Penn St. sends Illini to Big Ten basement
CHAMPAIGN - In the midst of drifting to the Big Ten's basement, Illinois has developed into a national leader in grasping at straws.
"There's still a lot of football to be played," Illini coach Ron Zook said. "We lost two games in the Big Ten two years ago and we went to the Rose Bowl."
But Illinois never gave up more than 180 yards and 3 touchdowns on the ground on its unlikely path to the Rose Bowl.
No. 15 Penn State piled up 338 yards and 5 scores on the ground to power to a 35-17 Big Ten victory Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.
Led by quarterback Daryll Clark's pair of 1-yard touchdown leaps, the Nittany Lions (4-1, 1-1) gashed an inexperienced Illini defense for 293 total yards and 21 points in the first 20 minutes of the second half.
That spree turned a 7-3 halftime nailbiter into a 28-3 whupping.
"The thing that's frustrating is we had some young guys that are taking on blocks the wrong way," Zook said. "There's only one way to get the experience - and that's play."
On the plus side for the Illini (1-3, 0-2), who are off to their worst start since 2006, they finally found some straws at which to grasp. Alas, they didn't arrive on the scene until Joe Paterno's 387th career win was in hand.
After directing just one touchdown drive in his first 11 quarters this season against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents, Illinois senior quarterback Juice Williams threw for a score and ran for another during the game's final nine minutes.
Williams, who also broke Kurt Kittner's school record for total offense, produced those scores after Zook contemplated pulling him in favor of backup Eddie McGee or redshirt freshman Jacob Charest.
"There's a lot of stuff to build on," Williams said. "We put up touchdowns at the end of the game and it really gives confidence going into next week, knowing that we can move the ball, knowing that we can be productive, knowing that we can sustain drives."
Speaking of sustaining drives, Illinois' inability to do so at the end of the first half changed the game's tenor.
With the Illini stuck inside their own 1-yard line with 1:31 to go in the second quarter, offensive coordinator Mike Schultz took a chance and called a play-action pass on first down.
Williams rifled a 20-yard strike to Chris Duvalt to start a dash toward the end zone. Williams kept clicking to give the Illini a first down at Penn State's 23 that was well within field-goal range.
But after Williams spiked the ball to save time, he committed an intentional-grounding penalty that cost 20 yards.
On the final play of the half, Williams threw a looping bomb to the goal line that tipped off Jarred Fayson's hands into those of Penn State cornerback Stephon Morris.
"We should've gotten points the last series there of the first half," Zook said. "We get down there and shoot ourselves in the foot again."
From there Illinois' offense hibernated (8 total yards in the third quarter) while Penn State's dominated.
With the Illini defense looking more than a step slow, Penn State raced for 3 touchdowns in an 11-minute span to clinch matters.
"We're not playing to our level," insisted Illinois receiver Arrelious Benn. "If we think negative, that's where the season ends. We're not going to let that happen."