Previously: Penn State Offense

Anthony Zettel had himself a day.

While Penn State's offense isn't faring well this year, the opposite is the case for the defense, which ranks 17th in Football Outsiders' S&P+ rankings—9th in rushing and 21st in passing, so they're balanced, as well. They looked the part against Rutgers, picking off Gary Nova five times, shutting down a Rutgers running attack that still boasted Paul James at the time, and ultimately holding the Scarlet Knights to a mere ten points.

Personnel: Unlike the offense, this is a very experienced group, with only one underclassman even cracking the starting lineup. DE Deion Barnes is, in fact, a returning starter (his circle is left unfilled in the diagram, but that's a mistake on our part), while both DTs saw extensive action and a couple spot starts in 2013 [click the diagram to embiggen]:

There's plenty of talent on this group, too, with three former top 250 recruits and a couple others who didn't miss that distinction by much.

Base Set? 4-3 under, though PSU doesn't bother to denote a strongside and weakside linebacker. OLBs Brandon Bell and Nyeem Wartman are pretty much interchangeable—both will line up as the nominal SLB and they can each play over a slot receiver—so they just stick to the left and right side, respectively. When PSU goes nickel, usually against 4 WR sets, strong safety (and former corner) Adrian Amos moves into the slot, with backup safety Malik Golden taking his place on the back line, like so:

For the most part, PSU keeps their base set on the field—they run enough zone coverage that it isn't a big issue for their outside linebackers to play over slot receivers.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the breakdown.]

Man or zone coverage? Mostly zone, especially Cover 2, with some Cover 3 thrown in as well. PSU rarely keeps just one safety deep unless they're bringing serious heat.

Pressure: GERG or Greg? DC Bob Shoop called for a fair number of blitzes in this one, mostly dialing up pressure from the edge with his OLBs and occasionally a defensive back. They weren't outrageously effective, however; Rutgers moved the ball very well in the second quarter on a drive in which they caught PSU blitzing three or four times and picked up nice chunks with quick passes.

Dangerman: MLB Mike Hull has a reputation as an injury-prone coverage linebacker, but he looked like a very complete—and outstanding—player to me. His stats are quite impressive; his 32 solo tackles are nine more than any other PSU defender has total tackles, and he's added 21 assists for good measure.

This play jumped off the screen to me to the point that I'm putting the play breakdown here. Hull is #43, standing between the nose tackle and the far-side DE in this pre-play snapshot:

Rutgers is going to run off-tackle to the boundary with the center pulling for a kickout block. At the snap—without any run-up, mind you—Hull engages hard with left guard Kaleb Johnson, preventing any push whatsoever:

While Hull is holding his position and PSU has lots of backside pursuit, this play is setting up to work out for Rutgers—the center's kickout block wipes out Bell and that opens up a crease off the left tackle. Hull totally blows this up, however, by getting under Johnson's pads and moving him into the intended running lane...

...forcing a bounce-out by doing so:

This allows the cavalry to arrive, and while James manages to break the two initial tackle attempts (after shedding the diving player at the LOS, he spins past #26)...

...Hull disengages from Johnson and lays a lick on the sideline:

Video with a good replay angle of Hull taking on Johnson:

That's a phenomenal play by a linebacker, one that requires quite a bit of strength and technique. In addition to being an excellent run defender, Hull is really good against the pass—he gets ideal depth on his zone drops, like this one:

That's a (soft) Cover 2 on which he lined up just a few yards away from the LOS at the snap, and he takes away one of two Rutgers routes that could potentially pick up the first down. 1990s Monte Kiffin would really want this guy in the middle of his defense.

OVERVIEW

They're very good, front to back, and this is obviously terrible news for Michigan.

Oh, you wanted more? Masochists.

The defensive line works very well as a unit. Austin Johnson holds his ground at the nose, allowing Anthony Zettel to do what he does best: slash into the backfield with regularity.

Zettel would later record a sack with the same quick spin move; he also drew a couple holding calls and generally lived in the Rutgers backfield. He's got great burst off the snap, uses his hands well, and possesses an array of moves to free himself from blockers. Yes, it would've been nice to get this guy three years ago.

The defensive ends also played quite well. RU's right tackle couldn't handle the size/speed combo of SDE Deion Barnes, who looks very capable of producing a similar mismatch against Ben Braden. WDE CJ Olaniyan is also quick around the edge, though he did get blown off the ball a few times against the run; that didn't burn PSU much in this game because of Zettel.

Hull is the standout in the middle of the defense, and while neither of the outside linebackers are at his level, they cover a lot of ground sideline-to-sideline against both the run and the pass. Wartman missed last weekend's Northwestern game with an arm injury but is expected to be back on Saturday—he practiced in full pads on Wednesday.

The secondary doesn't contain a lockdown corner—Leontae Carroo got the best of PSU's #1 CB, Jordan Lucas, on a couple occasions when they got matched up one-on-one—but they're generally solid in coverage. Little gets over the top of this defense; PSU has allowed just five pass plays of 30+ yards and 14 of 20+, both impressive figures at this stage of the season. Rutgers found most of their passing success with quick passes against PSU blitzes and the occasional zone-beater between the underneath defenders and the safeties; when Nova tried to go over the top, he tossed one of his five picks.

The defensive backfield also provided outstanding run support. Corner Trevor Williams had a couple very impressive tackles, while Amos showed he could shoot up from the back line to stop a much larger player dead in his tracks:

This is a very sound defense with multiple playmakers and no glaring weak spot. Consider me less than optimistic that this will be the week Michigan manages to move the ball against a quality opponent.