Growing up a Penn State football fan in the 2000s, you could usually bet on a couple things. One, Larry Johnson Sr. was going to have a good defensive line. Two, Ron Vanderlinden was likely to have a linebacker corps that was filled with all-conference players. And three, the secondary’s bend-but-don’t-break philosophy would work against the large majority of opponents — until it really didn’t. Hi, Mark Sanchez.
Fast forward 15-20 years, and while the BBDB philosophy hasn’t totally gone by the wayside, this is a secondary that can go mano-y-mano with any passing attack in the country.