STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Larry Johnson has the two best rushing performances in Penn State history. He\u2019s still not satisfied.
\nJohnson ran for 279 yards to break his own school record and scored on an 84-yard run as No. 20 Penn State beat Illinois 18-7 Saturday, making the Nittany Lions bowl eligible for the first time in three years.
\nJohnson had a second 84-yard touchdown run called back because of a holding penalty early in the fourth quarter. With a 10-yard run in the third quarter, he broke the school record of 257 yards he set two weeks ago against Northwestern. But Johnson fumbled the ball to Illinois\u2019 Derrick Strong on the play.
\n\u201cWhen they talk about when I broke my record, they\u2019re not going to talk about the long run that was called back or the runs before that,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to talk about the fumble that I had to break the record, and that sticks in my mind more than anything else.\u201d
\nThe Nittany Lions (6-3, 3-3 Big Ten) were coming off consecutive losing seasons for the first time in coach Joe Paterno\u2019s career.
\nBut Paterno, whose 333 career wins are the most in Division I-A history \u2014 four ahead of Florida State\u2019s Bobby Bowden \u2014 played down the bowl issue, saying he was more concerned with next week\u2019s game against Virginia.
\n\u201cI\u2019m sure when they start talking about things they\u2019ll be anxious to go somewhere \u2014 and I\u2019ll be anxious to go with them,\u201d Paterno said. \u201cBut really I haven\u2019t thought about it. We\u2019ve got three games coming up.\u201d
\nThe Fighting Illini (3-6, 2-3) struggled on offense, despite entering the game leading the conference in average yards at 463.9 per game.
\nJohnson\u2019s scoring run came late in the first quarter, when he waited for a hole, then shrugged off three leg tackles before sprinting down the left sideline to the end zone.
\n\u201cLarry is a very good back,\u201d Illinois tackle Brett Kautter said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to arm tackle him. You really have to hit him, and we didn\u2019t do that.\u201d
\nIt was the longest run of Johnson\u2019s career and put him over the 1,000 mark for the season, making him just the ninth Penn State player to reach the mark, and the first since Curtis Enis ran for 1,363 yards in 1997.
\n\u201cWe knew coming in that would be one of the keys to the game, to slow down their running game, and obviously we couldn\u2019t do that,\u201d Illinois coach Ron Turner said. \u201cYou can\u2019t give a guy 300 rushing yards and win the football game.\u201d
\nJon Beutjer replaced Dustin Ward at quarterback late in the third quarter and led the Fighting Illini back into the game in the fourth quarter. Kenny Boyle caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Beutjer to make it 18-7 with 5:22 left, then the Illinois defense stopped Sean McHugh on third-and-1, forcing Penn State to punt.
\nBut Beutjer\u2019s pass to Aaron Moorehead was tipped by Jimmy Kennedy and intercepted in the end zone by Anwar Phillips, allowing Penn State to run out the clock.
\nBefore Boyle\u2019s touchdown, Penn State\u2019s defense went 11 quarters without allowing a touchdown, with the last coming in overtime at Michigan on Oct. 12.
\nZack Mills threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Mike Lukac to give Penn State an 18-0 halftime lead.
\nWide receiver Gerald Smith ran 12 yards on a reverse, and fullback Paul Jefferson went 10 yards on a shovel pass to set up Robbie Gould\u2019s 34-yard field goal, giving Penn State a 3-0 lead with 9:47 left in the first quarter.
\nNittany Lion defense continues to dominate
\nDon\u2019t let Larry Johnson\u2019s second record-setting performance in three games fool you \u2014 when Penn State wins these days, it does so with defense.
\nOn Saturday, the No. 20 Nittany Lions (6-3, 3-3 Big Ten) held the league\u2019s leading offense more than 140 yards below its average, stuffing the Illinois run game and refusing to allow any long passes in an 18-7 victory.
\nOver the last three games, defense has been the most consistent element in Penn State\u2019s success. The Nittany Lions shut out Northwestern, and an interception returned for a touchdown made the difference in their 13-7 loss at Ohio State. When Illinois (3-6, 2-3) scored late in the fourth quarter, it ended Penn State\u2019s run of 11 consecutive quarters without allowing a touchdown.
\n\u201cEveryone gets hung up on the shutout, but I don\u2019t worry about that,\u201d defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said. \u201cI think we played well and then we got tired toward the end. We made some critical plays and played some good defense.\u201d
\nThat\u2019s a switch from early in the season, when Penn State\u2019s passing game was putting opponents away and the defense was, seemingly, letting them back in the game. Bradley and his crew were roundly criticized after Central Florida made a big fourth-quarter comeback in Penn State\u2019s season opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Larry Johnson has the two best rushing performances in Penn State history. He\u2019s still not satisfied. Johnson ran for 279 yards to break his own school record and scored on an 84-yard run as No. 20 Penn State beat Illinois 18-7 Saturday, making the Nittany Lions bowl eligible for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}