Shelbee’s Sunday Morning Quarterback #4: Friday Night Football?
#10 Penn State Nittany Lions 63- Illinois Fighting Illini 24
Welcome to the fourth episode of Shelbee’s Sunday Morning Quarterback! I am turning it directly over to my husband, the Sunday Morning Quarterback, as I am rushing off to work in a few minutes!
Friday Night Football?
For the first time since November 26, 1982, Penn State would play a regular season game on a Friday night. In that game 36 years ago, the #2 Nittany Lions faced their in-state rival #5 Pitt and a quarterback whom most people have heard of…a guy named Dan Marino. The Nittany Lions would come away with a 19-10 victory and go on to win its first National Championship. I understand that unranked Illinois is not Pitt but I can certainly hope that the season will end with Penn State winning a third National Championship.
Having Penn State play on a Friday night threw me out of my traditional pregame rhythm of getting myself and the kids dressed in our Penn State gear by the time Game Day starts at 9:00 a.m. With my wife working a double, I picked up the kids from school and proceeded to go through our normal Friday afternoon routine. As game time neared, I lost my youngest to the sleep monster before kickoff with his older brother not far behind. Although Archie did come back downstairs and asked if he could stay up and watch the game with me. How can you turn down a request like that? The granting of this request would eventually lead to me being called a “sucker” by my wife when she came home from work around 10:45 p.m. to find our 7 year old still awake and engrossed in the football game.
The Fighting Illini have played us tough, recently winning 3 out of the last 9 matchups along with two one score losses. Through the first two and a half quarters, it was another tough matchup. On the first drive of the game, Trace McSorley would lead the Lions to the Illini 20 yard line but Dre Brown would force a fumble and the Illini would take over. Going 3 and out, Penn State would take over and drive 70 yards in 9 plays, with Miles Sanders going the final 14 yards for the touchdown. The next series for each team would result in missed field goals. Following the missed field goals, Illinois would go 74 yards in 6 plays to tie the game. Penn State would answer with their own scoring drive of 75 yards. Once again, Miles Sanders would take it over the goal line for a 14-7 lead. Following an Illini punt, McSorley would lead them down the field were he would throw a 5 yard touchdown pass to a wide open Pat Freiermuth, who almost fell down before diving into the end zone but brought us to a 21-7 Lions lead. As I was starting to feel good about this game, the run defense would give up 66 yards on the ground in two plays en route to an Illini touchdown. Following a McSorley interception, the Illini would kick a field goal as the half expired and they trailed 21-17.
Illinois would get the ball to start the half and less than 5 minutes later would take a 24-21 lead on a wide receiver reverse pass for a touchdown. Exactly two minutes later the Nittany Lions would answer with Miles Sanders breaking an ankle tackle and going 48 yards for his third rushing touchdown of the game that secured a 28-24 lead that they would not relinquish. Another punt by Illinois would result in a Juwan Johnson 16 yard touchdown reception. Two plays later, Jan Johnson would pick off an Illini pass and the next play McSorley would hit KJ Hamler for a 21 yard touchdown pass and a 42-24 lead. The Nittany Lions would score 3 more touchdowns before the whistle would blow to end this game.
As good as the score looks, the Nittany Lions have some things to clean up before #4 Ohio State comes to Beaver Stadium next week for the annual White Out Game. The run defense gave up close to 250 yards on the ground, although most of that came in the first half before Brent Pry made his adjustments. Once again, penalties negated scoring plays when an ineligible player down field took away a Miles Sanders to McSorley touchdown pass. Let’s hope the extra day in between games will have the Lions ready to go against the Buckeyes as that game will have major implications in the Big Ten East Division race.
We Are…
Keeping it on the edge,
Shelbee
Linking up with these Fabulous Link Ups.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
I am a midlife woman, wife, and stay-at-home mother of 2 boys and 2 cats. I have a passion for helping other women feel fabulous in the midst of this crazy, beautiful life.
8 Comments
Patrick Weseman
Very nice and the season begins next week against Ohio St for Penn St. Cal was off but Stanford (it pains me to say this but I have to since they are a local team) pulled off a miracle at Oregon.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Patrick, thanks for commenting! I do enjoy your college football feedback! We will be up late watching the Penn State-Ohio State game on Saturday night, for sure!
xoxo
Shelbee
Patrick Weseman
But will you stay up for Pac-12 After Dark (as ESPN calls it) as #19 Oregon visits (I don’t know how they got ranked) #24 Cal in Berkeley. It starts at 7:30 PM local time or 10:30 pm Eastern Time. I won’t be going to it because with college football lasting three-plus hours these days, getting home will be hard. Since there is no parking near Memorial Stadium, most people take BART. BART closes at midnight and the stadium is a good 30-minute walk from the BART station. So I will be watching it at home.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Patrick, I can’t stay up that late! I’m too old for that! Haha. I hope you enjoy the game though…from the comfort of your own home!
xoxo
Shelbee
Helen C.
That last sentence!😂
You look so fashionable with the football shirt on!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
It is so true, too, Helen! My husband says if I turned on his favorite team, divorce would be in our near future! Hahaha. Thanks so much for commenting, my friend!
xoxo
Shelbee
Susan
First the fashion:
Great outfit Shelbee! I am wearing the same thing today, but my shirt is black. I can’t wait to see what you wear for the White Out game.
Now the football:
I didn’t see this game, but the play-by-play was almost as good! Hail to the Lion! Aside from the fact that I had to google “Beaver stadium White out game”, I actually understood most of what was written. That’s a big leap for me! Thank you for the valuable and thorough instruction, Sunday Morning Quarterback.
Then, I started to hyperventilate when I read this:
“Miles Sanders breaking an ankle tackle and going 48 yards for his third rushing touchdown of the game that secured a 28-24 lead”
I first read it as Miles had broken his ankle! Oh noes! Get out the paper bag for the hyperventilation!!!
As I was breathing into the paper bag and googling simultaneously, I saw that Miles had not broken his most valuable (and quite shapely) ankle. Nopers! Thank the Penn State Gods! Miles had broken the ankle TACKLE and scored. Bless your shapely ankles, Miles!
Great game, Lions! And very thrilling for us football neophytes.
Now, to babble a bit about the Eagles.
They won. The Colts did not. The entire region is berserk over Carson Wentz’s return. I am trying to understand this, as Saint Nick is the one who took us to the Super Bowl win. Although it pains me to admit, Saint Nick did seem a bit tired last week. He needs a break, so in that sense I am glad that Carson’s injured knee seems to have healed. But all this hoopla is a bit much. Carson did good, (and I do love redheads), but Saint Nick is the MAN! I am trying to be Carson supportive, but it doesn’t seem like he needs it much.
Hence, I am wearing black today, in spite of the Eagles win, because these Philly fans are a bunch of ingrates.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
LOL, Susan! I adore you! So after my husband writes his Sunday Morning Quarterback post, I do go through and check for errors, etc. And I read it as a broken ankle as well. Then I reread it like 4 times and figured there was such a thing as an “ankle tackle”. I did not look it up though as I figured the SMQ knew what he was talking about! Sorry to have made you hyperventilate!
xoxo
Shelbee