Penn State’s defense hasn’t shut out an opponent since Georgia State in 2017, and it hasn’t shutout a Big Ten opponent since Illinois in 2015. To say the Nittany Lions had a historic defensive performance against Maryland Friday night would be an understatement.

Brent Pry’s unit got off to a hot start early when Jan Johnson intercepted a Josh Jackson pass on Maryland’s first possession, setting up the Penn State offense inside the Terps’ ten-yard line for an easy Sean Clifford rushing touchdown. The senior linebacker was ecstatic to see his big play have a direct impact on the offense’s success.

"Gimme that" -Jan Johnson, probably pic.twitter.com/NLyPItS8Et

— Onward State (@OnwardState) September 28, 2019

“Our whole job on defense is just to get the ball back to the offense and let them do what they do best,” Johnson said. “So it’s great that they were able to capitalize on [my interception], they were effective all night.”

When it finally managed to get a drive going in the first quarter, Maryland got all the way down to Penn State’s 11-yard line before Tariq Castro-Fields picked off Jackson and hand the ball right back to the Nittany Lions. This was truly the only sniff of points that the Terps had all night, as they only mustered 128 total yards of offense, and Jackson could only complete 10 passes for 65 yards.

“When you can do that on the road and take the crowd out of the game and give your offense extra opportunities, that’s significant,” Franklin said. “Our defense is playing with a lot of confidence right now.”

While Johnson and Castro-Fields are two of the more established names on Penn State’s defense, plenty of young players made an impact in tonight’s domination by the Nittany Lions. Young linebackers such as Jesse Luketa and Ellis Brooks were forced to step in to elevated roles after Micah Parsons was ejected early in the game due to a targeting call.

Luketa finished the night with five total tackles — the second-most on the team — while Brooks led Penn State with six total stops and 2.5 sacks. Brooks, a redshirt sophomore, played a bit in 2018 and had 30 total tackles on the year, but Friday night’s performance was certainly the best of his career. Luketa is a true sophomore who played sparingly in 2018 but also had his coming-out party against the Terps.

Johnson was proud to see both budding defensive stars make several big plays under the Friday night lights, but he wasn’t surprised that they both stepped up in a big way.

“We have a really deep linebacker unit,” Johnson said. “We have a bunch of guys that can play and they showed that they can tonight.”

The two young linebackers were a huge part of stuffing Maryland’s run game throughout the night. Anthony McFarland was expected to play a big role out of the Terp’s backfield but was held to just 24 rushing yards on the night. Maryland finished with a total of just 60 yards on the ground.

Outside of Luketa and Brooks, another young player who stepped up Friday was Adisa Isaac. The true freshman out of Brooklyn finished the night with four total tackles, including 2.5 tackles for loss.

While this marks Penn State’s first shutout since 2017, the Nittany Lions have been in situations where they could’ve kept teams to zero points, but brought in second and third-team players that have let in late game touchdowns. Franklin was most impressed with the fact at how many back ups he brought in Friday night, but how they were all able to continue to dominate Maryland’s offense.

“We played seconds, thirds, and fourths, and they went in and executed the defense at a really high level,” Franklin said. “I think that’s really good progress.”