Saturday, October 9, 2010

Is This The Year?

llinois has never won at Happy Valley. In fact, the only time Illinois has ever beaten Penn St. away from Champaign was in 1960, in Cleveland, by a score of 10-8. (Fun fact - if you check out the Illini roster for that game, you'll see that Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. apparently played for the Illini that day).

Anyway, considering that both teams play pretty good defense (Illinois 18 PPG against, 5th in the Big 10; Penn St. 15 PPG against, 3rd in the Big 10), and that both teams have struggled on offense (Illinois 9th in the Big 10 with 22.3 PPG; Penn St. last with 19.2 PPG), another 10-8 score isn't out of the question. The problem is that the Illini have been so one-dimensional on offense that unless Scheelhaase steps up in the passing game (as he did against SIU), we'll continue to struggle as teams gear up for the run. I see another close game (like OSU), but again, I'm afraid that turnovers and/or stupid penalties will bite us. Our first win in Happy Valley will have to wait.

Prediction - Penn St. 17, Illinois 9

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