The IU defense might have less to worry about Saturday against Penn State, an offense near bottom of the conference, when it travels to Happy Valley.
Penn State ranks 12th in the conference, with 24.4 points per game.
“We need to down the ball,” IU defensive coordinator Brian Knorr said. “We did a good job in the red zone and taking the ball away Saturday, but Ezekiel Elliott is a guy where you just can’t give him a crease. If we miss-fit it, we need to down the ball, so we need to work on getting guys in better positions so that if the ball pops through, we can down the ball.”
The Penn State offense, led by junior quarterback Christian Hackenberg, is ranked worst in total offense, with just 328.6 yards per game, compared to IU’s conference-leading 498.2 yards per game.
Hackenburg, who was projected as a top-five overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft before the season started, has seen his own struggles. He has completed just 52.8 percent of his passes and thrown only five touchdowns in five games.
The Penn State rushing attack has also been limited to 157.4 yards per game, which ranks 12th in the conference, while its two leading rushers, junior Akeel Lynch and freshman Saquon Barkley, are both sidelined with injuries.
Penn State Coach James Franklin has not yet revealed whether either back will play Saturday.
Outside of their two premier backs, the Nittany Lions have recorded just 155 yards rushing.
“They’ve played in bad weather games,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. “I think it’s limited their ability to connect with the pass game. Running backs, skill, a couple kids have been hurt. Their offensive skill set is very, very scary. In their transition, they’ve had depth problems at line.”
Hackenberg, who passed for 2,955 yards and 2,977 yards in his freshman and sophomore years, respectively, has thrown for 824 yards this season and has already been sacked 15 times, while IU has recorded 15 tackles for loss and nine sacks in its last two games against Wake Forest and Ohio State.
Hackenberg has thrown two interceptions as well, and IU ranks sixth in the Big Ten in interceptions.
“Everybody talks about turnover ratio as factors,” Wilson said. “Big play the last few years in spread offense has been one of the indicators of teams that win and teams that don’t chunk plays.
Games are played in space now, a lot of plays in what I call stress-free passing, where the ball can go in space, and if one guy misses a tackle, there it goes.”
Wilson said Penn State is similar to Ohio State in that it has talented skill position players, and the Hoosiers will play the Nittany Lions in a crowd that will rival that of the sell-out in Memorial Stadium this past Saturday.
“Tremendous defensive challenge,” Wilson said about Penn State. “Great play makers on offense. They’ve been really, really close. They’ve won four in a row. It’s their homecoming. It’s going to be a tough environment.”
