Blue White Illustrated

whole offense." As a passer, Hackenberg enjoyed one of his better games of the season, finishing with 21 completions on 29 attempts (72.4 percent) for 266 yards with no intercep- tions. But while his completion percent- age was spectacular, his most memorable play was the catch. On first-and-10 at the Illinois 14-yard line, Hackenberg pitched right to Nick Scott, then scooted unnoticed down the leC sideline and was wide open when Scott threw the ball back to him. With Chris Godwin having lured cornerback Eaton Spence to the middle of the field, Hackenberg wasn't touched until he was in the end zone, giving Penn State a 22-0 lead. It was the first touchdown catch of his career. Franklin said the timing was right for a trick play. "Most of our plays like that, it's not like we just started working on them on Thursday," he said. "These are plays we've worked on for multiple weeks, kind of letting them marinate and waiting for the right time to call them. … Some guys are pro-style passers, some guys are dual-threat passers and some guys can hurt you in all three phases, and that's Hack. He can hurt you with his legs, he can hurt you as a receiver and he can hurt you as a passer." In improving to 7-2 and 4-1 in the Big Ten, the Nittany Lions also got a superb game from their defense. Illinois had gone into the game with the Big Ten's third-ranked aerial attack, averaging 256.9 yards per game thanks mostly to the precise passing of junior quarterback Wes Lunt. But against Penn State, Lunt threw for only 129 yards, was sacked three times and was pulled in the second half with the Illini unable to get anything going offensively. As a team, Illinois managed only 167 total yards. It was forced to punt 12 times, as Penn State got its first shutout since a 34-0 victory over Kent State in September 2013. "[Lunt] is a guy I have tremendous re- spect for," Franklin said. "He's really ac- curate. We just felt all week long that we wanted to make sure we were playing tight coverage, contested coverage, whether it's cover-one, whether it's two- man. We wanted to disguise and hide our coverages as long as we possibly could because they have a veteran play-caller, a veteran quarterback. If you just line up and show them what you're doing, then they have a chance to get the right play in. So I thought we did a good job at those things. And then we mixed in some zone pressures, and I thought Bob [Shoop] and the defensive staff kept them off-balance for most of the day." The Nittany Lions were forced to reshuffle their offensive line again, using their seventh starting combination of the season following last week's injury to right tackle Andrew Nelson. Neverthe- less, they moved down the field effi- ciently on their second possession of the game, gaining 31 yards on a wheel route by DeAndre Thompkins and 18 yards on a swing pass to Barkley. Chris Godwin finished off the 80-yard drive with a 5- yard touchdown catch. Moments later, following a 44-yard in- terception return by linebacker Troy Reeder, Hackenberg found Geno Lewis for a leaping 6-yard touchdown recep- tion over Spence. The only downside to Penn State's hot start was that Illinois blocked both of its extra-point attempts. The blown PATs, coupled with a badly shanked kickoff aCer the second block, ended Joey Julius's aCernoon. The next time the Lions needed to call on a kicker – on a 42-yard field goal attempt late in the sec- ond quarter – they went with backup Tyler Davis. The redshirt freshman made the kick, and Penn State took a 15-0 lead. Davis also made a 28-yarder in the third quarter, boosting the Lions' lead to 25-0. Later in the game, Penn State added touchdown runs by Barkley and Mark Allen and ended up with the second- most-lopsided win of the Franklin era, trailing only last season's 48-7 romp over Massachusetts. "I thought we played well in all three phases," the coach said. "There are some things we've got to get cleaned up. … But overall, I thought we played really well." Next up for the Nittany Lions: a road trip to Northwestern. The Wildcats have cooled off a bit aCer opening their season by stunning Stanford, but they are 6-2 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten and will be looking to improve their postseason out- look on Saturday. Penn State hasn't been to Evanston since 2011 when it prevailed 34-24 to give Joe Paterno what would turn out to be the final road victory of his career. The Wildcats will be coming off a bye week, but the Lions should be feeling pretty good, too, in the wake of Satur- day's impressive victory over the Illini. "Staying positive works," Franklin said, "and we're getting better." SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 5:52 PSU Godwin, Chris 5-yard pass from Hackenberg, Christian (Julius, Joey kick blockd) 8 plays, 80 yards, TOP 4:37........................................................0-6 4:16 PSU Lewis, Geno 6-yard pass from Hackenberg,Christian (Julius, Joey kick blockd) 1 play, 6 yards, TOP 0:05............................................................0-12 2ND 4:16 PSU Davis, Tyler 42-yard field goal 6 plays, 18 yards, TOP 1:57......................................................... 0-15 3RD 11:18 PSU Hackenberg, Christian 14-yard pass from Scott, Nick (Davis, Tyler kick) 7 plays, 43 yards, TOP 3:31........................................................0-22 3:56 PSU Davis, Tyler 28-yard field goal 7 plays, 33 yards, TOP 3:00......................................................0-25 4TH 13:07 PSU Barkley, Saquon 7-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 7 plays, 80 yards, TOP 3:32...................................................... 0-32 6:33 PSU Allen, Mark 20-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 8 plays, 42 yards, TOP 3:27...................................................... 0-39 O c T O B E R 3 1 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 2

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