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BSD Film Room: A Few Defensive Stats

BSD Film Room

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.

YEAR WDE TFL NT TFL DT TFL SDE TFL TOTAL DL TFL
2009 Eric Latimore 6.0 Ollie Ogbu 8.0 Jared Odrick 11.0 Jack Crawford 14.5 39.5
2010 Pete Massaro 8.0 Ollie Ogbu 8.5 Devon Still 10.0 Jack Crawford 4.5 31.0
2011 Sean Stanley 6.5 Jordan Hill 8.0 Devon Still 17.0 Jack Crawford 7.5 39.0
2012 Sean Stanley 9.5 DaQuan Jones 2.0 Jordan Hill 8.5 Deion Barnes 10.0 30.0
2013 CJ Olaniyan 11.0 Kyle Baublitz 3.0 DaQuan Jones 11.5 Deion Barnes 4.0 29.5
2014 CJ Olaniyan 5.5 Austin Johnson 6.0 Anthony Zettel 17.0 Deion Barnes 12.5 41.0
2015 Garrett Sickels 5.5 Austin Johnson 15.0 Anthony Zettel 11.0 Carl Nassib 19.5 51.0
2016 Garrett Sickels 12.5 Parker Cothren 5.5 Kevin Givens 7.0 Evan Schwan 8.5 33.5
2017 Ryan Buchholz 2.5 Parker Cothren 2.5 Curtis Cothran 4.0 Shareef Miller 11.0 20.0
2018 Yetur Gross-Matos 20.0 Robert Windsor 11.0 Kevin Givens 8.5 Shareef Miller 14.0 53.5

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?

GAME PLAYS YARDS YPP
at Illinois 76 411 5.41
vs Ohio State 76 389 5.12
vs Michigan State 89 418 4.70
at Indiana 100 554 5.54
Totals 341 1772 5.20
GAME PLAYS YARDS YPP
vs Iowa 88 350 3.98
at Michigan 69 403 5.84
vs Wisconsin 57 269 4.72
at Rutgers 71 234 3.30
vs Maryland 59 259 4.39
Totals 344 1515 4.40

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.

SKOOL 2015 2016 2017 2018 TOTAL
PSU 15 15 19 21 70
OSU 10 16 19 26 71
MICH 4 19 23 19 65
SKOOL 2015 2016 2017 2018 AVG
PSU 8837 8956 8948 9166 8991
OSU 8959 9228 9500 9428 9336
MICH 8632 9012 9205 8875 9017

Hit The Lights

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