Getty Image / Greg Fiume
It’s no secret that Penn State has an excellent defense this season under defensive coordinator Manny Diaz. But, what they did to Maryland’s rushing yards total on Saturday in their 51-15 win against the Terrapins is wild.
It was a dominant performance all day from the Penn State defense. They had 12 tackles for loss and six sacks against Taulia Tagovailoa and The Maryland offense.
That sounds pretty bad on the surface. But, this will sound even worse. Maryland had -49 rushing yards on the day. Yes, negative forty-nine. They nearly went half the length of the football backwards in terms of rushing yards on Saturday.
Now, in high school and college football, sacks do count as both rushing yards for the person sacked and team rushing yardage. In the NFL, it counts against team passing yards.
Those sacks clearly impacted that total, but Maryland couldn’t run the ball on traditional runs, either. Their longest run of the day was just four yards, and it came on one of the last plays of the game by second-string quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. Starting running back Roman Hemby had zero yards on five carries. Ultimately, though, it was the fact that Tagovailoa had -47 yards on eight carries that doomed the rushing total.
It’s the least amount of rushing yards Penn State has given up since Syracuse had -101 in 1947. Yes, -101.
As for Maryland, they’ve lost their last four home games to Penn State by a an average margin of 51.75 to 8. And, after a great start that had them 5-0 and in the game with Ohio State, they’re now 5-4 and fighting to make a bowl game. Meanwhile, Penn State will play for their season next week at home against Michigan. My guess is the Wolverines will run the ball a little better than Maryland did.