3 Penn State Football keys to beating Illinois

Red Zone Scoring

Penn State Football’s red zone woes have been well documented this season, but fortunately for them Illinois is one of the few teams worse then them in that area.

The Nittany Lions showed a bit of improvement in week eight, now ranking 111th in the country after cashing in on two touchdowns in three red zone trips, while kicking a field goal in the other. The field goal came on the opening drive of the game, after a sports center top-10 worthy touchdown run by Lee was called back due to a Will Fries holding call, making it goal to go from the 20 yard line.

The Fighting Illini fair just a bit worse, ranking 121st out of 127 FBS teams in red zone scoring. The intriguing thing for both squads is neither team is much better defensively in the red zone, with Illinois(95th) and Penn State football(102nd) respectively.

We’ve seen these struggles inside the 20 yard line haunt the Nittany Lions this year, particularly in games against Indiana and Nebraska. In their trip to Lincoln, Penn State’s offense had two red zone opportunities late in the game to tie the score and failed to execute on either, resulting in a 30-23 loss to the Huskers.

Defensive coordinator Brent Pry’s defense stood tall in a crucial red zone stop late in the third quarter against the Spartans, trailing by three they got the stop they needed to keep it a one possession ball game. If Michigan State scores to go back up 10, it likely takes all momentum from James Franklin’s squad and who knows how the next 15 plus minutes would have gone.

If this game is close, how each team handles their business in the red zone could be determine the winner.