Taking the road for the first time this season proved to be a bit of a challenge for the Penn State offense. Fortunately, the offense didn’t make the trip to Illinois alone this weekend. The Penn State defense was dominant in a 30-13 victory over the Illini with five forced turnovers in the game. Although Penn State struggled to gain control on offense, the Nittany Lions scored 20 points off the five Illini turnovers.
[autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] had a rough outing in his first road start for Penn State, but he had some big moments to help lead the team to a win. The biggest moment of the game came late in the first half for Allar as he ran for a first down, hurried to the line, and delivered a dime down the field to [autotag]Liam Clifford[/autotag] for a big gain to set up a late field goal just before halftime. That gave Penn State a 16-7 lead but the offense could not carry over any momentum at the start of the second half.
Penn State’s quarterback ended his afternoon completing 16 of 33 pass attempts for 208 yards without a touchdown, but he also did not turn the football over despite being under consistent pressure by an aggressive and well-schemed Illinois defense.
Allar also did not get some help from his wide receivers. Allar made some good throws that simply were dropped by his intended targets, including a pair to receiver Malik McClain. But Allar did miss a few open looks and couldn’t quite connect with a couple of his passes. Overall though, Allar seemed to handle the pressure of his first start out of Beaver Stadium well enough to pick up the win, and there is clearly room to improve.
But this game was all about the defense. Penn State allowed just seven points for the second straight game and has yet to allow an opponent to score more than 15 points. On a day when Penn State’s offense needed an assist, it was the defense that set the tone and shut down nearly every threat by the Illini. It started right from the start with three interceptions of Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer. Penn State managed just 13 points off of those early turnovers, but the defense made plays when it was needed the most.
[autotag]Johnny Dixon[/autotag] came up with a massive interception in the second half immediately after a big passing play by the Illini with the game still very much in question. Or so it seemed. [autotag]Abdul Carter[/autotag], [autotag]Daequan Hardy[/autotag], and [autotag]Cam Miller[/autotag] also got their hands on an Illinois pass attempt. Linebacker [autotag]Kobe King[/autotag] also recovered a fumble forced by [autotag]Dominic DeLuca[/autotag].
Head coach [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] will be able to look at many self-inflicted wounds by his team in the coming week as well. Poor penalties on took Penn State’s offense out of favorable positions, including a poor unsportsmanlike penalty on receiver [autotag]KeAndre Lambert-Smith[/autotag] in the first half that turned a 3rd-and-2 into a 3rd-and-17. Allar smacked his hand on a defender’s helmet on the following play and [autotag]Alex Felkins[/autotag] had a 52-yard field goal blocked. Illinois followed up with its first touchdown of the game on the ensuing possession to cut the Penn State lead to 13-7. Penn State was flagged for six penalties in the game, costing Penn State 65 yards.
Penn State will be home next weekend for a primetime matchup with Iowa. It will be the official whiteout game for the Nittany Lions.
Follow Kevin McGuire on Threads, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
