Not talked about much, but PSU's Secondary play as responsible for the loss as anything else.

[CJFisJoePaII]

ND 11 of 17 on 3rd Down Conversions..... 70% of their Total Offensive Yards through the air (267 passing yards).... 68% Completion Percentage Allowed....

Let's talk about ND's last TD - a 54 yard TD pass given up with a 7-point lead and only 4:38 remaining???? Seriously??? PSU was in a Cover 2 formation, but the deep help was like a deer in the headlights after the d-back slipped and fell because his initial drop was incorrect.... He was so far to the middle (and reacted late) he wasn't able to do anything when he saw the primary coverage go down after the receiver's initial cut on the "out-&-up", so he then compounded those mistakes by taking a horrible angle as if he was going to get there in time to break-up the play???..... this caused him to lose inside-leverage as the receiver had long since caught the ball, re-acecelerated and simply drop-stepped to the inside doing an 'Ole as Reed (who was running straight east-west) ran straight past him??? Reed should have taken a downfield angle that kept him to the inside and downward of the receiver who was running down sideline.

The "fundamentals" in the secondary are awful. There is no way deep help should be that far from the receiver after seeing primary coverage go down early in the play..... do absolutely nothing but sit there even after watching the primary coverage slip and fall..... then take an insanely bad angle when he finally does go over to provide help.

This was not the first game that this secondary has made a mediocre passing game look like world-beaters..... giving up tons of 3rd Down Conversions.... high completion percentages..... 50+ yard TD passes when we're in the lead, etc..........

 

[PSUWrestlingFanSince2011]

Secondary was overrated this season tbh, especially considering our elite pass rush.

 

[NittanyIllinois]

Absolutely agree.

"No Fly Zone" gave up big plays all year when it mattered. Enough of the wing-flapping nonsense and get back to fundamentals.

We develop our talent in the secondary very, very well, so I'm not going to complain about the state of the secondary in general. We've developed some real studs in the defensive backfield in recent years. But the secondary has definitely fallen short in big moments the past few years.

 

[WaylonJ]

Without the numbers in front of me it seems by the eye test we've been weak on 3rd and 4th down for a long time, going back way before this season. I'd be interested to see the numbers cumulatively going back say 5 or 10 seasons, especially on long yardage.

 

[Rip_E_2_Joe_PA]

ND 11 of 17 on 3rd Down Conversions..... 70% of their Total Offensive Yards through the air (267 passing yards).... 68% Completion Percentage Allowed....

Let's talk about ND's last TD - a 54 yard TD pass given up with a 7-point lead and only 4:38 remaining???? Seriously??? PSU was in a Cover 2 formation, but the deep help was like a deer in the headlights after the d-back slipped and fell because his initial drop was incorrect.... He was so far to the middle (and reacted late) he wasn't able to do anything when he saw the primary coverage go down after the receiver's initial cut on the "out-&-up", so he then compounded those mistakes by taking a horrible angle as if he was going to get there in time to break-up the play???..... this caused him to lose inside-leverage as the receiver had long since caught the ball, re-acecelerated and simply drop-stepped to the inside doing an 'Ole as Reed (who was running straight east-west) ran straight past him??? Reed should have taken a downfield angle that kept him to the inside and downward of the receiver who was running down sideline.

The "fundamentals" in the secondary are awful. There is no way deep help should be that far from the receiver after seeing primary coverage go down early in the play..... do absolutely nothing but sit there even after watching the primary coverage slip and fall..... then take an insanely bad angle when he finally does go over to provide help.

This was not the first game that this secondary has made a mediocre passing game look like world-beaters..... giving up tons of 3rd Down Conversions.... high completion percentages..... 50+ yard TD passes when we're in the lead, etc..........

All true.

 

[jimarnp]

ND 11 of 17 on 3rd Down Conversions..... 70% of their Total Offensive Yards through the air (267 passing yards).... 68% Completion Percentage Allowed....

Let's talk about ND's last TD - a 54 yard TD pass given up with a 7-point lead and only 4:38 remaining???? Seriously??? PSU was in a Cover 2 formation, but the deep help was like a deer in the headlights after the d-back slipped and fell because his initial drop was incorrect.... He was so far to the middle (and reacted late) he wasn't able to do anything when he saw the primary coverage go down after the receiver's initial cut on the "out-&-up", so he then compounded those mistakes by taking a horrible angle as if he was going to get there in time to break-up the play???..... this caused him to lose inside-leverage as the receiver had long since caught the ball, re-acecelerated and simply drop-stepped to the inside doing an 'Ole as Reed (who was running straight east-west) ran straight past him??? Reed should have taken a downfield angle that kept him to the inside and downward of the receiver who was running down sideline.

The "fundamentals" in the secondary are awful. There is no way deep help should be that far from the receiver after seeing primary coverage go down early in the play..... do absolutely nothing but sit there even after watching the primary coverage slip and fall..... then take an insanely bad angle when he finally does go over to provide help.

This was not the first game that this secondary has made a mediocre passing game look like world-beaters..... giving up tons of 3rd Down Conversions.... high completion percentages..... 50+ yard TD passes when we're in the lead, etc..........

The secondary has been solid ( good) all year…..hence 13 wins. —There have been instances when they were out of position ( bad angles), or “vapor locked” on coverage/slipped on the Turf Monster ( these last two resulted ND final TD). Ninety + percent of of secondary play has been good to very good. Adjustments after exposure have also been good ( although not necessarily immediate). —The secondary and its players are an overall strength. They can improve, but they are a strength when compared to college secondaries overall. There are probably only 3 or 4 QB/WR combos that are decisively better than our secondary, and we played 2 of them.
—Unfortunately, multiple people had a bad day against the Irish. Their overall abilities remain very good, however.

 

[Rip_E_2_Joe_PA]

People forget the significance of the loss of KJ Winston and the subsequent impact that shuffling players due to his loss made on the unit. Looks as if Cam Miller has hit the portal already. True freshmen and a sophomore stepped in and actually outperformed any reasonable expectations. However there was a measurable but understandable drop off at times.

 

[WaylonJ]

cfbstats.com - 2024 Penn State Nittany Lions Third Down Conversion Defense Split Stats

Against ranked, we gave up 3rd down conversions at a 45% clip this year according to this. Compare to 35% vs. ranked last year. In 2022 it was 54% conversion rate for ranked opponents on 3rd down. It's apparently not just my imagination.