The regular season concluded with a 38-3 destruction of the Maryland Terps. Our 9-3 Nittany Lions play no one for several weeks, awaiting news of their opponent from the bowl selection committee, and Emperor Delany. Instead of Film, let’s take a look at a few random stats from the regular season.

Kill The Lights

The table below shows the Tackles For Loss stats for PSU’s starting defensive line over the last ten seasons. This 2018 pack of Wild Dogs already secured the top spot, with one game yet to play.

Yetur Gross-Matos just recorded the only 20 TFL season by a PSU defensive lineman in the last decade. Robert Windsor, with 11 TFL, posted the second-best season by a (primarily) nose tackle - trailing only 2015 superhero Austin Johnson. Shareef Miller, despite being the obvious target of offensive coordinators all season long, posted an even better season than his breakout 2017 campaign.

Replacing so many starters in this defense never figured to be an easy task. But if there was a turning point to this defense’s season, it looks like the flight home from Bloomington, Indiana. Through its first four Big Ten games, this defense allowed an average of 5.20 yards per play - despite playing three mediocre to horrible offenses, in Illinois, Sparty, and Indiana. In its final five Big Ten games - including three run-it-down-your-throat squads, back to back to back - the defense trimmed that figure to 4.40. Maybe experience matters?

Over the next few months we’ll learn who decides to dip his toes into the NFL waters. And the numbers below will change. But for now, subtracting only seniors (and Rashan Gary, who couldn’t wait to declare his draft eligibility), the tables below show who returns what at the top of the Big Ten East - which, of course, is the same as saying the Big Ten.

Hit The Lights

Friends, this defense could be something really special in 2019.