10 Downs Inside the Red Zone with the Penn State Defense

COLLEGE PARK, MD. – When teams get inside Penn State’s red zone in 2021, like the Terrapins did five times here on Saturday, the Nittany Lions’ defense stiffens. Gets stingy. Then usually decides that they want it more than the other guy.

It just…feels…different when their backs are literally against the wall.

“I feel like we all lock in,” Penn State defensive tackle Derrick Tangelo said after PSU defeated Maryland, 31-14, in Maryland Stadium. “I feel that as a defender, you can feel that you are getting close to the end zone.

“You don’t have that much room for error because everything is maximized in the red zone. I feel like we lock in to the play call and play to the call.”

The red zone is the area between the 20-yard and the goal line. Tangelo is right: There’s not much room, and errors are magnified.

An elite defense keeps opponents from even getting into the red zone. A great defense keeps opponents from scoring once they are there.

In 2021, Penn State’s defense is among the country’s best in a few areas, including giving up the fewest points (10th in the nation), being efficient against the pass (8th) and gaining turnovers (22nd). Where the Nittany Lion defense is at its best, though, is when it is in the red zone.

That’s what Penn State coach James Franklin means most, when he says his defense is “championship-caliber.”

Under veteran defensive coordinator Brent Pry, the Nittany Lions rank No. 6 in college football in preventing their opponents from scoring once they are inside the 20, with a scoring rate of 64.7% — counting field goals and touchdowns. That’s the second-lowest rate for Penn State in the past 14 years the NCAA has kept track of the stat (the 2012 squad is No. 1, with a 64.3% rate).

A big reason Georgia is the No. 1-ranked team in the country is because of its elite defense, which allows a score only 56.2% of the time in the red zone, tops in all of college football.

The success of the Nittany Lions’ defense in the red zone — especially in the fourth quarter — has been the key reason why it has won close encounters against Wisconsin, Auburn and Maryland in 2021. It bends, but rarely breaks. (That’s true overall, all over the field, as Rich Scarcella of the Reading Eagle did the math and noted that PSU has not given up more than two TDs a game in 2021, and just 13 overall.)

It is a red (zone) badge of courage for the Nittany Lion defense.

“It’s really not a matter of talent down there,” linebacker Brandon Smith said on Saturday night. “It’s really, ‘How bad do you want?’ When you get down near the goal line, it’s all based on who wants it. If you don’t want them to score, what are you willing to do so that they don’t score?”

10 FOR THE RED ZONE

Here’s a deeper dive into Penn State’s red zone success on defense in 2021, with context:

1. Watch out for Michigan in the red zone this Saturday in Beaver Stadium (noon kickoff).

The Wolverines’ offense ranks No. 7 overall in red zone success in 2021, at 93.3% — converting 42 of a whopping 45 chances, with just one fumble in those snaps. Those 42 scores are No. 4 in the country, and divided among 25 TDs (19 passing, 6 rushing) and 17 field goals. Lest you forget: the Michigan offense is engineered by its O-coordinator Josh Gattis, the former PSU wide receivers coach.

2. Complementary Football, 101: Penn State’s red zone offense is No. 33 in the country

The Nittany Lions’ offense has converted 25 of 28 red zone trips, for an 89.3% success rate, with 15 TDs (10 run, 5 pass) and five field goals.

3. RZ does not equal TDs vs. PSU.

While the Penn State defense’s success rate for limiting an opponent to a score of any kind (TD or field goal) is at 64.7%, or 22 of 34, its success rate for giving up a TD in the RZ is even more impressive, just 29.4%. That’s only 10 touchdowns in 34 trips.

4. Red zone trips against Penn State are on the rise.

Nearly one-third of Penn State’s opponents’ red-zone trips (11 of 34) have come in the past two games. Here is what happens game-by-game when a Penn State opponent gets in the red zone in 2021.

Game	Trips	Score	Pts.	TD(R/P)	FG	Scoring%
Wisconsin, W 16-10	4	1	7	1 (1/0)	0-1	25%
Ball State, W 44-13	4	3	13	1 (1/0)	2-2	75%
Auburn, W 28-20	3	2	14	2 (2/0)	0	67%
Villanova, W 38-17	2	2	10	1 (0/1)	1-1	100%
Indiana, W 24-0	2	0	0	0	0-1	0%
Iowa, L 23-20	4	3	13	1 (0/1)	2-2	75%
Illinois, L 20-18	4	4	16	1 (0/1)	3-3	100%
Ohio State, L 33-24	6	5	19	1 (1/0)	4-4	83.3%
Maryland, W 31-14	5	2	14	2 (1/1)	0-0	40%
Total, 6-3	34	22	106	10 (7/3)	12-14	64.7%

5. Ohio State’s success rate is deceiving.

The Buckeyes scored on five of their six trips against Penn State, but had only one TD (a paltry 16.7% success rate). The Penn State defense forced four RZ field goals. According to Bill Landis of The Athletic, Ohio State ran 20 plays inside Penn State’s 20-yard line and gained a total of only 29 yards. Nine went for zero or negative yardage. And 13 Buckeye runs in the red zone yielded only 26 yards. The RZ work done by the Penn State D against what was the nation’s No. 1 offense at the time kept PSU in the game.

6. What happens when a team does not score in the red zone vs. Penn State?

Here you go: two missed field goals (Wisconsin, Indiana); four losses of the ball on downs (Auburn, Indiana, Ohio State, Maryland), two interceptions (Wisconsin, Maryland), two fumbles (Wisconsin, Maryland) and two ends of game (Ball State, Iowa).

7. Penn State’s defense has bookended decisive, game-saving turnovers in the red zone that won its first game of the season and its most recent, here vs. Maryland.

Wisconsin QB Graham Mertz lost a fumble on the 8-yard line in the season-opener and was intercepted in the red zone by Penn State safety Jaquan Brisker. And here on Saturday, Maryland QB Taulia Tagovailoa pulled the same daily double, losing a fumble on the 12 in the third quarter and then throwing a pick at the 13 in the fourth quarter.

Nittany Lion safety Ji’Ayir Brown was the Nittany Lion on the spot in both cases against the Terps, recovering the fumble, then picking off Tagovailoa and racing 87 yards for a touchdown, creating a 14-point turnaround off of that single interception.

“A lot of teams make mistakes,” Brown said after the game on Saturday. “It’s a matter of, ‘Who makes the least mistakes wins.’ When people make mistakes, you want to be there to execute and then capitalize on their mistakes. We were able to do that today and that’s what helped us get the win.

“We don’t count on it. But when they do make a mistake, we do count on making them pay for it. That plays into a big part of our schemes.”

8. 106 of the 150 points the Nittany Lions have surrendered have come in the red zone.

Of the other 44, seven came on a scoop-and-score by the Ohio State defense, the rest off of scoring beyond the red zone. The Nittany Lions are allowing only 16.7 points per game. Penn State has given up only three touchdowns out of the red zone, and all of them were passes.

Penn State is very familiar with many of the stingiest defenses in the nation: Wisconsin’s defense ranks No. 4 in fewest points allowed (15.4), followed by Iowa (15.7) and Michigan (16.0). Others include Ohio State (No. 19, 19.0), Auburn (No. 24, 19.8) and Illinois (No. 31, 21.6).

9. This is the Catch-22 of great red zone defenses: You don’t even want opponents to get there in the first place.

Bad news for Penn State here two ways, and one includes Saturday’s opponent, Michigan.

The thing is, Penn State’s defense is not always the best at keeping teams from getting into the red zone in the first place. In fact, in 2021 the Nittany Lions are tied with four teams for 80th out of 130 teams in fewest opponents’ trips to the red zone, with 34. Only 46 teams have allowed more trips to the red zone.

Wisconsin is the best the country in keeping their opponents out of the red zone. Badger opponents have been in the RZ only 15 times in nine games in 2021 vs. the 34 for Penn State. (In the season opener vs. Wisconsin, Penn State’s offense made three red zone trips, with a TD and making 1 of 2 field goal attempts.) When teams do make it to the RZ against Wisconsin, they score 80% of the time. Georgia, with the best defense in the country, has allowed its opponents in the RZ only 15 times.

Michigan is excellent here as well. The Wolverines’ defense is equally as stingy, also allowing just 16 red zone trips in 2021. (Once there, Michigan’s opponents score 81.2% of the time.) Overall, Michigan has scored 42 times in the red zone and given up only 13 red zones scores in 2021.

10. Penn State is not as consistently good as you would think when looking back at its red zone defense in the past 14 seasons. (RZ stats from the NCAA are not available before the 2008 season.) Penn State has bettered the 2021 team’s 64.7% scoring D only once.

That was in 2012, under Bill O’Brien and D-coordinator Ted Roof, when PSU’s defense had a bunch of fighters with a 64.3% scoring rate that ranked No. 2 in the country. The 2009 Nittany Lions, under Joe Paterno and D-coordinator Tom Bradley, were ranked No. 6 nationally at 67.8%. The 2008 squad allowed the fewest trips inside the red zone over the last 14 seasons, with just 24 (by comparison, the 2016 Nittany Lions allowed literally twice as many, at 48).

Year	Rank	Trips	Scores	TD (R/P)	FG	Scoring %
2021	6	34	22	10 (7/3)	12	64.7%
2020	104	28	25	16 (8/8)	10	89.3%
2019	54	33	27	16 (13/3)	11	81.8%
2018	11	36	27	21 (14/7)	8	75.0%
2017	74	32	27	18 (11/7)	9	84.4%
2016	106	48	43	29 (18/11)	14	89.6%
2015	119	35	32	26 (16/10)	6	91.4%
2014	53	39	32	18 (12/6)	14	82.1%
2013	73	38	22	22 (12/10)	9	84.2%
2012	2	42	27	20 (10/10)	7	64.3%
2011	117	36	33	21 (12/9)	12	91.7%
2010	117	37	34	26 (13/13)	8	91.9%
2009	4	28	19	11 (6/5)	8	67.8%
2008	97	24	21	14 (11/3)	7	87.5%