Main takeaways from the early window: Illini flex their muscles, Arch will be alright and more
The 12 p.m. slate for Week 2 didn’t feature any ranked-on-ranked matchups, but there was still plenty of intrigue and some fantastic football. Here we’ll take a look at our biggest takeaways from around the country in the early window of games on Saturday:
1. No. 11 Illinois looks legit: It took some time, but the Illini eventually broke the dam in Durham and poured it on to the tune of a 45-19 victory over Duke. The Blue Devils were game for the first half-plus — and at times looked like the better team — but some costly errors and timely playmaking by the Illini kept Illinois in front throughout before they eventually killed the will of the Blue Devils. Luke Altmyer played very well, Hank Beatty continues to be his new go-to target and looked explosive and while it took a half to get going and while the ground game didn’t get going until the second half, Illinois showed they can win in multiple ways offensively. On the defensive side of the ball, they gave up some yards to Darian Mensah and company, but executed a bend, don’t break strategy well by forcing field goals and turnovers when the field tightened up, capitalizing on some sloppy play from Duke. This game figured to be a litmus test for Illinois on the road, and while it wasn’t easy early, the passed with flying colors.
2. Arch Manning will be alright: Arch and the No. 7 Texas offense got off to a sluggish start in Austin against San Jose State, but he finally got into a rhythm, particularly with receiver Parker Livingstone to bring some optimism about the Texas offense after their tough opener at Ohio State. Manning finished with 295 yards, four touchdowns and one interception passing, with 23 yards and a touchdown on the ground. It wasn’t perfect and he has to get better with making consistent plays and keeping the offense on schedule, but the talent was on full display and he made some jaw-dropping throws (even accounting for the opponent). It’s clear there is still work to do for Texas to reach their full potential as a playoff contender, but Manning looked to finally shake off the jitters after another slow start and building that confidence and comfort is going to be important.
3. No. 2 Penn State’s offense…not off to an encouraging start: The Nittany Lions struggled to move the ball consistently on FIU on Saturday in a 34-0 win that had the faithful in Happy Valley a bit restless. There were boos scattered throughout the afternoon at Beaver Stadium, as Drew Allar and the Penn State offense looked out of sync against a team they were expected to dominate. Allar completed 19-of-33 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns passing, but a lot of the same problems that have plagued Allar and the Penn State offense in terms of inconsistency and missed opportunities were apparent once again on Saturday. Eventually they wore down a lesser FIU team and broke the score open thanks to Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton on the ground (a combined 220 yards and two touchdowns from the star backs), but fans were hoping to see Allar take a stride forward this year as a passer and Saturday he looked an awful lot like the same guy from a year ago. Penn State gets one more tuneup next week with Villanova before a bye week and then host No. 6 Oregon in Week 5. They will need Allar to step up to win that game, and while they were never really threatened to lose on Saturday, fans of the Nittany Lions didn’t leave the game feeling particularly encouraged.
4. Iowa’s offense is still Iowa’s offense: It doesn’t matter who is at quarterback or who is the offensive coordinator, the Iowa offense seems destined to be the same so long as Kirk Ferentz is coaching. Their defense played well enough to win in Ames on Saturday against rival Iowa State, but Mark Gronowski and the Hawkeyes offense could not make any plays. The promise of a more open passing attack coming into the season has already fallen apart, as Gronowski threw for a grand total of 83 yards against the Cyclones. In total, Iowa amassed 214 yards of offense (with Iowa State not doing much better with 238) and the CyHawk Trophy ended up staying in Ames despite a valiant effort from the Hawkeyes defense. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
5. Cut the check, take the loss: There were some beatdowns early, as FCS opponents (and Kent State) took it on the chin from ranked foes. Minnesota bludgeoned Northwestern State 66-0 (scoring all 66 in the first 35 minutes of action), No. 14 Florida State ran it up 77-3 on East Texas A&M and No. 24 Texas Tech put up a 62-14 win on Kent State. Buy games are buy games for a reason, and there was no mercy from any of those trio on Saturday (at least until late).
