Simple question, what do you do when your opponent rushes 40 times at 8.4 yards per carry? Answer: You Lose. The Nittany Lions took the field running and didn't look back. With Quarterback Daryll Clark and runningbacks Evan Royster and Stephon Green all having at least 80 yards rushing, the tone was set for a battle on the ground. Illinois seemed up to the challenge in the first half, but by the time the second rolled around, the boys from Penn State had worn down our defensive line. The first quarter only yielded 15 yards on the ground for PSU. By halftime, that number had risen to 97, still not terrible. But then the third and fourth quarters featured a running attack that couldn't be stopped. By the time the third quarter came to an end, Penn State had brought the rushing total from under 100 to over 240. Juice Williams out-gained his counterpart 344 yards to 258 yards of total offense, but with the running game working so well, it didn't seem to matter for Joe Pa's team. It wasn't just a chunk here and a chunk there either. Penn State had two rushing plays over 50 yards today, and until now their longest run of the season was 37 yards by Punter Andrew Dailey on a fake. After the game, Patrno had this to say about the rushing effort, "Obviously I was pleased, but I wish we could be more consistent at times. Earlier in the year we would do things well for a half, but this time we ran the ball fairly well the whole ball game. I was glad to see it. The kids were challenged. We were embarrassed last week because we didn't do that good of a job. But it was good to see."
Some Notes and Concerns:
Concerns People have been saying all year that the strength of the defense is the D-Line, but when this game started today Illinois had only 4 sacks on the season. They recorded none today so by my calculations, that's one sack per game and half of them came against Illinois State. To give you an idea of what that means... Illinois has allowed its quarterback to be sacked 13 times this year. That's worse than a 3 to 1 ratio against us.
People may be happy to see the two starting safeties lead the team in tackles, but not me. If these guys were just flying to the ball, it'd be one thing, but they have the tackles because the defensive line and the linebackers are allowing the plays to make it all the way to our last line of defense.
With the exception of Illinois State, the Illini have not scored a touchdown in the first 3 quarters of a game.
Not including Illinois state, Illinois is averaging under 8.7 points per game.
Notes
Juice Williams breaks Kurt Kittner's Illinois total offense record with over 8,880 yards. This also moves Willams into the top ten for total yards in Big Ten history.
Rejus Benn loves playing against PSU. In his three years with the Illini, Benn has put up 290 receiving yards for 96.7 yards per game.
Juice Threw his 45th career touchdown today when he connected with Jarred Fayson. Also, he recorded his 15th career rushing touchdown.
Red-shirt freshman Evan Frierson recorded his second fumble recovery in two games.
Check back later for more coverage.
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