The Penn State Nittany Lions defeated Illinois 21-7 in front of an enthusiastic crowd at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. Blue White Illustrated’s reporters on the scene, Greg Pickel, Sean Fitz, and Nate Bauer, recap what they saw in our Instant Analysis series. Hear their comments in the video embedded below or on the Blue White Illustrated YouTube Channel.

Penn State dominates Illinois

After giving up a touchdown on the game’s opening drive, the Penn State defense locked in and didn’t allow another point for the rest of the game. While they did give up a field goal attempt at the end of the first half, Illinois only gained 59 yards in the second half as the Nittany Lion’s defense put the clamps on the opposing offense.

Once again, the team’s defensive line applied pressure in the run game, generating 13 tackles for loss and seven sacks in the win. While head coach James Franklin was proud of his team’s work, he did say that they needed to be better on opening drives.

“I think the first thing is that we’ve got to be better on opening drives. Opening drives on offense and defense are very telling about how prepared you are,” Franklin said. “We’ve got to break some tendencies that people aren’t so comfortable going down the field. Make them question what they’ve studied. Make them question their game plan.  

“But when you hold a Big Ten team to seven points, you’ve got a chance to win a ton of games.”

The defensive line reset the line of scrimmage all night for Illinois, who generated 34 rushing yards on one play and finished the game with 34 total yards on 32 carries, with sacks included in the lost yardage.

Penn State dominates on the ground with the offensive line leading the way

The story of the game for the Penn State offense was that they intimidated and dominated the Illinois defensive line. Franklin emphasized that fact after the game.

“There were some physical runs out there tonight. I couldn’t be more proud of that group and how they’re playing.”

Penn State ran the ball 16 times in the third quarter and then heaped on 12 more attemptes in the fourth. What made them keep going back to the well?

“When you look and Kaytron Allen averaged 5.7 yards per carry, Nick Singleton averaged 5.9 yards per carry, and Beau Pribula averaged 5.7 yards per carry, you’d be stupid to go away from it.”

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