The “Monday Night Sim” was incredibly ugly.  I’m almost afraid to put up the stats for it, but this is how things turned out…

NCAA 10 on XBOX 360

Penn State 42       Illinois 0

Yep, you’re seeing that right.  How terrible would it be if the Illini got shutout in back to back Big Ten games?  It would make it hard to watch the rest of the remaining 8 games afterwards.  This score was no fluke.  The stats are heavily one-sided.  All you got to do is look at the total yardage.  Penn State out gained Illinois 536 to 178.

QB Juice Williams struggled going 7-21 passing for 92 yards.  That’s it.  He didn’t even have a rushing attempt.  RB Jason Ford was the leading rusher, gaining 40 yards on 10 carries. WR Arrelious Benn was the leading receiver on the team, catching only three balls for 56 yards.  This looks a lot like the offense we saw last week.

Defensively, nothing really piled up in the pretty stat categories.  No interceptions, no forced fumbles or fumble recovers, only two tackles for loss and no sacks.  LB Ian Thomas was the leading tackler with 10, LB Evan Friarson had nine, and LB Russell Ellington had eight.

K Matt Ellar had only one field goal attempt and obviously missed it.  P Anthony Santella had plenty of punting practice and did a nice job getting the ball down the field.  He averaged 46.6 yards/punt, but didn’t have a single one end up inside the 20.

On the other hand, Penn State was able to create a few Heisman candidates.  QB Daryll Clark went 28-40 passing for 332 yards and 3 touchdowns.  Two of those went to WR Brett Brackett.  WR Graham Zug had the big receiving day though, catching eight passes for 130 yards.  RB Evan Royster ran the ball 26 times for 142 yards and a touchdown.  Penn State, as a team, racked up 208 rushing yards. 

Defensively, no one had more than 3 tackles since Illinois didn’t have the ball very long.  On special teams, they had one missed field goal by K Collin Wagner and didn’t even punt he ball once.  Penn State had eight possessions resulting in seven touchdowns and a missed field goal.  Yuck…

My Prediction

Illinois 24       #15 Penn State 23

Call me crazy, but I have a weird feeling about this game.  Illinois came off of arguably it’s worst performance in school history based on their talent level, so you would think their would be no way they could beat a top 25 team.  I spent a fair amount of time last night thinking about this game and it’s outcome.  Hear me out…

Penn State came off a tough loss at home to Iowa last week 21-10.  This was their toughest opponent to date and PSU struggled to get anything going after an early 79-yard touchdown pass.  When they played Syracuse and Temple, Penn State was only able to muster up around 30 points in each game.  Plus, they didn’t score all of those points in the first half and call off the horses in the second.  I don’t think their offense is quite where they want it to be, just like Illinois’.  Take this, and add the fact that I think the Illini defense is a bit better with Ellington and Thomas and Frierson running around at linebacker.  Still got to wrap up better instead of flying around like fish out of water. 

Plus, I think this is the first game where some of the players and coaches for the Illini are starting to feel the heat.  For a while, we figured Juice would be our QB, and we figured that Zook might stay for a while, but with the way things have happened to start the year, these guys might be playing for their jobs.  It’s just like a professional playing for a new contract.  They always seem to unexpectedly step up when playing time or money is on the line (unless your Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson, sorry Browns fans).  I can see Juice having a big game and coming through in the clutch. 

Another big factor, it’s a home game!  Finally, and chance for Illinois to play a couple of home games!  I’m hoping the fans show up and cheer their butts off for this one and get behind our team.  This is where the word loyalty comes into play.  Will Illini fans go to the game just to be there, or will they yell and scream and try to make Memorial Stadium a tough environment for Penn State?  A lot of that will have to do with how the Illini come out of the gate, but I think the fans will be excited to see the Illini tied at zero to start the game.  It makes them think we have a chance, and with their help, the Illini do. 

Time to update the standings on our little prediction game.  NCAA 10 was pretty close on the score, predicting an Ohio State 34-3 win.  That was only 1 point of the real game spread of Ohio State +30.  Here’s how things look after three games.

Name                                                       W                     L                      *RSDT

NCAA 10 (OSU 34-3)                             2                      1                         50

Tom Young (OSU 38-21)                        2                      1                         55

chrispatton33 (OSU 30-17)                     2                      1                         57

Jshaw (OSU 28-17)                                  2                      1                         58

Jweeks (OSU 24-17)                                2                      1                         79

Combatmedic44 (DNP)                            1                      0                         24

dave1956 (DNP)                                       0                      1                         38

Time again to submit your predictions for the upcoming game.  Do you think an upset is in the mix?  Let me know.  The spread has change a bit since my post yesterday.  Penn State is now a 7-point favorite over the Illini.  As always, let me know why you feel the score will end up the way you predict.  I enjoy reading all of those. 

Also, I was able to get a high of 34 on the Whack-A-Lion game, which can be found on IlliniHQ.  See if you can beat that.  I feel that’s a pretty good score. 

I-L-L…