Illinois State Buries Southern Illinois with a 28-point Second Quarter
Twenty-eight points in the second quarter. Illinois State had nothing on the board until 13:06 of the second, and by 0:41 it was 28-0. The rest of the afternoon was housekeeping, and I mean that kindly. It finished 35-14.
Illinois State scored four times in that quarter. Victor Dawson ran in from a yard out, Chase Kwiatkowski from five, and Beckham Pellant added a 10-yard run at 1:53 and then a 17-yard pass to Dylan Lord at 0:41, which is two touchdowns in 72 seconds. Pellant found Luke Mailander for a 57-yard score at 5:20 of the third and it was 35-0. Illinois State never trailed, and Southern Illinois never got closer than 21.
Southern Illinois did not score until Kyle Thomas caught a 29-yard pass from DJ Williams at 1:12 of the third. Its other touchdown was a 45-yard punt return by Tae Marrero Jr. at 4:40 of the fourth, which is the kind of score that does not show up in the offensive numbers, and the offense had 239 total yards to Illinois State's 367. Southern Illinois lost two fumbles to Illinois State's zero, and Illinois State sacked the quarterbacks 5 times to Southern Illinois' 1.
Illinois State goes to 3-2 and Southern Illinois falls to 3-4. Pellant had a season-best 26 points, more than five times his average over the previous three games (4.9), and Mailander, who had 5.3 per game in his last three, scored 19.
Pellant's day is the whole fantasy angle. Three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) from a quarterback who had only two touchdowns in his first five games. Illinois State had five of the game's seven scoring plays, and he had a hand in three of them.