Defense proves dominant in a different way in win
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Kobe King hadn’t scored a defensive touchdown since he was just a little kid.
The former two- way standout at Cass Technical High School in Detroit had tasted the end zone more recently as a preps running back.
But it had been many years since King had crossed the goal line with the ball as a defensive player until Saturday, when he recovered a loose ball against Rutgers and returned it 14 yards for a touchdown in Penn State’s 55-10 road win Saturday night at SHI Stadium.
“I was just focusing on getting the ball,” King said postgame. “I wasn’t trying to kick it out of bounds. I tried to slow down and pick the ball up and score.”
King’s touchdown was set up by linebacker Dominic DeLuca and cornerback Marquis Wilson, who both keyed in on the Scarlet Knights’ tight end Johnny Langan to jar the ball out of his hands. With the Nittany Lions trailing 10-7 in the waning moments of the first quarter, King’s six points were the first of 48 unanswered by Penn State.
The defense also had another touchdown in the early stages of the third quarter. Linebacker Curtis Jacobs, who missed last week’s game against Maryland because of an injury he suffered the previous weekend versus Indiana, stripsacked Rutgers quarterback Gavin Wimsatt.
Trenton, N.J., native and safety Ji’Ayir Brown scooped up the loose ball and returned it for a house call. While Brown got the glamor of the defensive touchdown, Jacobs’ presence on the field once again set the dynamic play up.
“He’s athletic; he’s a playmaker for us,” James Franklin said. “Having a veteran guy like that back was really good.”
Jacobs tied for the team lead for tackles for loss on the evening with two. As a team, the Nittany Lions had 15 of them on the Scarlet Knights’ 69 offensive plays.
Joining Jacobs atop the tackles for loss leaderboard was linebacker Abdul Carter, who continues to draw rave reviews from various members of the program.
The freshman is now second on the team in total tackles, trailing only Brown. As the season has progressed, Franklin and defensive coordinator Manny Diaz have felt comfortable giving Carter more playing time.
“He’s made the splash plays from the very beginning. His missed assignments are going down every single week,” Franklin said of Carter. “So it gives you a lot more confidence that you can put him in there and not only are you going to get good plays, but the plays that we have to eliminate as a young player, those are reducing.”
With Jacobs, Carter and King performing in the manner that they did Saturday evening, it’s easy to see why Franklin is growing more comfortable with a positional group that he called one of the team’s biggest question marks back in the summer.
“We’re in a situation now where our depth at linebacker is pretty good. I wouldn’t have said that at the beginning of the season,” Franklin said. “Right now, [Tyler] Elsdon and Kobe are both playing really well. Now, you get Curtis back, we got pretty good depth really across the board.”
King has split repetitions with Elsdon all season long as the duo has divided up duties at middle linebacker. Just a redshirt freshman, King said he’s getting more and more comfortable operating as the proverbial quarterback of the defense.
The latest game-changing play by King will draw attention, and rightfully so, but the reality is that he’s just the latest example of a player on Diaz’s defense showing out at an opportune time to help out the Nittany Lions’ offense in its time of need.
“The depth we have and the amount of guys we have on the field, it just represents our defense, really,” King said.
In addition to Brown and King’s touchdowns, running back Nicholas Singleton had the Nittany Lions’ first kickoff return for a score in nearly two years. The trio of non-offensive touchdowns were part of an effort that Franklin called “good, complementary football.”
For King, last week’s shutout of Maryland in a 300 win was good in its own right. Considering the way the Nittany Lions’ defense took it to Rutgers — forcing eight three-and-outs and getting into the end zone without the help of Penn State’s offense — it’s not hard to see why King would consider Saturday’s more satisfying.
“I would say getting in the end zone a couple times, because last week we got a shutout, but we didn’t have that many turnovers or a lot of ball disruptions,” King said. “This week, we did. We had guys touching the ball more often than last weekend. It was good for our defense.”