Defense has been the featured group in Happy Valley through the offseason. Despite Penn State’s high-powered offenses over the last few years, what the Nittany Lions have on the defensive side of the ball gained national attention.

That prominent defense showed up in full force on Saturday in the season opener. The Nittany Lions defeated Idaho 79-7, totaling seven sacks, 11 tackles for loss and allowing just four rushing yards in the first game of the season. Even against an FCS opponent, that’s pretty impressive.

After the game, BTN analyst and former head coach Glen Mason talked about Penn State’s performance in the season opener. Yes, he expected the Nittany Lions to be really good defensively, but he didn’t expect it to be quite as dominant as it was against the Vandals.

“They played great defense,” Mason said. “We knew they were going to be good defensively, I knew they were going to be good defensively, I didn’t know they were going to be this good right out of the block.

“When you think about that defense, and I know the offense scored 79 points, but 145 total yards [allowed], four yards rushing, five first downs. That’s why I’m talking about the defense.”

Yeah, it’s hard to argue with those numbers.

Obviously, the competition will only continue to get better for Penn State. Thumping an undermanned FCS team doesn’t always provide the best insight on a team. But the Nittany Lions were as impressive as they could be in a season opener.

It looked capable of competing with anyone in the B1G.