Illinois vs. Penn State 2011

(photos from yahoo)

The game was played in snowy conditions.

It was a bruising, hard hitting affair.

Defense and turnovers kept the score down; though Illinois won the battle of field position during the first half, they couldn’t convert on Penn State miscues. Penn State missed a field goal (43 yards) and fumbled. But whereas Illinois got inside the 5, a penalty on a potential touchdown (good call…this one) cost heavily, and then a dropped snap on the field goal attempt lead to the first of two interceptions.

Poor special teams play was to cost Illinois heavily.

Eventually, in the third quarter, a stop on 4′th down gave Illinois the ball and the Illini got the first touchdown of the day to take a 7-0 lead.

But in the 4′th quarter: a blocked punt set Penn State up with the ball at about the 25 yard line. The Illinois defense held and so Penn State kicked a field goal to close to 7-3 with about 6:30 to go.

Illinois drove the ball a bit and eventually punted; Penn State had the ball at their own 20 with 3 minutes to go.

Then the Nittany Lion offense came to life; passing to a receiver that the just got back helped them move down the field…and then a questionable pass interference penalty set them up. PSU scored on a run with 1:08 to go to go up 10-7.

But Illinois had all of their time outs left and used them to drive. Illinois got the ball down to the 34 yard line with 18-19 seconds left and then a long run up the middle on first down picked up 9 yards.

So Illinois tried a 42 yard field goal (a tough kick under these conditions)

The ball bounced off of the right upright.

Yes, there were questionable calls and non-calls (a helmet to helmet hit on the Illini quarterback that was not called), the questionable pass interference and a questionable interception when it appeared that the Illinois receiver had the ball on while sitting on the ground.

But special teams were terrible: botched hold on one field goal, the miss, and a blocked punt. This has been an Achilles heel all year long. And when you notice that the offense has scored 28 points TOTAL over the past three games…that isn’t going to get you anywhere.

The victories this season: I-AA team (FCS), a good Sun Belt team (Arkansas State), an above average MAC team (Western Michigan), a middling to bad Northwestern team, a terrible Indiana team…and a good Arizona State team. Three of the victories were by 3 points apiece.

As far as the other game; Navy vs. Notre Dame wasn’t a contest:

Navy is reeling right now.