Illinois finally moves the ball into scoring position with about 17 seconds left in the half.
A Penn State linebacker intercepts a pass on his own goal line, and starts chugging downfield, picking up blocks and shedding tacklers.
He slows up inside the Illini 5 and is caught by the 3rd string QB for Illinois, who was in at WR on the play. As he eventually fell into the end zone, the play is reviewed.
They rule him down on the one yard line. A 99-yard interception return for no score.
They also rule that there was one second on the clock when his knee hit the turf.
Penn State of course sends in their kicker to try a field goal instead of carving thru the porous Illini D for the touchdown.
And the shorter-than-extra-point-length attempt is blocked. No good. The kicker is now 2-8 on FG this season. Half over.
Poor Ficken; not only has he missed a bunch, but he gets 'em blocked today now too. I really think O'Brien went for the FG to try to inspire some confidence in Ficken. The refs ejecting the Illinois guy for the hit on Lehman in the end zone was pretty questionable as well.
I am quite the fan of the matte finish on the Illinois helmets, though.
Pro Football Talk.com says that Jerry Angelo is thinking about sending a third round draft pick plus Anthony Thomas to the Bucs for Keenan McCardell. While McCardell's holdout would probably be annoying, it's still an upswing from Terrell in my opinion.
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