Cherry And White Defense: News & Notes

Sophomore defensive end Adrian Robinson led the charge against Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark on Saturday, recording two pass deflections, a sack, and several jarring hits on the PSU signal caller. Now the Owls need to find a few more playmakers on defense.

News and notes about the Cherry and White defense following Temple’s 31-6 loss to Penn State on Saturday afternoon:

As expected, the Owls didn’t stack the line against Penn State’s running game. The Nittany Lions had limited success running the ball in their first two games, but hit several big pass plays in decisive victories over Akron and Syracuse, which had loaded up to stop the run.

Temple chose a more balanced approach, looking to prevent the big play and occasionally send a blitz after PSU quarterback Daryll Clark. Generally speaking, the strategy worked, as Penn State was forced to drive the ball down the field. Clark’s longest completion went for 21 yards. He was sacked twice, knocked down several times, and had three passes tipped at the line of scrimmage.

The Owls played fairly well against the run, too – except on passing downs, when the Lions continually gashed them for big gains.

As they had done in their season-opening loss to Villanova, the Owls played a lot of nickel and dime packages on passing downs (defined as 2nd-and-10 or longer or 3rd-and-4 or longer). In those situations, Penn State ran the ball eight times for a whopping 93 yards. Conversely, on running downs, the Lions had 28 carries for 93 yards.

The Lions made the adjustment in the second quarter, after Clark was drilled by Temple’s Adrian Robinson on a 3rd-and-3 pass attempt that fell incomplete.

On its next drive, Penn State faced 3rd-and-4 at the Temple 7. The Owls went to a 4-1-6 alignment, with linebacker John Haley and six defensive backs set up behind the front four. But the Lions handed the ball to Evan Royster, who slipped through the middle and avoided the converging tacklers for a seven-yard touchdown run.

Later in the second quarter, Stephfon Green had a 10-yard run on 2nd-and-10, followed by an 11-yard gain on 2nd-and-10. Linebacker Alex Joseph missed the tackle on the 11-yard run.

Overall, the Owls again got less than they needed from their linebackers. Robinson was the big playmaker up front, while junior safety Jaiquawn Jarrett (seven tackles, two pass breakups) was active and effective against the run and the pass.

But junior Elijah Joseph was the only linebacker who consistently made a major impact, particularly in the third quarter when he recorded three straight solo stops, two of them for losses. Then again, Joseph looked to be the guilty party in a coverage breakdown that left PSU tight end Mickey Shuler wide open in the back of the end zone on Penn State’s first touchdown.

The Lions sent multiple receivers to the right side on the play, and Joseph committed to Clark’s nearer target, though he appeared to have responsibility for Shuler, who was left alone for an easy pitch and catch to get the Lions on the scoreboard.

Speaking of the linebackers, it was notable that the Owls went deeper again with senior MLB Jordan Martin and sophomore Tahir Whitehead seeing regular action. Martin intercepted Clark’s first quarter pass that was hurried by the blitzing Haley, while Whitehead forced a fumble and was credited with a 17-yard tackle for loss when he sniffed out a reverse in the third quarter.

With that kind of productivity, Martin and Whitehead figure to continue taking reps away from the established starters.

Of course, one of the established starters, junior Amara Kamara, is now getting more time at defensive end than he does at linebacker. What looked to be a “scheme thing” against Villanova’s spread offense was no different against Penn State – Kamara started at defensive end.

Robinson and Kamara saw the bulk of action at defensive end, especially on passing downs, along with Elisha Joseph on running downs. Morris Blueford and Morkeith Brown saw limited action.

As for the defensive line, has anyone seen Andre Neblett?

For the second straight game, the Nagurski Trophy candidate was not very productive. In fact, the late Bronko Nagurski had as many tackles as Neblett did against the Nittany Lions. There were a couple occasions when it appeared that Penn State got away with holding Neblett on what became big running plays, but zero tackles is zero tackles.

Muhammed Wilkerson was also just a rumored participant for much of the game.

Both of them will need to come up big against Buffalo on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the oft-questioned cornerbacks did a pretty good job in pass coverage against the Nittany Lions, with significant help from the safeties. It helped, of course, that the defensive gameplan didn’t leave the corners alone against Penn State’s wideouts. But the good news is that there were few breakdowns.

Kevin Kroboth, Anthony Ferla, and Marquise Liverpool saw most of the action for the Owls. They gave up the short stuff, and missed a couple tackles that allowed a few extra yards after the catch. Liverpool was also knocked five yards backwards while tackling PSU wideout Chaz Powell after he caught a screen pass.

Overall, the defensive backs needed to do a better job attacking the middle screen, which Clark used repeatedly to beat the blitz. Late in the second quarter, Green picked up 17 yards on a 3rd-and-10 dump-off from Clark. Later, Clark deftly handled a 1st-and-10 blitz with a nine-yard pass to tight end Andrew Quarless. Give credit to Penn State, of course, for adjusting to the blitz and having blockers in place to spring the receiver.

Late in the game, four true freshmen and junior college transfer Kwame Johnson got into the game on defense. The freshmen were cornerback Maurice Jones, safety Justin Gildea, linebacker Marcus Green, and defensive tackle Kadeem Custis. Jones and Gildea also played earlier in the game on special teams.

True freshman Levi Brown made the travel squad but did not play.