Penn State Football: 5 reasons Nittany Lions will repeat as Big Ten champs

4. Penn State’s defense is one of the most aggressive in the entire nation

While Penn State’s offense has continued to deliver flashy, SportsCenter Top 10 highlights week after week in 2017, it’s actually the team’s defense that deserves far more credit for their current success.

Penn State is currently fielding the 12th-best defense in the entire nation, a full 26 spots higher than their 38th-ranked offense, and their stat-line has been incredibly impressive.

The Nittany Lions’ are currently ranked 19th in the nation in team sacks with 17, fifth in the nation in tackles for loss with 51, and sixth in the nation in interceptions with nine picks.

And one of the reasons why the Nittany Lions have been so successful this season on the defensive side of the ball is their aggressive style of play on virtually every snap.

They just don’t take plays off.

Whether it be their edge rushing duo of Shaka Toney and Shareef Miller, linebackers Koa Farmer and Jason Cabinda, or the Nittany Lions’ grizzled secondary, highlighted by seniors Grant Haley and Marcus Allen, seemingly every player in the Nittany Lions’ near 20-player defensive rotation takes it upon themselves to give full effort on every snap and try to make a play on the ball.

And so far this season, the team’s aggressiveness hasn’t negatively affected their point differential.

While these statistics are impressive, the team’s point differential is even more telling.

Defensive coordinator Brent Pry’s unit has only allowed 52 points in the team’s first six games, good for an insane average of only nine points per game.

Nine points per game.

When a team’s offense is averaging nearly 40 points per game and only giving up an average of nine points per game, that’s a winning formula, if you ask me.