RIP
Ohio State legend Nick Mangold dies at 41 years old due to complications from kidney disease.
Seven games into the season, Matt Patricia’s Ohio State defense has still allowed fewer total points all season (41) than Jim Knowles’ Penn State defense allowed to UCLA (42).
When Jim Knowles left Ohio State after last year’s national championship run to become the defensive coordinator at Penn State, the expectation was that the Nittany Lions would have one of the best defenses in the country. After all, Knowles had the best defense in the country in his final season at Ohio State, and was inheriting a Penn State roster full of talented veteran defenders like defensive linemen Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant, linebacker Tony Rojas, cornerback A.J. Harris and safety Zakee Wheatley.
Ohio State, on the other hand, entered its first season with Patricia as defensive coordinator with a more uncertain outlook. Patricia hadn’t coached at the collegiate level in more than two decades, and the Buckeyes had to replace eight starters on defense who were all selected in the 2025 NFL draft.
Yet Patricia’s first Ohio State defense has been even better than last season’s championship-winning unit, while Knowles’ first Penn State defense – which will quite possibly be his only Penn State defense after James Franklin was fired – has fallen well short of expectations.
As Ohio State prepares to welcome Knowles back to Ohio Stadium next weekend for the 7-0 Buckeyes’ clash with the 3-4 Nittany Lions, we look at how the performance of their respective defenses has compared to each other so far this season across key statistical categories.
Spoiler alert: Patricia’s defense has been better than Knowles’ defense in nearly every category, and by a wide margin in most of them.
Points Allowed Per Game
Ohio State: 5.9 (1st in FBS)
Penn State: 19.4 (29th in FBS)
To put this in more perspective: Ohio State has allowed fewer points in every one of its seven games as Penn State has allowed on average for the year. The Buckeyes have allowed double digits in a game just once, giving up 16 points to Illinois. Penn State has allowed at least 22 points in all four of its games against Big Ten opponents.
Yards Allowed Per Game
Ohio State: 216.9 (1st in FBS)
Penn State: 303.7 (20th in FBS)
In Big Ten play, Ohio State has allowed just 208.75 yards per game while Penn State has allowed 363.5 yards per game – a difference of nearly 155 yards per contest. Penn State allowed more than 400 yards against both Oregon and UCLA, while Ohio State has allowed more than 300 yards just once this season (336 yards in the season opener vs. Texas, a game in which the Buckeyes still yielded only seven points).
Yards Allowed Per Play
Ohio State: 3.81 (1st in FBS)
Penn State: 4.63 (18th in FBS)
After allowing just 3.63 yards per play in the non-conference portion of the season, Penn State has allowed 5.35 yards per play against Big Ten opponents. Ohio State’s defense, on the other hand, has been even better in this category than it was in non-conference play, allowing just 3.78 yards per play in its first four Big Ten games of the year.
Rushing Defense
Ohio State: 85.6 yards allowed per game (8th), 2.76 yards allowed per attempt (10th)
Penn State: 158.7 yards allowed per game (91st), 4.07 yards allowed per attempt (71st)
How each team has stopped the run has been the starkest difference between Ohio State and Penn State’s defenses this year. While the Buckeyes’ run defense has been one of the best in the country, allowing just one opponent (Texas) to rush for 100-plus yards all season, Penn State’s run defense has been one of the Big Ten’s worst. The Nittany Lions have allowed more than 200 rushing yards per game in Big Ten play, including 269 yards and three touchdowns on the ground at UCLA and 245 rushing yards and three rushing scores at Iowa.
Penn State allowed a 67-yard run to Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski on the Hawkeyes’ game-winning touchdown drive in Iowa’s 25-24 win over the Nittany Lions in Week 8. (Photo: Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Passing Defense
Ohio State: 131.3 yards allowed per game (3rd), 5.08 yards allowed per attempt (4th)
Penn State: 145.0 yards allowed per game (5th), 5.46 yards allowed per attempt (8th)
Penn State’s defense has been one of the nation’s best at defending the pass, limiting all but one of its first seven opponents (Oregon) to less than 200 passing yards per game. But the Ducks’ passing offense (which had 248 yards and three touchdowns in Happy Valley) is by far the best Penn State has faced so far this season. And Ohio State’s pass defense has been even more dominant, also allowing just one opponent (Illinois, which also threw for exactly 248 yards against the Buckeyes, though with only one passing touchdown) to throw for more than 200 yards so far this season.
Stop Rate
Ohio State: 84.2% (1st)
Penn State: 62.5% (60th)
Knowles has often cited stop rate – a stat coined by ESPN’s Max Olson to measure the percentage of a defense's drives that end in punts, turnovers or turnovers on downs – as the best statistical measure of how successful a defense is, so he has to be dismayed at how mediocre his current defense has been in that category. Patricia’s Ohio State defense, on the other hand, has stopped its opponents with more frequency than any other defense in the country, allowing a nation-best 0.72 points per opposing drive.
(Note: The national rankings for stop rate have not yet been updated to reflect this past week’s games.)
Red Zone
Ohio State: 50% scoring (1st), 16.67% touchdowns (1st)
Penn State: 83.3% scoring (T-64th), 58.33% touchdowns (60th)
Knowles deserves credit for helping Ohio State become Goal Line Stand University, but Patricia’s defense has been even more dominant in the red zone than Knowles’ Buckeye defenses were. Seven games into the year, Ohio State has allowed just two touchdowns and four field goals on 12 red-zone trips for its opponents. Penn State’s red zone defense, on the other hand, has been mediocre, allowing 14 touchdowns and six field goals on 24 red-zone trips.
Third Down
Ohio State: 21.4% (1st)
Penn State: 40.2% (81st)
The biggest strength of Ohio State’s defense this season has been its situational excellence, as the Buckeyes also lead the nation in opposing third-down conversion percentage, allowing just 19 conversions on 89 attempts. Knowles’ defense has allowed more than twice as many third-down conversions (41) on just 13 more attempts (102), and ranks in the bottom half of the country in third-down defense as a result.
Sacks and Tackles for Loss
Ohio State: 46 tackles for loss (T-43rd), 21 sacks (T-20th)
Penn State: 43 tackles for loss (T-62nd), 14 sacks (T-81st)
Until last year’s College Football Playoff, when the Buckeyes had 35 tackles for loss with 18 sacks in four games, Knowles’ Ohio State defenses underwhelmed in terms of making stops behind the line of scrimmage. That’s been the case once again at Penn State this year, where the Nittany Lions have been middling in both TFLs and sacks after ranking in the top five nationally in both categories last year (albeit with one of the nation’s elite pass rushers in Abdul Carter, who’s now in the NFL).
Takeaways
Ohio State: 9 (T-67th)
Penn State: 9 (T-67th)
We finally found a stat where Knowles’ Penn State defense has been as good as Patricia’s Ohio State defense this season. Neither the Buckeyes nor Nittany Lions have been takeaway machines, but both have exactly nine forced turnovers in seven games. Ohio State has five fumble takeaways and four interceptions, while Penn State has made five interceptions and recovered four opponent fumbles.
Ohio State’s defense will look to continue its dominance against a Penn State offense that’s also struggled, while Knowles will look to use the bye week to turn things around and get his defense playing up to expectations against his former team, as the Buckeyes host the Nittany Lions on Saturday at Ohio Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for noon at Ohio Stadium and the game will be televised on FOX.
