Penn State came into Illinois tonight seeking to get the bitter taste of last Sunday’s embarrassing performance against Nebraska out of their collective mouth. As 12.5-point underdogs, it sure seemed like a tall task to keep a Kofi Cockburn-led Illini team in check, but this is a PSU team that has found ways to defeat the likes of Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan State, amongst others in the Big Ten, and tonight’s performance at times resembled those big upsets. Unfortunately, the final result saw PSU come up short of what could’ve been a major upset on the road.
Illinois raced out to an early lead, which PSU ultimately was able to chip away at, thanks to their ability to slow down the tempo of the game to their liking.