5 painful observations from the Illinois football loss to Penn State

2. Jer’Zhan Newton was missed dearly

The saying goes, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Well, in this case, Illinois knew what we had in Jer’Zhan Newton. He was a consensus All-American and a monster in the middle of the defensive line.

Newton is now in the NFL with the Washington Commanders, and this past offseason, Illinois was tasked with filling the void left by him. While it seemed like the void was filled nicely, I am not sure that is the case.

On Saturday, I missed Newton greatly. I missed his presence on the defensive line and the ability to shut down plays both in the run and pass game. Newton was a menace, and it was a glaring issue against Penn State this time around.

While Drew Allar didn’t drop back a lot, Illinois wasn’t able to get much pressure on him all night long. Allar was able to pass with a decent pocket each time, and when we would get to him, it was due to the coverage being so good on the wide receivers.

Penn State saw a ton of success on the ground in the game on Saturday night too. Last season, the Nittany Lions had 40 carries for 164 yards against Illinois. They upped those numbers to 44 carries for 239 yards on Saturday. That is going from averaging 4.1 yards per carry to 5.4 yards per carry.

The defensive line just doesn’t have the burst it used to have when Newton was in town. He was incredible, and Illinois is still feeling the effects of his departure. I missed Newton greatly against the Nittany Lions.