No seniors among that group, either.
TOTAL SACKS LEADERS
1 Penn State 34.0
2 Michigan 29.0
3 Iowa 28.0
4 Ohio State 27.0
TOTAL SACKS LEADERS
1 Penn State 34.0
2 Michigan 29.0
3 Iowa 28.0
4 Ohio State 27.0
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Penn State once again leads Big Ten in sacks....
- Thread starter Judge Smails
- Start date
Obviously the last few games have bolstered the total immensely, but it is still somewhat surprising considering the early-season struggles. I remember how the D had difficulty "getting home" even with a plethora of blitzes; the improvement has been significant, inclusive of the 4th quarter against Wisconsin.
And if our young LB talent (Parsons, Brown, Brooks) develops for 2019, as well as the development (and health) of DT depth behind Givens and Windsor (Hansard, Mustopher, Jordon, Shelton,..) our D could make a big leap in performance in 2019....
I think the improved play of our defense can be mostly credited to the development along the defensive line. A majority of our sacks come from our front four. This allows us to gain a pass rush without having to over commit with blitzing and given our back 7 more help in pass coverage.
Sacks per plays allowed would be more meaningful.
Is it just me or was anyone else surprised at this? I didn't think we were anywhere close to that many sacks.
Gattis was a HUGE loss during the off season.
IMO, Sean Spencer is the current assistant that we need to keep at PSU for a very long time.
IMO, Sean Spencer is the current assistant that we need to keep at PSU for a very long time.
Sacks
DE YGM 8
DT Windsor 5.5
DE Miller 6
DE Toney 5
DE Oweh 2
DT Givens 1
DE Joseph 1
28.5 of the 34 sacks are from the DL.
While yes, Pry has been known to blitz a lot, in the last 4 games (what I would consider the best stretch our defense has played) we have accumulated 15 sacks. All 15 have come from our defensive line. Yes, I'm sure sending an extra blitzer (or 2) would have an effect on a defensive lineman reaching the QB, but that number is quite staggering from a production standpoint.
At the end of games (IN, IA, WI), while we have the lead, we have been able to lean on our DL to get pressure on the QB without having to rely too heavily on blitzing. I'm more so pointing at the 4th quarter recently, rather than the entire game.
My apologies, I should have provided more context to my previous post. Let's hope Miller sticks around for another year and we can have a guy or 2 step up behind Windsor/Givens.
He didn't say that our blitzers -- or blitzes -- are successful. (assuming that getting sacks in the measure of success for a blitz).
Amazing statistic when you consider that our conference opponents are rarely called for offensive holding penalties against us. My case in point is that I was at the Iowa game and I do not believe they had a holding call the entire game. I watched the Purdue vs Iowa game the next week and Iowa had 2 holding calls in one series.
I get the sense that many of our sacks have occurred when the QB could not find a receiver. Credit to the defensive backs and their coaching.
Fire Pry! Imagine what it would be if our linebackers were able to contribute instead of being blitzed from the parking lot or if Parsons knew which direction to run.
That's kind of odd, that 34 would be so good, since we all remember Hack getting sacked like 44 times his last year. Have I got that right?"Penn State Doesn't blitz"
FWIW.... PSU may be close to "done" for the year wrt sacks.
RU is probably gonna' go into a shell and just try to not get beat by 50.... and UMd may have the conferences best run game - and no pass game at all - so they will try to pound PSU all day. (Of course, you never know for sure).
But "mid-30s" for sacks is a damn nice year. If they manage to get it up to clse to 40, I'd guess that would be one of PSU's best marks ever (maybe about where they were when Nassib had his huge year)
Fans better enjoy his next ~15 games because this kid has first rounder written all over him.
Would be interesting to see a Big (2)(12) chart comparing the number of sacks to the number of defensive plays, percentage-wise.
I remember saying Sean Spencer is a better coach than Larry Johnson and this board railed at me when we first hired Spencer. I was right. Y’all suck
