First off I think Penns D is the real deal. I dont know if they are top 5 but they are in the top 15 for sure.
Second what happens if we would have got that pick that was missed? What happens if one of those drops was caught and we got a first down?
The game was close and it was lost on lack of execution. On the flip side when the boys are playing right and executing, well we all know what we can be.
As for D well, we have some problems. The line is never going to be world beaters, they can almost hold thier own, but need some back up. With the speed we have behind them this year, we need for them to close those gaps faster. Move up and meet them better. Some of the runs Penn had, should have not gotten but about half the yards they did, some of that was poor tackling some of it was not moving up fast enough. I said something about that in the non-cons, and a week or two later it looked like we were doing much better as far as the LB's meeting people in the gap, but go back and watch the Penn game, for every step forward our guys take, thier guy takes two. Some of our players are worse at this than others, but I hope they will soon learn it is easier to put the hit on, then wait for them to put the hit on you, plus it shuts down thier run game. Now these are just my views and everyone has their own, but I beleive if our LB's and DB's (when they know it's a run) can use their speed to close the gaps sooner, we will be a tough team to run against. After that I dare you to try and throw it all game long against our secondary.
Can someone look at the Pitt game, they are avg 166 or so rushing a game but didnt we hold them to under 140? Look and see where our guys were playing (how deep) compared to the PSU game. Watch them both and tell me I am wrong, that we didnt get up there and meet Pitt better than we did in the PSU game. I could be wrong as I have not watched parts of both games back to back, but something changed.