago, fresh off a knee surgery that ended his 2021 season and delayed his NFL plans for a year, PJ Mustipher sat in a hotel on Penn State's campus and watched his underdog teammates battle Ohio State.
Injuries are difficult to deal with, Mustipher knows. Watching the biggest game of the season from a state away, while teammates wring themselves through what has become an annual measuring stick for the Nittany Lions? Turns out, that's just as hard.
Mustipher will take one final shot at the vaunted Big Ten juggernaut Saturday when No. 13 Penn State hosts the No. 2 Buckeyes at noon at Beaver Stadium. With a win, the Nittany Lions would throw their helmet back in the Big Ten championship race — not to mention the national spotlight — with vigor.
They're also two-touchdown underdogs facing a Buckeyes offense that might be one of the most potent of the last decade in college football.
"They're a team that's never off schedule," Mustipher said. "They run the ball when they want to run the ball. They throw the ball when they want to throw the ball. And they get a good chunk of yards. At any time, they can have an explosive play. They do a phenomenal job of executing what they want to execute on each and every down. That's definitely a challenge for the defense, because when you get in those situations when it's third-and-short or third-and-medium, you don't know if it's a run or a pass."
Their star quarterback, C.J. Stroud, might be the Heisman Trophy favorite. They have one All-American, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, at receiver, and another, Marvin Harrison Jr., appears on track to earn that honor, too. Their offensive line is loaded with five-star prospects, and both their running backs — bruiser Miyan Williams and sophomore speedster TreVeyon Williams — combine to average 6.4 yards per carry.
The Buckeyes rank among the top five teams in the nation in scoring offense, explosive play percentage and total offense. They've scored at least 45 points in every game except their season-opening win over Notre Dame on Sept. 3. Their average margin of victory in four Big Ten wins against Wisconsin, Rutgers, Michigan State and Iowa is 35.8 points per game.
The Nittany Lions' defensive strengths is a secondary that has helped hold opponents to less than 220 passing yards in four of seven games and more than one passing touchdown just once all season, against Central Michigan. That said, Penn State still has to come up with some ways to make timely plays against head coach Ryan Day's intricate attack.
"His passing concepts are unique. They're very difficult to defend," cornerbacks coach Terry Smith said. "It's not so much a man-to-man matchup as opposed to, he's putting three, four, five receivers out, and you have an elite quarterback to deliver it. So you're not just defending Marvin Harrison or their group of receivers. You are defending Ryan Day. You're defending the quarterback, as well.
"We're just going to study their habits, watch their tendencies. When we can peg one and go like, 'Oh, man, this is what they're going to do on this particular play,' those are the ones we've got to take advantage of and make a play."
Two weeks after a blowout loss at Michigan in which the defense allowed 418 rushing yards, Penn State players say they believe they built momentum in a thorough drubbing of Minnesota last week. That game, Mustipher insisted, showed more of what they are, and what they can be. Their first win against Ohio State since 2016 would go a long way toward demonstrating that.
"If we can just be ourselves, we can be dominant," linebacker Curtis Jacobs said. "We can play with anybody in the country."
On Saturday, they'll have a chance to prove it.
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