Marcus Allen: S · Penn State · #2.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Marcus Allen
Plays like an extra linebacker near the line. Two seasons in the Penn State secondary to date. Named All-Big Ten two seasons running, most recently in 2017. A game that shows it: 12 tackles and 1 tackle for loss against Pittsburgh — Week 2, 2017.
Play style
Lives near the line of scrimmage as a de facto extra linebacker.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
71 tackles. 2 passes defended. 1 interception. 4 TFL.
Counts only, never a rate — splash-event sample sizes this small (interceptions, pass breakups, TFL) are noise as a rate and signal only as a tally.
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Penn State | 71 | 45 | 4.0 | 1.0 | 2 | 1 |
| 2016 | Penn State | 110 | 57 | 6.0 | 0.0 | 3 | -- |
| Career | 181 | 102 | 10.0 | 1.0 | 5 | 1 |
There is no official box score for these seasons, so this sack count comes from the play-by-play.
Each sack is credited to the player named on the play, and a sack shared by two players counts as half for each. We checked the same method against the official box scores for 2016 to 2019: it lands within half a sack for about 9 in 10 players. Tackles and passes defended are not shown for these seasons because the same check does not hold for them. Source: SportsDataverse play data.
Game log · Week-by-week
2017 season · 13 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 52-0vs Akron | 3 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 33-14vs Pittsburgh | 12 | 9 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | Season-high 12 tackles |
| Wk 3 | W 56-0vs Georgia State | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | W 21-19@ Iowa | 5 | 4 | 2.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | W 45-14vs Indiana | 6 | 2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 6 | W 31-7@ Northwestern | 5 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | W 42-13vs No. 19 Michigan | 6 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | L 38-39@ No. 6 Ohio State | 10 | 9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | L 24-27@ No. 24 Michigan State | 5 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 35-6vs Rutgers | 3 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | W 56-44vs Nebraska | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | W 66-3@ Maryland | 4 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
 Bowl | W 35-28vs No. 12 Washington | 7 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 71 | 45 | 4.0 | 1.0 | 1 | 2 |
Week 4 · 2017
W 21-19
at Iowa
1 sack · 2 tackles for loss · 5 tackles
A close one, won by 2 on the road.
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
PD rate
3%2 pass breakupsInterceptions
1interceptionsTackle volume
71tackles this seasonTFL rate
6%4 TFL71 tackles · 4 for loss · 1 sack · 2 pass breakups · 1 interception.
2 seasons under James Franklin — 22-5 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2017 season · 13 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 5.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| Road5g | 5.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 5.9 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 5.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
James Franklin
Pass share
51.1%
458 pass / 439 run
Plays / game
69.0
13 games
Team sack rate
5.9%
511 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2017
First team in his league at the position.
How it ended
Two seasons at Penn State, 181 tackles, a first-team All-Conference season (2017) — drafted at #148 overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Honored in a first season.
Trophy case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
ALL-BIG TEN · 1ST TEAM
All-Big Ten 1st team (2017)
Coaching lineage · 2014–2017
1 coachPlayed every college season under James Franklin.
Next stop · NFL
Pittsburgh SteelersEntering 9th NFL season
Pittsburgh SteelersEntering 9th NFL season
