Penn State Football: Report card for win over Indiana in Week 8

Offensive line: C

The offensive line was supposed to be a Nittany Lion strength coming into this season. It has been less than stellar thus far, but not as bad as season’s past.

The line did a pretty good job of producing holes for both Miles Sanders and Trace McSorley. They were decent in pass protection, but did allow McSorley to be sacked three times. There were a couple instances where the Hoosiers walked right in unblocked.

The veteran line still is not performing up to standard. They will have their hands full with the Lions’ next three opponents of Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Defensive line: C

Indiana was allowed to run free to the tune of 224 yards on the ground. Overall the Hoosiers tallied over 550 yards total offense. Some of this can be contributed to an uneven performance by the defensive front.

The grade would be even lower if not for a couple outstanding performances by two Lion defensive ends. First Shaka Toney was a man possessed. He had a career game with six total tackles, four sacks and a forced fumble. All of the sacks came in the second half so Toney was doing his part to keep the Lions in the lead. Yetur Gross-Matos also was solid, leading the Lions in tackles with 10 and pitching in two sacks.

The rest of the defensive line rotation was mostly invisible. Overall, they need to be better up front to compete against some of the better teams remaining on their schedule.