Illinois-Penn State aftermath: the Derrick Williams show
September 29, 2008 1:26 AM
The Illini did not play the perfect game required to beat Penn St Saturday night at their "White Out" in Beaver Stadium. Illinois had some bright spots, made a few too many big mistakes, and ultimately went down to an opponent playing like one of the nation's elite teams.
Derrick Williams
Wide receiver Derrick Williams destroyed the Illini to the tune of 241 all-purpose yards and 3 touchdowns. Williams became the first Paterno-era player to score on a reception, run, and kickoff return in the same game.
Kickoff coverage
Speaking of kickoff returns, the Illini have now given up a 99-yarder to Missouri's Jeremy Maclin, a 58-yarder to Louisiana's Jason Chery, and a 94-yarder to the aforementioned Williams.
Arrelious Benn
Arrelious Benn loves playing the Nittany Lions. Benn had a breakout game last year against PSU scoring on a kick return and a reception. Saturday night #9 added two more TDs against PSU, the first a sensational 33-yd lay-out-stretch-toes-in-fall-out-of-bounds catch in the near corner of the end zone, the 2nd a long 54-yd reception. Benn finished with a career-high 110 yards receiving on 4 catches.
Juice's passing
Juice Williams connected on his first 4 passes, then the accuracy began to falter. Juice threw a bad interception in the 2nd quarter, missed Jeff Cumberland wide open in the 4th quarter, and underthrew Chris Duvalt on 4th down to end the Illini comeback hopes. Cumberland had no catches, and all-everything Benn had just 4 receptions. Overall Juice was 54% (13-24) with 2 TDs and 1 INT.
Running game
The running game was effective, the Illini's spread-to-run attack produced 189 yards. Juice ground out 70 yards on a ton of carries. Daniel Dufrene was stellar (besides the 4th quarter fumble), totaling 96 yards on 7 yards per carry. Mikel LeShoure had a very nice game with 23 yards on the ground and 26 through the air. Jason Ford got in a few reps including a goal-line pile dive. Troy Pollard did not get in the game.
Opportunity lost
The Illini dominated the 3rd quarter, yet only came away with 3 points. Besides the opening drive, Illinois had the ball beyond the PSU 30 only twice, both in the 3rd quarter. Both times they had to settle for field goals, Matt Eller going wide right on from 33 yards, and hitting from 43 yards.
Big plays that didn't work out
In the opening drive of the 2nd half, Illinois went for it at midfield on 4th-and-2. The call was a Juice keeper, and he didn't have a chance. Ron Zook later said he thought the spot was going to be more like less than a yard away. I have no trouble with going for it, but in the future hopefully he can better communicate with his coaches upstairs to know the exact distance.
Later in the 3rd quarter, Illinois had missed a FG but immediately got the ball back on a fumble recovery at the PSU 28. First play of the drive was what looked to be a Chris Duvalt end around pass back to Benn, but the play done got totally blown up and Duvalt was thrown for a 5 yard loss, and the drive stalled. Not happy the play failed? Yes. Problem with the play call? No, I'm all for trying anything to get into the end zone. One of these days these plays will work out.
Penalties
The Illini were called for 5 penalties for 40 yards, while Penn State was penalty-free for the first 59 minutes of the contest. Antonio James was called for a 15-yd "horse-collar" tackle against Daryll Clark in the 1st quarter. Running right on an option in the 2nd quarter, Daniel Dufrene appeared to be also brought down by a horse-collar, but it was not called.
Defense
The Illini D gave up 422 yards to PSU's "Spread HD". The d-line wasn't able to provide much pressure to the QB, producing only 1 sack. Despite the yards, there were some key stops, including a 4th-down stop in the 2nd quarter.
Donsay Hardeman
Saturday marked the collegiate debut of heralded junior college transfer S Donsay Hardeman. You can't expect miracles in your first game back from injury, Hardeman had tackling angles and positioning issues in the 1st half. The 2nd half we got to see some of the hard hitting potential we've been hearing about from #4, including a hit that dinged up QB Daryll Clark for a few plays in the 4th quarter.
Martez Wilson
Tez had a tough game. Besides the many plays where he was matched up with Derrick Williams (a no-win situation for any LB), Wilson was frequently out-of-position and late to assignments.
109,626
Saturday's White Out was the 8th-highest attended game at Beaver Stadium. Although Penn State's stadium is larger (on paper) than Michigan Stadium this season, attendance was higher Saturday in Ann Arbor at the Wisconsin game (109,833).
Rankings
After the crazy weekend where #1 USC, #3 Georgia, #4 Florida, and #9 Wisconsin all went down, Penn State ascended both polls, going from #12 to #6.
The Illini dropped out of both polls. Week 5 is too soon to include a 2-loss team.
Looking ahead to Michigan
The Illini have beat 2 nobodies, and lost to 2 of college football's elite teams. Now, it's must-win time. It's time to beat a good-but-not-great team.
Michigan 2008 (2-2, 1-0) has struggled out of the gate, but they are riding high after a mad comeback win against then-#9 Wisconsin Saturday.
October 4th will be the 90th game in the series, the Wolverines owning a .753 win percentage, and six straight wins. October 4th is a must-win game for the Illini.
Recap | PSU Thread | Illinois-Michigan Pregame Thread Filed under: Illini Football, Penn State Nittany Lions
