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AUBURN, Ala. — Adisa Isaac waited virtually two years to sack a quarterback after he missed the 2021 season with a torn Achilles.
When it got here within the third quarter of Penn State’s 41-12 thumping of Auburn on Saturday, he was overjoyed.
“Man, you don’t even know,” Isaac mentioned when requested the way it felt to drop T.J. Finley. “It felt great. It felt like everything let go. It’s something to build on. I’m glad I got that first one out of the way. There are a lot more where that came from.”
The 6-4, 249-pound Isaac performed a terrific sport, additionally registering two different tackles for loss. His final sack — really half a sack — got here on Dec. 12, 2020, in opposition to Michigan State.
As a bunch, the protection sacked Finley and Robby Ashford six occasions and compelled 4 turnovers, interceptions by Zakee Wheatley and Ji’Ayir Brown and fumble recoveries by Chop Robinson and Jonathan Sutherland.
“We focus on that every week,” Isaac mentioned. “We try to make every week a big game for us. We try to attack the ball and get turnovers and stop the run.”
The Nittany Lions held the Tigers to 119 dashing yards on 36 carries, a 3.3 common. Tank Bigsby, one of many higher backs within the Southeastern Convention, had 39 yards on 9 carries.
Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz once more referred to as an aggressive sport, sending blitzers from each a part of the protection.
“Manny’s impact is big,” Isaac mentioned. “He brings a lot of fire to us. He has us playing fast and physical. That helps take the stress off of us. It allows us to show the gifts that God has given us.”
Freshman linebacker Abdul Carter had a breakout sport with six tackles, one sack, one pressured fumble and one cross breakup.
“You’ve seen him,” Penn State coach James Franklin mentioned. “He flashes. We’ve been excited about him. He’s so mature. He’s picking up things quickly. He’s fast. He’s aggressive.”
Clifford takes a success: Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford absorbed a violent sort out by Auburn linebacker Owen Pappoe within the first quarter, however by no means left the sport.
Clifford scrambled for an 8-yard achieve earlier than Pappoe blindsided him and jarred the soccer unfastened. The ball squirted out of bounds earlier than anybody recovered it.
“It’s football,” Clifford mentioned. “They have players and that dude definitely rocked me. I saw the video, too. It looked even worse than it felt. You gotta get back up and keep fighting.”
Pappoe led Auburn with six tackles.
“Salute to him (Clifford), getting up from a hard hit like that,” Pappoe mentioned. “He was actually about to slide, so I pulled up. I didn’t even give him all I had.”
No, thanks: Franklin mentioned he wouldn’t prefer to see Penn State schedule one other home-and-home sequence with a Southeastern Convention workforce like Auburn any time quickly.
The Nittany Lions defeated the Tigers 28-20 final 12 months at Beaver Stadium after which routed them Saturday.
“There’s a reason why this is like one of the only games that has been scheduled in the history of the Big Ten,” Franklin mentioned. “All the data and all the analytics show you that you have to do whatever you can to win your conference. This is going to help us. We’re going to build on this.”
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