Illinois coach Bret Bielema still has his team’s back.

Even after the loss to No. 9 Penn State, Bielema remains confident in the group. The Illini lost 21-7 but had plenty chances to change the outcome.

“I felt on the plane ride coming over I thought we had a good football team,” Bielema said. “I just told them we feel about where we’re at but we can’t do the [bad] things.” 

Among the biggest disappointments was a drive that started with 1-and-goal at the 2 that ended with a missed field goal. Quarterback Luke Altmyer was also sacked six times and committed his first turnover of the season.

Still, BIelema shouldered some of the blame.

“For me as a head coach, it starts with me,” Bielema said. “We can’t do the things that cause us to fail … We can’t beat the No. 9 in the country with first and goal at the 2 and come away with zero points. It just doesn’t add up.” 

The Illini knew they were so close to continuing a strong start to the season.

They played well enough to win but blew too many opportunities. The fact they felt they could have won makes it more disappointing.

“We didn’t go enough to win the game, so obviously pissed off,” linebacker Dylan Rosiek said. “I think we got to go in there, look at ourselves going into this bye week and figure it out.” 

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Illinois Fighting Illini On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Penn State coach James Franklin, who spent the pre-game week asking fans to bring “White Out energy” to Beaver Stadium, saw the results Saturday night. A crowd of 109,911 fans, overwhelmingly wearing white, impacted seven different plays in the Nittany Lions’ 21-7 victory over Illinois, Franklin said. From timeouts to a bad snap to four false-start penalties, the crowd made a difference. Even the Illini acknowledged that.

“It was a crazy atmosphere for sure,” Illinois tight end Tanner Arkin said. “I think that first kickoff, you can feel it in your chest almost. It was awesome and blessed to have the opportunity to play here, great atmosphere.”

Franklin’s postgame press conference centered mostly on the positive, though he did address some nagging issues from the victory. Here’s a look at what Franklin and Illinois coach Bret Bielema said after the game.

What we learned from Penn State’s win over Illinois

Penn State coach James Franklin

On the atmosphere: That was a phenomenal environment, that wasn’t even a white out, and we had that. The fans were phenomenal. We thought the fans had seven impactful plays on the game. Seven plays, whether it was timeouts, whether it was false starts and penalties, whether it was bad snaps, we thought they had seven plays that were significant in the game. We’re so thankful and appreciative for the fans and the environment we get here. It’s like nothing else in all of sports, let alone college football.

On the difference in the game: That game really played out for a long time the way Illinois wants the game to go. They want one-possession games. They want to keep it tight. Where I think it went different is, I challenged our offensive line against their defensive line. And I challenged our defensive line against their front, and I think that was the difference, really, in the game. We rushed for 239 yards. They rushed for 34 yards. And it’s not just 34 yards, that is a team that is committed to running the football. They are committed to running the football. And when you’re able to take somebody and force them out of the style of play that they want to play, then usually good things happen.

On rushing for 239 yards: I think the first thing with the offensive line and tight ends, they’re playing a

physical brand of football, and they’re doing a great job of protecting our quarterback. They’re allowing us to get ahead of the sticks. And the combination of our O-line being physical, and I don’t know if there’s a better combination of running backs in the country. There were physical runs out there today, so I just I couldn’t be more proud of that group and how they’re playing. That’s going to be important for us the rest of the year. But when you’re able to run the ball like that on offense and stop the run on defense, you know good things are going to happen for you. I don’t want to lose any doubt about that. And for running as often as we did, when you look at Kaytron Allen averaged 5.7 yards per carry, Nick Singleton, 5.9 yards per carry, Beau Pribula, 5.7 yards per carry. You’re stupid to get away from it right? So, Andy [Kotelnicki] was doing a great job calling the game, as you guys know, I’ll mix in every once in a while, just reminding him to stick with the run or time to take a shot. I’m down

there, I’m on the sideline. Sometimes with the play cards It’s good to kind of have these things to reinforce what he’s already doing. But that was the biggest reason. We’ve got to get better in the red zone. We weren’t as good in the red zone tonight. Again, got to give them a little credit, too.

On Illinois scoring on its opening drive: We’ve got to be better on opening drives. The looks you’re expecting to get that you can go down the field to be successful. That’s a week’s worth of preparation to open the game. Same thing on defense, we’ve got to break some tendencies that people aren’t as

comfortable going down and make them question their game and what they studied. But when you hold a Big Ten team to seven points, you have a chance to win a ton of games. I’m very proud of our defense and proud of Tom Allen and the defensive staff. When you hold people to 7 points and 34 rushing yards against a Big Ten opponent, you give yourself a chance to win a lot of games.

On kicker Sander Sahaydak missing two field goals: He’s been awesome for us, and we just

won that game, and he should be celebrating this thing like everybody else. But ultimately, we’ll have a competition and all these things will factor in decisions that we’re going to have to make moving forward. But I want Sander to celebrate this win like everybody else, because he’s put a ton into this. He’s a great kid and a great representative of Penn State.

Illinois coach Bret Bielema

On the game: Obviously disappointed in the results. I give credit to Penn State, an undefeated top-10 team, but our guys prepared well all week. They came in this game with the idea of being successful. Obviously we had a lot of success and did a lot of really good things. I felt on the plane ride coming over here that I had a really good football team. For me as a head coach, we can’t do the things that cause us to fail. We have got to give our guys more chances. I think we came out pretty clean. I stress all the time we learn more in moments of adversity than in moments of success.

On his team: I think we are a good football team. I like our demeanor. I like their work ethic. I like their

edge. They are very disappointed as I hope they’d be. We did enough things today to cause the failures that we had but I don’t see any of them being anything we can’t do correctly.

On his concern with the run game: We say it all the time, good teams do three things; they run the ball, defend the runs, and cover kicks. Obviously, this will be a recipe that others will follow and see and you know they have a good running game we knew that coming in.

On Penn State tight end Tyler Warren: Number 44, I just love him. One of the things I took from the [NFL] is, when a guy has a lot of position flex, which means he can do multiple things besides what he’s slotted into, I just think his skillset just allows a lot of other things to happen. James does a really good job at putting players in their position. I have a lot of respect for what he has done.

More Penn State Football

Penn State football report card: Illinois edition

The Penn State-Illinois game breakdown: Nittany Lions’ front lines take charge in win

RALEIGH, N.C. — Northern Illinois lost its second consecutive game since its stunning victory against then-No. 5 Notre Dame, falling 24-17 on Saturday to former coach Dave Doeren and North Carolina State.

The Huskies (2-2) outgained the Wolfpack 283 yards to 171 and held them to 1-for-11 on third-down conversions, but they were done in by four turnovers — two interceptions and two fumbles — by quarterback Ethan Hampton.

‘‘You lose the turnover battle 4-0, and it’s hard to win,’’ NIU coach Thomas Hammock said. ‘‘They blitzed us early and often. We just didn’t make enough plays.’’

The Huskies had been on a six-game streak, dating to last season, of not allowing any sacks. But N.C. State shattered any hope NIU had of extending that run by sacking Hampton four times, matching its total from its first four games combined. All told, the Wolfpack had 12 tackles for loss.

N.C. State opened the scoring with a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback CJ Bailey, who was making his second start as a true freshman, midway through the first quarter.

After the Huskies responded with a three-yard touchdown run by fullback Brock Lampe late in the first, the momentum shifted when Wolfpack safety DK Kaufman reached Hampton on a third-down blitz, knocked the ball out of his hand and returned the fumble two yards for a touchdown for a 14-7 lead early in the second.

N.C. State added a field goal to make it 17-7 with five minutes left in the second before Hampton (14-for-29, 159 yards) threw a six-yard touchdown pass to Cam Thompson to pull NIU to 17-14 at the break.

The Wolfpack’s defense provided another boost early in the third when defensive end Devin Vann forced Hampton into a fumble that defensive tackle Brandon Cleveland recovered and returned to the Huskies’ 1. Bailey took advantage of the field position to throw a touchdown pass to KC Concepcion that pushed N.C. State’s lead to 24-14.

Kanon Woodill — whose last-minute field goal beat Notre Dame 16-14 on Sept. 7 — made a 50-yard field goal early in the fourth to cut NIU’s deficit to 24-17, but Wolfpack cornerback Corey Coley intercepted a pass by Hampton in the end zone as time expired to end the Huskies’ hopes of another victory against a power-conference opponent.

‘‘It was a team win,’’ said Doeren, who coached NIU for two seasons (2011-12) before leaving for N.C. State. ‘‘Offensively, obviously, statistics are not good. But we did not turn the football over the whole game, we punted the football really well and we played dominant defense against a really good football team.

‘‘I know people are upset we didn’t have enough yards, this, that and the other. Don’t be mad about winning. That was a hell of a team win.’’

Antario Brown had 114 yards on 28 carries for the Huskies.