By The Numbers: Illinois

Here are the NCAA statistics for Penn State and Illinois:



NCAA Stats Comparison

Category:	Penn St.	Illinois
Rushing	80	35
Passing Offense	40	110
Total Offense	56	82
Scoring Offense	75	108
Rushing Defense	11	59
Turnovers Gained	75	88
Passes Had Intercepted	104	79
Pass Defense	19	100
Net Punting	99	57
Punt Returns	93	107
Kickoff Returns	115	101
Turnover Margin	98	89
Fumbles Recovered	101	55
Passes Intercepted	27	78
Fumbles Lost	70	19
Turnovers Lost	91	57
Passing Efficiency	52	110
Pass Efficiency Defense	23	102
Total Defense	9	90
Scoring Defense	6	88
Fewest Penalties Per Game	6	106
Fewest Yards Penalized Per Game	3	107
Punt Return Yardage Defense	113	24
Kickoff Return Yardage Defense	108	28
Offense Third-down Efficiency	11	65
Offense Fourth-down Efficiency	18	75
Defense Third-down Efficiency	21	106
Defense Fourth-down Efficiency	9	88
Tackles for Loss	5	37
Offense Tackles for Loss	35	105
Pass Sacks	12	85
Pass Sacks Allowed	59	111
Time of Possession	36	72
First Downs	34	73
First Downs Allowed	6	89
Red Zone Efficiency	100	49
Red Zone Efficiency - Defense	7	93
Average NCAA Rank:	49.38	79.11
Weighted Avg. Rank:	47.33	85.83

Penn State is abysmal in special teams categories. 115th in KO returns and 108th in KO defense. 98th in turnover margin, but there is a bright spot: Illinois is 89th in TO margin and 101st. in KO returns. We'll make them look better this week.

Going by the stats, Illinois should get more penalties than us.

Offensively, we have a pretty decent ranking in 3rd down efficiency--much better than the Illini. Our defense is also siginificantly better on third down than Illinois.

Defensively, the teams are night and day.

Compared to Iowa, we match up much better against the Illini. But turnovers--if they continue--will hurt us. The KO situation will put us in bad field position. That will hurt us like it did last week.

One thing that stats don't tell us is how conservative the playcalling will be. This is the first road game of the year, the team's confidence is shaky and the coaching staff is hell-bent on protecting Clark. I am afraid things will be scaled back, thereby effectively negating any advantage we have. We will have to depend on not turning the ball over, not making the critical mistakes, and basically play not to lose this game. I hope Joe proves me wrong.