Lions humiliate Iowa with national championship-caliber defense

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- This Penn State defense looks like it's good enough to win a national championship.

There are other things the Nittany Lions still have to get straightened out, on offense and special teams. But through four games -- given the overall talent, depth in the program and schemes deployed -- it's not at all exaggerating to say that the defense appears to have everything it needs to win the whole thing.

Not just the Big Ten East. Not just getting to the College Football Playoff for the first time.

We're talking about the possibility of a natty here.

"We all feel like we're the best defense in the country," safety Jaylen Reed said. "And I feel like we're the best team in the country, not just defense."

The No. 7 Lions didn't just beat Iowa on a rainy whiteout Saturday night at Beaver Stadium. They absolutely humiliated the No. 24 Hawkeyes, making them look like some kind of jayvee offense in a 31-0 trouncing.

OK, OK, this was Iowa. The college football stepchild of bad offense. The Hawkeyes have been such a joke offensively that their coordinator, Brian Ferentz, has a contract clause this year that says he could lose his job unless the team averages 25 points per game. We wrote about that earlier in the week in our Penn State feed.

Penn State made Iowa's offense look so pathetic Saturday that the internet memes were out in full force making fun of the younger Ferentz, son of longtime head coach Kirk. Here's one of the best ones:

The Lions held Iowa to a grand total of four first downs and 76 yards. Even worse, the Hawkeyes had just two first downs until midway through the fourth quarter, when it was 31-0 and Penn State was playing backups.

Remember the infamous 6-4 loss to Iowa in 2004, the one where Penn State's offense was so inept that Kirk Ferentz took a safety with 8:11 left because he knew the Lions simply could not move the ball?

Well, Penn State's offense managed six first downs and 147 yards that day.

Again, Iowa had four first downs and 76 yards in this one.

A complete and total annihilation by Penn State's defense.

"I felt like once that first drive came and every person was whipping the man in front of them, I just felt like, oh yeah, we got control of this game," defensive end Chop Robinson said.

The Hawkeyes did get two first downs on their opening drive, and were close to scoring before losing a fumble deep in Penn State territory.

After that drive, Iowa didn't record another first down until midway through the fourth quarter.

Robinson and the Penn State defenders could tell that Iowa's offensive players simply had no answers as the game went on.

"You could feel them losing their edge a little bit," Robinson said. "When you're whipping the man every single play in front of you, you know you've got to line up against (us) again, it's hard (for them) to keep bringing the same mentality and pressure every single time."

Penn State forced four turnovers, one week after forcing five in a win at Illinois.

When the starting defense has been in the game, it allowed one touchdown against West Virginia, one against Delaware, one against Illinois and nothing against Iowa. The other scores by opponents this season have come against the Lions' backups.

"Our defense played a suffocating style of D," James Franklin said.

That's just how Manny Diaz likes it.

The second-year defensive coordinator has installed a system that swarms to the ball from every direction. Yes, that's a good system to have, but you've also got to have good enough players everywhere to truly make it work.

This Penn State defense is loaded with good players, both in the starting lineup and with reserves, as Franklin has talked repeatedly how deep the unit is on that side of the ball.

"Coach Manny, he's creative," end Dani-Dennis Sutton said. "You see in his defense we have so many different things. We have drops, we have stunts. Sometimes we are just straight gone, sometimes we take the receiver. We have a bunch of different things that Coach Manny does, and it is fun. It's a fun defense to play in."

The combination of Diaz's schemes and Penn State's personnel are truly what make this a national championship caliber defense.

"Day in and day out, it goes back to our preparation and our fundamentals and techniques," Reed said. "We go through it every day, so when it comes to a game, it culminates in success. We love that."

Penn State had an uneven first half offensively and led just 10-0 at the break. Then came a stunning third quarter, during which the Lions dominated and took control.

These are just the third-quarter stats, and they paint quite a picture.

A 15-play, 75-yard TD drive to open the third extended Penn State's lead to 17-0. Iowa went three and out, as it did all night, and the Lions went on an 11-play TD drive to make it 24-0. Then Iowa ran just one play and turned it over.

It all became kind of comical as the third quarter went on.

"That's probably one of the best feelings when you feel the offense trying everything but they can't get no movement," end Adisa Isaac said.

The defense did its part, but also, the offense was very impressive during that stretch with the two long scoring drives.

This wasn't a great offensive performance by the Lions, but it was an efficient one.

"When you look at the game, I just thought we played really good complementary football -- offense, defense and special teams," Franklin said.

Drew Allar completed 25 of 37 passes for 166 yards and four touchdowns. He has all the talent in the world and probably could put up huge numbers if he truly needed to, but with this Penn State team and the way the defense plays, Allar is merely asking to be a game manager and not turn the ball over.

"The defense caused a lot of turnovers again this week, and that's why our offense was back on the field so much," Allar said. "I think that we did a good job of being efficient and taking what the defense was giving us."

Kaytron Allen carried 21 times for 72 yards, while Nicholas Singleton had 17 carries for 49 yards. The Lions finished with 215 yards rushing, including 55 by backup quarterback Beau Pribula in the fourth quarter.

KeAndre Lambert-Smith led the way with 66 yards receiving on eight catches and had one TD. Tight end Tyler Warren caught two short TDs.

"I think we just stuck to our plan," Warren said of the offense. "It wasn't the fastest of starts in the first half but just trusting Coach (Mike) Yurcich and trust our offense. I think our game plan showed up toward the second half."

Franklin pointed out that Yurcich did a good job sticking with the game plan with play calling, continuing to go with what was working and just grinding it out.

"Obviously, we want to have big plays, big passes down the field, but we knew what type of game this was," Lambert-Smith said. "It was going to be a dogfight. Just stay patient, trusting the process. And when that time comes, opportunity comes your way, make the best of it."

When the offense can grind it out like that with long drives, coupled with a stifling defense that just doesn't give up much at all, Penn State has the ingredients to do some pretty special things.

"Just a ton of stuff to be proud of," Franklin said.

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PERSONNEL REPORT

WR Harrison Wallace III did not play once again. He was dressed and warmed up before the game but didn't see any action.

WR Dante Cephas started for the first time. He had one catch for 11 yards.

THE SCHEDULE

Penn State travels to Northwestern next Saturday for a noon kickoff on BTN.

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