Penn State Football: 3 keys to victory in 2019 Cotton Bowl vs. Memphis
By Shane Lunnen
2. Lion defense must slow down Memphis
Memphis earned the Group of Five’s New Year’s Six bowl bid by going 12-1 and they can score a ton of points, averaging over 40 per game. Penn State will need to find a way to slow down the Tiger offense.
Penn State’s secondary was exposed in the last month of the regular season. Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan shredded them for over 330 yards. Indiana’s Peyton Ramsey upped that performance the following week, going for over 370 yards through the air. Finally while the Lions may have kept Ohio State’s Justin Fields under 200 yards through the air, he still completed 73 percent of his passes.
Memphis has NFL caliber receivers. Damonte Coxie, Antonio Gibson, and Kedarian Jones are all guys that will be playing on Sundays. Plus the Tigers have Brady White throwing to them. White put up over 3500 yards and found the endzone 33 times this season.
Where Penn State can try to neutralize the Memphis passing attack is through their pass rush. The Memphis offensive line is just ok and Penn State has a very fast front seven. Defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos will be playing in his last game before heading into the NFL. He led the Lions with 8.5 sacks and 14 tackles for loss. He will be itching to have a great last game as a Nittany Lion. And of course, there is All American linebacker Micah Parsons who is all over the field every play.
Penn State has been a brick wall this season against the rush. Memphis likes to throw but they run a balanced offense with running back Kenneth Gainwell rushing for 1425 yards and 12 scores.
It could be tough finding running lanes against the Nittany Lions and if they make Memphis one dimensional, the Penn State defense can pin their ears back and get after White. The Lions must make a living in the Memphis back field to keep the Tigers from racking up a ton of yards through the air.