Penn State Football: 3 bold predictions vs. Indiana in Week 5

1. Penn State secondary gets its first real test of the season

Through the first four weeks of the college football season, Penn State’s defense has been one of the best in the nation.

Currently ranked the 22nd-best unit in the country in total defense, the Nittany Lion defense has only given up 23 points over four games — good for less than six points per game.

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And the team’s passing defense has been even more impressive, having only given up 634 total passing yards this season, good for the 20th-best mark in the nation.

But Penn State hasn’t faced a passing offense quite like that of the Indiana Hoosiers.

Over the first three games of the season, Indiana has scored 107 points, and currently ranks 45th in the nation in total passing offense, with 802 yards through the air.

Even though Indiana has a good run game, with freshman tailback Morgan Ellison leading the team with 256 yards on 44 carries, if the Hoosiers want to have any chance of keeping up with the Nittany Lions’ high-powered offense, they will need to air the ball out against Penn State’s ball-hawking secondary.

So far this season, the Lions’ secondary has been incredibly effective, amassing six interceptions verses only two passing touchdowns, and has averaged a 94.24 team passing efficiency rating for opposing offenses, good for the 10th-best mark of any team in the nation.

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While these numbers have been amassed mostly against non-Power Five opponents and teams that rely heavily on a power-run game, the sheer volume of high-caliber, athletic defenders that Penn State’s defense has collected in James Franklin’s tenure will be incredibly challenging for Indiana to match up against, and should result in another lockdown performance through the air.