The Penn State defense limited visiting Minnesota to its lowest output of total offense of the 2009 season during last weekend’s 20-0 shutout. But it’s doubtful anybody took more self satisfaction out of the contest, and the outcome, than the Nittany Lions’ revamped secondary.

With four new starters, the unit endured a lot of preseason questioning and doubts, but came through impressively against the Golden Gophers and superstar wideout Eric Decker. It was 20-0 and clearly mop-up time when Decker finally hauled in his only pass reception of the day early in the fourth quarter.

“We kept getting attacked all the time because nobody really knew about us,” said sophomore safety Drew Asterino. “We had never really played, so instead of just saying, ‘we haven’t seen them play,’ we kept hearing, ‘(the secondary) is the worst part of the defense.’

“That stuff fuels us.”

Playing with a chip on its collective shoulder, the secondary was rock solid against Minnesota – particularly senior cornerback A.J. Wallace, who shadowed Decker all over the field and came up huge in his first start of the season.

“It was great to see,” said PSU’s Jared Odrick. “As a defensive lineman, you really don’t notice those type of things until the end of the game. (After the game) you realize (Decker) was really taken out of the game.”

Despite going against Decker and strong-armed quarterback Adam Weber, the Lions secondary helped limit the Gophers to just 101 passing yards and another 37 on the ground. Afterwards, head coach Joe Paterno acknowledged that the coaching staff had challenged Wallace in his head-to-head matchup with Decker.

“I take great pride in being challenged,” Wallace said. “I had some big stuff on my plate and I was ready to eat.”

When asked if getting a shutout, and shutting down Decker, was extra satisfying, Asterino said: “A win is satisfying, and all of the other stuff is a plus.”
-- NEIL GEOGHEGAN