Penn State Football: Positional report card for win over Northwestern

The Nittany Lion defensive line was a force to be reckoned with against Northwestern. They delivered an A-worthy performance.

First, the Lions defense collectively held Northwestern running back Justin Jackson to 66 yards rushing on 16 carries. Impressive with Jackson being one of the Wildcats’ weapons along with quarterback Clayton Thorson.

The other thing that stood out was the play of their redshirt freshmen defensive ends, Shaka Toney and Shane Simmons. Between the two of them, they picked up 3 sacks of the 4 sacks Penn State recorded. On the first sack for Toney, he came around the edge and stripped Thorson which was recovered by Ryan Buchholtz. For Simmons, his sack was impressive for not being faked out by Thorson on an option play, sticking with him and bringing him down on a fourth down.

Penn State likes to use a rotation of guys along the defensive front four to keep them fresh. It is certainly paying off right now and this unit is one of the best on the team.