Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/580879
O c T O B E R 3 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 11 T I M O W E N | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . c O M Playing against Army – a one-win team that lost to Fordham in the season opener – Penn State's fate wasn't expected to be determined like this. Facing a fourth-and-5 with about two minutes leA to play, the Black Knights trailed by only six points. If they gained 5 yards, they would keep the drive alive and go deeper inside Nittany Lion terri- tory with a chance to possibly serve PSU one of the worst home losses in Beaver Stadium history. Instead, PSU's defense, led by middle linebacker Jason Cabinda, swarmed quarterback A.J. Schurr and came up with a 10-yard sack. Ballgame: Penn State. Barely. "It was on us at that point," said Cabinda, who led the team with 14 tackles. "If they score a touch- down and kick an extra point, that's the game right there. So it was awesome that it was on us, the defense, to get the job done. … Being able to get that stop on fourth down was awesome – ab- solutely awesome." With the offense struggling to consistently move the ball throughout the game, the out- come was indeed in the hands of the de- fense. Even PSU's vaunted D struggled at times, however. Of Army's 293 total of- fensive yards, 261 came on the ground. Army's rushing total nearly tripled the average of what Penn State allowed in its first four games. Heading into the game, coaches warned players that Army's triple-option wish- bone offense can put stress on a defense. "Coach [Bob] Shoop said it this week," said linebacker Von Walker, who recov- ered a first-half fumble. "This is the kind of offense that you play against once every four years, maybe. It's not easy to defend." Walker started at Sam linebacker in place of Brandon Bell, who missed the game with an undisclosed injury. Bell was one of three starters to miss the Army game. (Marcus Allen and Nyeem Wartman-White were the others.) With key players missing and others, such as Jordan Lucas, playing through injury, PSU was forced to rely on a wealth of young players. On multiple series, in fact, eight of PSU's 11 defenders were ei- ther in their first or second year with the program. Defending an option offense requires discipline and experience, head coach James Franklin said, and it can be even trickier for a young player who hasn't played against it in college. "That's a difficult offense to stop when you have veterans," Franklin said, "and we have a bunch of young guys playing. Overall, it's a positive." Cabinda, a true sophomore who had two sacks and a forced fumble, agreed that in the long run Saturday's game – played on wet grass and under cloudy skies – might prove to be beneficial for Penn State's youthful roster. "Guys [went] down, and second- and third-team guys are out there making plays," Cabinda said. "It was really awe- some. I think it's good for the confidence of the team, the depth and all that kind of stuff." That doesn't happen without being tested, though, and Penn State was cer- tainly tested in order to get its fourth win of the season. Walker said Army is "one of the hard- est-playing teams that we'll face all year." Cabinda added that the Black Knights' style of offense, which on Sat- urday featured 55 runs and just one pass, can be "very tiresome." At times there are three or four poten- tial ball carriers running at the defense with offensive linemen pulling and twisting. It complicates a defense's game plan both mentally and physically, Cabinda added, and it requires a defense to substitute players in earnest in order to keep pace. "Very tiring for sure," he said. "But the depth of our defense helps to counteract that tiresome offense, because we can get fresh guys out there and still play well." Cabinda credits the rotation of young players – even if there were slip-ups along the way – and the weather – Army fumbled seven times; PSU recovered three – with helping liA Penn State to victory. Those were especially factors, he said, on his fourth-down sack that hap- pened with just 1 minute, 21 seconds leA in the fourth quarter. "It was awesome," Cabinda said. "Even on the third down [before that] we knew they were going to go for it, if we stopped them there. It was on us. It's that simple. It was on us. It's our job. The offense did enough, so it was on us to make sure [Army] didn't score, and we were able to get that done." DEFENSE DELIVERS With the game on the line, the Nittany Lions hold on tight for a win CHASE SCENE Cabinda lays a hit on Schurr in Penn State's 20-14 victory. "It was on us to make sure [Army] didn't score," the sophomore linebacker said. Photo by Steve Manuel