How Penn State football’s defense was able to ‘have fun’ in shutout win over Maryland
Jesse Luketa and the Penn State defense got to enjoy the waning moments of Friday night’s 59-0 win over Maryland. Luketa, Shaka Toney, Fred Hansard and a handful of other defenders danced to Drake’s “Controlla” as it boomed over the loud speakers with 3:52 left in the game. Defensive line coach Sean Spencer even joined in on the fun.
Those kind of celebrations, for Luketa, are what playing football is all about.
“That’s the biggest thing,” the sophomore linebacker said. “We’re having fun. You see it, we’re having fun together. I love my brothers and we love each other. When we’re on the field, we take care of one another. That’s the biggest thing. When you have a team that’s as close as we are, a lot of special things are going to occur.”
He added: “It’s fun because, the way I look at it, you have to love what you do and do what you love. We come into practice with a positive mindset ... We’re gonna work, and we work hard, and when we work hard, we have fun with it.”
The sophomore linebacker was in the game more because starting linebacker Micah Parsons was ejected in the first quarter for targeting. For Luketa, who finished the game tied for second with Yetur Gross-Matos in total tackles with five and just one behind Friday night’s leader Ellis Brooks, it was an easy transition.
“I prepare myself for the worst to happen,” he said. “You never know what’s going to happen. In your preparation you have to prepare as if you’re a starter ... I know (Micah was) hurting because he couldn’t finish the game, but it’s no drop-off for us. We’ve still got to finish and execute and complete what we wanted to do for the week.”
Even with Parsons missing most of the game, the defense had plenty to celebrate. It forced two fumbles, intercepted two passes, and picked up eight tackles for loss. All of those factored into the unit’s first completed shutout since it shut out Georgia State on September 16, 2017 in a 56-0 victory.
For starting linebacker Jan Johnson, the timing of the shutout, in the team’s first conference game of the season, is meaningful.
“It’s a real boost to what we’ve been doing,” he said. “We’ve been working hard and it’s paying off. We just need to continue doing what we’ve done and push into the next week’s game.”
Luketa expects the shutout to help carry momentum, and said it’s the most rewarding accomplishment a defense can achieve. The sophomore linebacker said it helps set the tone for the defense moving forward.
“I feel like going into this week, it’s conference play,” he said. “That’s a different type of feeling, knowing we did what we had to do on the road. We’re excited and we’re hungry. We (got a shutout) once, and it’s (about) what we’re going to do next. Now our schedule is going to be pretty tough. We have Purdue next week and then we have more conference games. It’s going to be exciting and we know what we have to do.”
The shutout was aided in the first quarter by two interception, one of which came when Tariq Castro-Fields picked off Maryland quarterback Josh Jackson at the goal line. Castro-Fields dropped into zone coverage after Jackson took the snap from the Penn State 11-yard line on the 2nd & 10 play. The Penn State cornerback stayed between Maryland running back Javon Leake and tight end Tyler Mabry as Jackson rolled to his right. Castro-Fields dropped closer to Mabry with his eyes trained on Jackson, who was winding up to throw. The junior leapt as the ball came to him, earning the easy turnover and killing the Terps’ momentum with Penn State up 14-0.
Castro-Fields had seen the route combination on the play before, with the tight end running a corner route toward the pylon, and the running back leaking out into the flat for a dump-off.
“That’s a route combination I’ve seen from our offense during camp,” he said. “I knew how to play it. When you can get turnovers in the red zone that’s huge.”
His goal-line interception helped get the shutout momentum going early in the game, but it was the backups who closed the game out for Penn State.
The Nittany Lions relied on backups to maintain the shutout, something they couldn’t do against Idaho when the starters shut out the Vandals’ offense. In that game, the defense gave up a touchdown with 12:35 in the fourth quarter. This time around, the defense held.
For the starters, that was huge.
“It’s a big confidence (boost) for our defense altogether,” Johnson said. “We’re confident that we have other people who can come in and execute. They know the importance of what a shutout means for our defense and the confidence we can take from this game moving forward.”
This story was originally published September 28, 2019 at 2:58 AM.
