Penn State football’s defense struggles to slow down Illinois’ rushing attack in loss
Missing defensive tackle PJ Mustipher and sustaining multiple blows to the rest of its defensive line, Penn State’s defense was carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey by Illinois’ rushing attack in a 20-18 nine-overtime loss on Saturday.
Illinois running back Chase Brown had 33 carries for 223 yards (6.8 yards per carry) and a touchdown against the Nittany Lions defense. His backup, Josh McCray, added 24 carries for 142 yards (5.9 yards per carry). As a whole, the Fighting Illini had 67 carries for 357 yards and a touchdown, averaging 5.3 yards a carry.
Much of it came down to Penn State not being able to make the tackles. As soon as either of the two running backs breached the defensive line, they routinely broke the tackles of linebackers and defensive backs, which is uncharacteristic of Penn State’s rush defense.
“I guess [it’s] just us not wrapping up as a defense and not playing how we usually play,” senior safety Jaquan Brisker said.
One thing that Illinois has done this season is bring on an extra offensive tackle to the play side of the run. Not only did the Illini do that this game, but they added two extra tackles to beat an already weakened Penn State defensive line. Illinois often used the package to disguise where it’d run the ball and use misdirection runs to gash Penn State’s defensive front.
Defensive end Nick Tarburton said he knew that game plan would be coming, but it still didn’t make it any easier to stop at first. The redshirt junior finished with two tackles (one solo) on the game.
“They have a tackle over deal that we kind of game planned for, but they actually ended up having a whole other tackle in a set they had,” Tarburton said. “So, we had to gameplan that at halftime and make some adjustments there. Hats off to them — they had a great game plan. Credit to Illinois and their game plan and their running backs are tough backs. They were physical upfront and we didn’t make the plays that we needed to make when it came down to it.”
Not only did Illinois bring in extra tackles, but it threw in more guards or tight ends if the game called for it. It was a signature of Illinois head coach Bret Bielema’s offensive packages at both of his last head coaching stops in Wisconsin and Arkansas. With their power running scheme, the Fighting Illini rushed for 165 yards in the first half and followed with 192 yards in the second.
Things changed in overtime. The Nittany Lions were able to stuff Illinois with just six carries for 19 yards in all nine overtimes. Illinois was just 1-for-3 on third down conversions during that time.
“They did a good job disguising where they were going to run the ball,” Penn State defensive tackle Derrick Tangelo said. “They did of lot of show [with that package] and you never really know where the ball is going to go. But I feel like once the game started going on and we started settling down, we started identifying where they were going to run the ball.”
Mustipher suffered a season-ending injury in the loss against Iowa two weeks ago, and it took a toll on the defensive line. Not only did the Nittany Lions miss him, but Dvon Ellies and Coziah Izzard went down with injuries in the Illinois matchup. With the Nittany Lions already banged up, the defensive front had to go deep into their depth chart to fight through the pain.
Tangelo has had to pick up a lot of the slack in his fellow senior’s absence. The senior had three tackles (two solo). Izzard had five tackles (two solo) and while they missed the effort and strength of Mustipher, Tangelo believed that they gave a valiant effort on the day.
“I’m proud of all of the guys that stepped up in PJ’s spot today — Dvon Ellies, Coziah Izzard, Amin Vanover,” Tangelo said. “Those guys have been working hard in practice all week. So, we miss PJ, but I feel like they did a good job.”
Penn State (5-2, 2-2 Big Ten) will have another week to make improvements before facing its biggest test of the season — No. 5 Ohio State (5-1, 3-0 Big Ten) in Columbus at 7:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC.
This story was originally published October 23, 2021 at 7:51 PM.
