Penn State’s secondary is about to get a much cleaner stress test.
Purdue spent an afternoon trying Audavion Collins and didn’t get much for it. The Boilermakers targeted him six times and came away with four yards.
On the season, Collins has given up five catches for 32 yards on 20 targets, and Purdue clearly decided the film said enough to take its shot. It didn’t change the math much.
One completion later, the Nittany Lions still had the better answer.
That matters because it sharpens the bigger question around Penn State’s pass defense: how much of the low passing yardage is the secondary earning, and how much is opponents simply deciding to live on the ground? Against Purdue, Collins saw more action than usual, and those six throws told a more useful story than the tiny bump Penn State added to its season average.
The clearest snapshot came on Jamison Patton’s interception. When asked how the secondary has held up on days the pass rush hasn’t been at its sharpest, Patton pointed back to the front.
“If we cover, the guys are going to get home,” Patton said after the win. “If the guys don’t get home, it’s going to be harder for us.”
That play showed both sides of the equation. A roughing-the-passer penalty kept Purdue alive, Penn State brought pressure from the corner, the quarterback got hit into a bad throw, and Patton was there to finish the job.
The takeaway was simple: somebody in the secondary can force the issue, but somebody else still has to be in position when the ball comes loose. The interception helped set up a field goal and stretched Penn State’s lead to 10.
From D’Anton Lynn’s view, that’s the whole point of this group. He can send one defensive back after the quarterback and trust another to be where the throw lands.
The numbers from the Purdue game back up the picture. Penn State held the Boilermakers to 142 passing yards on 10 completions. The offense’s 43:27 of possession helped squeeze the game even tighter, but the second-half numbers were the real eye-opener: Purdue managed just 32 yards on 22 plays after halftime.
That kind of trust doesn’t happen by accident, and Matt Campbell made that clear when he was asked Tuesday about Collins and Daryus Dixson. He started with the work nobody sees.
“What you see every single day in practice - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - is exactly what you’re getting on Saturday,” Campbell said. “They are pros’ pros, in my opinion.”
Campbell pointed back to spring practice when talking about Dixson, saying he had given him a spring award for consistency. What stood out then was the same thing that stood out later: the way Dixson carried himself on special teams and at corner.
With Collins, Campbell said the impression has been steady from spring ball through camp and into November. “Nothing’s been handed to A.C.
Collins,” he said.
Patton echoed that kind of respect from inside the room. Asked whether Collins leads the secondary, he didn’t hesitate.
“For sure,” Patton said.
Then came the line that showed just how unusual Collins can be around the defense. Patton was asked what he thought when he saw Collins line up on offense against Purdue.
“What was going through my head is, ‘I hope we do something good,’” Patton said. “It was crazy to see him out there.”
Still, the more important work for Collins has come in coverage, where quarterbacks have only tested him 20 times all season. Purdue chose to test him more often, and that is where Penn State learned something useful.
Washington has every reason to keep going that direction. The Huskies are averaging 276.8 passing yards per game, which ranks fourth in the Big Ten. Chris Lawson caught 12 passes for 155 yards in last week’s 17-10 win at Nebraska, and one Washington receiver had more catches in that game than Purdue’s entire team had against Penn State.
That sets up Saturday in Seattle as a strong measuring stick for what Campbell likes in his corners. Washington just won on the road by leaning back on a receiver it trusted, including the fourth-quarter touchdown that put it ahead. If the Huskies take the same approach against Penn State, Collins and Dixson will have to prove that confidence can be earned over and over again on the same drive.
After eight games, that makes this one worth watching long before the snap.
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The uncertainty is the part that stings most for Penn State, because this is no longer a short-term absence with a clean timetable attached. Howard has been listed as questionable for upcoming games, but the available signs point to a recovery that is moving slowly, if it is moving at all. For a team that expected to have him available by now, the wait has turned into a real roster concern. [Read more 🡒]