Penn State Football: 3 reasons Nittany Lions will beat Auburn in Week 3

3. Penn State can win a defensive battle

Both Auburn and Penn State have what look to be good to perhaps outstanding defenses. Their respective defensive coordinators, Derek Mason for the Tigers and Brent Pry for the Nittany Lions, are widely respected around college football. Penn State’s defense could be slightly better than Auburn’s, giving them the advantage.

We have already seen Penn State go on the road and win a defensive slugfest this season. The Nittany Lions game at Wisconsin was scoreless at the half. The game picked up steam in the second half with the Nittany Lions ultimately prevailing 16-10.

Penn State’s defense was on the field for an astounding 95 snaps and only gave up ten points. They forced three turnovers and recorded two sacks. The Nittany Lions bent on defense, giving up 365 yards, but never broke. They made the plays when they absolutely needed to do so.

The game against Auburn appears like it could be another low-scoring, defensive battle. Both the Nittany Lion and Tiger offenses could be good but neither has completely rounded into form yet.

On the other side of the coin, the defenses will look to control things. The Nittany Lions appear to have more depth than the Tigers. As it stands right now, Penn State’s defense is more battle-tested and should get slightly more help from their offense to pull off the victory.