ANN ARBOR, Mich. – As Penn State saw its defense gashed to the tune of 418 rushing yards in a 41-17 loss on Saturday afternoon against No. 5 Michigan, the main question on most people’s minds was “how?” The Nittany Lions from statistical standpoint entered the game with one of the nation’s better rush defenses and had rarely ever given up — both this year and otherwise — absurdly high rushing totals.
Of course big runs can rack up yardage all at once. Donovan Edwards cranked out a 67-yard touchdown run before Blake Corum had a 61-yarder of his own just one offensive snap later to account for 128 of those 418 yards, but nevertheless the yardage racked up quickly as Michigan averaged 7.6 yards per carry. That figure drops to a still respectable 5.4 yards per carry if you take out those two long runs.
All the same it was a pounding 55-carry day for the Wolverines and Penn State’s defensive front and the rest of the defense never got ahead of it. In total, Penn State’s defense was four seconds shy of spending a full 42 minutes on the field, a length that would tire any team in the country.
But still, how does it happen? The answer, like most things in football, is not one-dimensional, but as Penn State coach James Franklin said after the game, size certainly plays a factor.
“It’s all of it. We got to develop, we got to recruit. We got to get bigger. We’re undersized at some spots. Everybody thinks they’re Aaron Donald,” Franklin, invoking the All-Pro defensive end/tackle. “They’re not. Everybody sees Aaron Donald playing undersized. Everybody thinks they’re that guy. And there’s been one of those guys in the last 100 years of football. We need to be more physical. Work on our technique, our fundamentals. It’s all of it. We own all of it. But, give them credit for what they were able to do today.”
Donald hits the scales at 6-foot-1 and around 280 pounds if the NFL’s current roster is accurate. As for Penn State’s starting defensive front, the Nittany Lions boast just one player in their starting group — defensive tackle PJ Mustipher who is also Penn State’s best defensive lineman — at a weight heavier than Donald. Mustipher sits at 318 pounds on Penn State’s most recent travel roster while the other three starting defensive linemen on Saturday weigh in at 243, 258 and 263 pound. Penn State does boast several rotational pieces at larger weights.
Up against Michigan’s offensive front, that poses a challenge. While each side of the ball is built differently on purpose and while defensive tackle and defensive end also have different body types, informationally Penn State’s defensive line weighed in at a total of 1,082 pounds over the four players. On Michigan’s offensive front, five offensive linemen came in at a total of 1,540 pounds with all five players weighing in at 300+. At the most, Penn State had a weight range disparity of 72 pounds between the lightest starting defensive linemen and Michigan’s heaviest offensive linemen.
But is that unusual? Hard to say nationally, but it at least didn’t match up with the Wolverines’ own numbers very well. Michigan started an extra defensive lineman on Saturday to bring its total to five, with four of those players weighing in at 285 pounds or above. All told Michigan’s defensive line averaged 25 more pounds per player than their counterparts on Penn State’s defensive front while the the Nittany Lions’ offensive front came in basically at the same weight as Michigan’s [1,533]. If you take out Michigan’s heaviest defensive line starter, the Wolverines still outweigh Penn State’s defensive front on an average of 15 pounds.
There are obviously a lot of things that played into Penn State’s struggles against Michigan’s rushing attack on Saturday afternoon, and while not all of them have to do with how much size matters, Franklin’s hope that the Nittany Lions can get bigger in the trenches isn’t without at least some data to back that claim up.
