Penn State Football: Defense Looks to State Its Case Against Keenum

When Penn State takes on Houston next week in the TicketCity Bowl, most of the defensive gameplan will be centered on stopping Case Keenum, the Cougars record-setting quarterback.

As it should be.

Keenum averages 41 pass attempts per game, and he completed 71.3 percent of his passes this season, including 45 touchdowns to just five interceptions. Houston leads the nation in passing yards per game (443.8) and points per game (50.8).

‘Everyone thinks they’re just a passing team and they’re not,’ interim coach Tom Bradley said. ‘They do a good job, they keep you off-balance. A lot of downs they’re 50-50 since we broke them down. They’re hard to get tendencies on.’

Typically, defensive minds will tell you putting a team in 3rd-and-long situations is the key to slowing down an explosive offense. But there’s seemingly no down and distance Keenum can’t navigate. On 3rd down and at least six yards to go, Keenum completed 68.2 percent of his passes for an average of 9.96 yards. Houston ranked fifth nationally (52.15 percent) in third-down conversion.

“Their route combinations are incredible,” senior safety and co-captain Drew Astorino said. “They do the funkiest stuff that just takes zone defenses and just crunkle ’em up.”

Southern Mississippi is the only team in recent years to keep the Cougars offense in check when Keenum is running the show, holding it to a season-low 28 points Dec. 3 in the Conference USA championship. The previous scoring low by a Keenum-run offense was 20 points in a loss to Air Force in the 2009 Armed Forces Bowl, when Keenum threw six interceptions.

“We had a few mishaps, a few bad checks, a few things here and there,” Keenum told reporters after the loss to Southern Miss, which ended the Cougars Bowl Championship Series hopes. “We’ve been able to correct them in the past. We just didn’t correct them when we needed to.”

Astorino said Keenum quickly makes decisions in the pocket, calculating his reads, rarely taking a sack and hardly forcing throws into tight windows.

“If [option] three’s covered, he’s looking at four and then he’s looking at five,” Astorino said. “So everybody better be covered for him not to throw the ball.”

Penn State arrived in Dallas on Monday, a week before it squares off with Houston at Cotton Bowl Stadium. It’ll be Penn State’s toughest quarterback assignment since U.S.C.’s Mark Sanchez torched the Nittany Lions’ senior-laden secondary for 413 yards and four touchdowns in the 2009 Rose Bowl.

Back then, the four starters in Penn State’s 2011 secondary were all freshmen.

So was Devon Still, albeit in his second year.

Still anchors a Penn State defense that ranks fifth nationally in pass efficiency defense, allowing opponents to complete 53.91 percent of its passes for an average of 162 yards per game. The Lions have given up nine passing touchdowns all year. On the other hand, Keenum threw nine Oct. 27 against Rice.

Something has got to give next Monday. Keenum is the only quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards in three different seasons, and he already owns the Football Bowl Subdivision career records for total offense, passing yards and touchdown passes.

“He’s a good quarterback,” Still said of Keenum. “But we’re gonna see how he plays when he goes against our defense.”