Blue White Illustrated

O c T O B E R 3 1 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 7 quarterback, the Nittany Lions' ap- proach went almost exactly as planned. Head coach James Franklin said the de- fense played mostly man coverage with zone mixed in, but they gave extra effort in disguising the coverages. "I feel like [defensive coordinator Bob Shoop] and the defensive staff kept them off-balance for most of the day," Franklin said. The stats prove it, even if some are less obvious than the zero on the scoreboard. Penn State held Illinois to just six third- down conversions on 20 attempts, forc- ing it into an average down-and-distance of 9.4 yards on third down. Partly as a result, the defensive line was able to put more pressure on quarterback Wes Lunt than he had seen all season. Heading into the game, Illinois' offen- sive line had allowed just eight sacks in seven games. Penn State tallied four total for a loss of 36 yards. "It was constant pressure," said John- son, who opened the floodgates with PSU's first sack, coming in the second quarter. "We never stopped pressuring him. We never stopped getting back there, so it was definitely good for us to do that." Defensive end Carl Nassib earned one of those sacks, too, his coming in the third quarter. It extended the fiCh-year senior's sack streak to nine consecutive games, and gave him 14.5 for the season. Heading into next week's game against Northwestern, Nassib will be just one sack away from breaking the all-time Penn State season record. If it wasn't getting sacks, PSU's defen- sive line was continually disruptive be- hind the line of scrimmage, tallying nine tackles for a loss of 48 yards. It was the 16th consecutive game in which PSU had five or more TFL, which is the longest streak since 2000. Self-inflicted penalties for Illinois also helped Penn State's effort, as the Illini committed seven in the first half alone. Also, Illinois had only two plays of more than 15 yards in the entire game, and in the third quarter, PSU held the Illini to minus-6 rushing yards. The constant pressure, Franklin said, was also effective in defending the run. "We wear people down with our pass rush," he said. "A lot of our sacks and production in terms of pressure and sacks come later in the games. That's be- cause we rotate a lot of guys and keep them fresh." While the defensive line got much of the credit for the "goose egg" perform- ance, it was redshirt freshman linebacker Troy Reeder who came up with possibly the biggest play of the aCernoon. Playing man coverage on third-and-5 in the first quarter, Reeder stepped in front of Lunt's line-drive pass at the 50- yard line. Reeder snagged it out of midair and returned it down the leC sideline 44 yards to the 6. It set up the second of PSU's five touchdowns, but if it was up to Reeder, the former high school running back would've taken it the distance. "I started to smell the end zone," he said, smiling. "Maybe next time." It was one of only a few plays in which Penn State's defense came up short against Illinois. Now that's a scary thought.

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