Cue the emo music.
1. Pass Rushers At Defensive End
One of the “smart” football things to say is, “You know, sacks are a team stat.” And, sure, it’s true. A defensive tackle eating double teams helps others have one-on-one matchups. A disguised defense confuses the offense and creates just enough havoc to allow a defensive end to get home. Great coverages give the quarterback nowhere to throw the ball. So, yes, sacks are a team stat. I can buy that.
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But, man, sometimes you just need someone like Abdul Carter who can line up in a three-point stance, fire off on the snap, bend around the offensive tackle, and wipe out the quarterback before the play even had a chance of developing.
Now of course, I’m not expecting Penn State to have a like-for-like Abdul Carter. But is there a defensive end any of us can look at and feel comfortable they are getting to 6, 7, or even 8 sacks? I’m not sure. I like Max Granville’s potential, but he’s coming off a missed season. I think Yvan Kemajou is going to be very good, but I don’t think his impact will be felt in pure sack numbers. Ikenna Ezeogu has tremendous size at 6-foot-5, 273-pounds, but again, not someone who is going to rack up sacks.
2. Game Wrecker At Defensive Tackle
Sticking on the defensive line, I really like what Penn State did at defensive tackle. The whole strategy of “let’s get some grown ass men who are 300+ pounds” seems simple but extremely effective. Problem is I’m not sure any of them profile as “game wreckers.” Kind of similar to what I was saying before about defensive end, but is there anyone here who is going to really have the ability to take over a game with 1.5 sacks and 3 TFLs? I don’t know if I see it. It’s a solid group but it feels like more of a group that does the dirty work than anything else. Which sure, that’s great from a defensive tackle room. But sometimes it’d just be nice to have someone who can completely blow up a play. Not sure we’re going to see that.
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3. New System
Consider me scarred from last year with all the complications from Jim Knowles’ allegedly too confusing defense, but all the player transition combined with a defensive coordinator none of them ever played under gives me some pause. Hopefully, and I do think this is going to be the case, Lynn is going to keep this thing relatively simple. He did wonders in short order at UCLA and greatly improved the USC defense right away as well, so he’s accustomed to teaching his defense to new staffs and new players. But, still, there’s a lot of moving pieces here and I’m not 100% confident we see a perfect transition.
