Penn State football’s defense line was disruptive against Rhett Lashlee’s offense in the Nittany Lions’ 38-10 College Football Playoff victory over No. 11 seed SMU on Saturday. The defensive front pressured Mustangs quarterback Kevin Jennings all game and stopped running back Brashard Smith.

Depth on the line has been hard to come by for Penn State. Defensive coordinator Tom Allen said Tuesday that he’d like to see freshman Xavier Gilliam and redshirt freshman Ty Blanding step up, but they weren’t needed as the starters handled business.

Nine Nittany Lions recorded a tackle for loss as the defense finished with 11 total with three sacks and seven pressures. SMU was held to 58 yards rushing, averaging 1.6 yards per carry. Abdul Carter led the way with two tackles for loss and a sack.

“We challenged our D-line the whole week leading up to it, and our linebackers to stop the run and pressure the quarterback,” defensive coordinator Tom Allen said.

Perhaps the biggest threat coming into the playoff game was the Mustangs’ speedy gunslinger Kevin Jennings, who had 3,050 yards and 22 touchdowns passing with another 379 yards and five touchdowns rushing coming into the game.

However, Jennings was held to 20-for-36 passing for 193 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions with his eight carries for a career-low -25 yards. The defense had 35 sack yards and its success came from being gap-sound.

“Our pass rush lanes were disciplined and disruptive today,” James Franklin said. “We needed that against one of the more dynamic quarterbacks in the country.”

However, the defense struggled at the start of the game. Like in the Big Ten Championship against Oregon two weeks ago, SMU presented a daunting high-tempo offense. It was something the Nittany Lions struggled to stop against the Ducks and the same appeared to be true on the Mustangs’ first drive.

It took SMU seven plays to drive 49 yards with 2:20 of elapsed time. The Mustangs ran the ball three straight times, from the Penn State 28-yard line to set up at 4th-and-1. SMU called a run-pass option and instead of Jennings keeping, he threw it to the end zone where Zakee Wheatley broke up the pass.

“I’m just telling you, it was fast today,” Franklin said. “The combination of them and how they run their offense and what they do, we did a great job. We needed to get settled down, we didn’t face that a whole lot this year.”

The rest of SMU’s first-half drives ended in a pick-six, punt, pick-six, punt, interception, and punt. Penn State was up 14-0 in the middle of the fourth quarter despite having a struggling offense that had yet to reach the red zone.

“In this game specifically they [the defense] really got us going,” quarterback Drew Allar said. “We didn’t have a great start offensively and to go up 14-0 when offensively, we really didn’t do anything up to that point was huge.”

The offense scored its scored two touchdowns in the second quarter and the defense continued to shut down the Mustangs into the second half with a 28-0 lead. After the break, it was more the same. SMU went punt, field goal, missed field goal, and punt before scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

“I wanted to go out with a bang. I truly believe that we are the best defense in the country by far and I think today was just another opportunity for us to show that,” said redshirt senior Dvon J-Thomas. “There’s no other way that I wanted to go out of Beaver Stadium than to put on a defensive performance like we did.”

The Mustangs finished the game with 253 yards and a season-low 10 points as the nation’s fifth-best scoring offense. It was a big difference from two weeks ago when Oregon had 469 yards of offense, scored 45 points, and ran all over the Nittany Lions with 186 yards.

“Just so proud of our D-line,” Allen said. “They got a few sacks and constant pressure.”

The Nittany Lions will head to Glendale, Arizona to face No. 3-seed Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve. The Broncos have one of the most prolific offenses in the country, led by Heisman Trophy runner-up Ashton Jeanty.

Jeanty would be arguably the best running back Penn State has faced this season and Allen and his defensive line will be faced with yet another difficult task.

“We’re really excited about where we are but it’s a 1-0 mindset and we have to continue to learn from things each week like we did the last time we played and just keep getting better,” Allen said.