2024 Youngstown St. @ Illinois St.

[Paladin1aa]

Penguins fly to Illinois St to take on the Redbirds. YSU leads the series 16-15. Last year YSU won on a game ending FG, 41-38.

Game notes out do not reflect the nagging injuries on YSU. The Birds should be the home favorite. YSU has yet to win on the road. The Birds are also rated. That didn’t help UND who was rated and lost to YSU in overtime on a failed 2 pt conversion after TD, losing 41-40.

YSU QB Brungard was named the MVFC O player of the week on the strength of his legs in a superior rushing performance. He should thank UND as they put a poor athlete on him as a spy who failed to stop his expected runs. YSUs otherwise strong run game didn’t happen, leaving what is left of YSUs popgun O floundering with no long pass game. I suspect the Birds may have the answer to stopping the Guins.

Unknown at this point is how healthy ISUr is. That may make a difference. Thought they had better athletes preseason and rated this a loss for YSU preseason.

[Redbird 4th & short]

My Redbirds have had a lot of key injuries and have underperformed as well. Injury list at bottom is a copy/paste from a post on our forum after the Iowa opener, when we started to realize how many key guys were out or banged up from fall camp and then during Iowa game. So it has been very disruptive the first 4 to 6 weeks of season.

Even still, we aren't playing at all consistently. We thought our backup RB Wenkers Wright would be more consistent .. he came out fast the first 3 weeks, but fallen off since. Or QB play has been pretty good, but not great ... we sort of platoon .. true dual threat Rittenhouse will keep your defense honest ... throws pretty good, and will break off nice runs. Back transfer QB Rubley will play a few series depending on hwo things are going .. pocket passer, still trying learn system. Our OL seems to be struggling more than we would have guessed .. that is our biggest problem on offense, because our run game has deteriorated as teams figured out RB Wright after he came on real strong replacing Blakemore-King. Our WR group is finally healthy after we had 2 starters hurt or out the first month .. transfer Loyd has been nice pickup to supplement Sobkowicz and Kasper .. very solid group.

Defense has been a big disappointment .. had a lot coming back, but the injuries in our front 7 took a toll, and we've never found any kind of consistent rhythm. Hoping Edge rusher Abdullah return gives us a lift creating havoc in backfield. And hope DB Keondre Jackson is back at full strength - he is a big time playmake and hitter. Both were maybe's for last week, but didn't play.

Noticed you guys are gaining some momentum .. wish I could say same about my Redbirds. If we show up in the trenches, we will impress ... but I don't even give that a 50/50 chance. I had high hopes for this group before the injuries. But they still should be playing better than they are. The inconsistency is frustrating. We're 5-3, but weve had maybe 5 really good halves out of 16.

Injury list and status below ... 10 starters missing significant time to this point

FIRST TEAM All MVFC and AA .. missing 3 of 4 AAs most or all of season so far.

AA RB Mason Blakemore-King, ILS .. banged up in fall camp. Now out for season after 1st carry at Iowa
AA WR Dan Sobkowicz, ILS .. banged up in fall camp, limited reps off bench until game 4 or 5. Now at full strength.
AA OL Hunter Zambrano, ILS .. nagging offseason injury, now out for season since middle of game 2
AA LB/Edge Amir Abdullah, ILS .. injured in Q3 against Iowa .. hasnt played since, may play against YSU .. several preseason AA lists, finished 9th as Buck Buchanan last year, edge rusher we have missed a lot.

SECOND TEAM All MVFC

LB Tye Niekamp, ILS .. not starting, limited reps while recovering from injury .. returned as starter game 5
DB Keondre Jackson, ILS .. missed last 2 games .. may play against YSU

HONORABLE MENTION

WR Eddie Kasper, ILS .. out for 1 month, due to mono, missed first 4 games. Now back and healthy.
DL Jake Siegel, ILS .. on and off injured list


Other Starters - out for season

DL Steffen .. out for season since fall camp
LB Walker .. out for season since game 5
OL Johnson .. Zambrano replacement, now out for season since gamed 6

[Paladin1aa]

As I suspected, you guys were stacked in the beginning and I didn’t expect a competitive game because of that. However, with injuries taking a toll and removing some of your better players, this game may well be competitive now. Still not sure we can win on the road, but we have a small chance now.

YSU has had no bye week and players are dealing with nagging hurts. That has lead to changes in OL and WRs. QB remains a challenge as his run game is good but lacks a long pass game. Our D remains horrific. Expecting a high scoring game.

Fair disclosure- expecting a loss but hoping for a win.

[Redbird 4th & short]

As I suspected, you guys were stacked in the beginning and I didn’t expect a competitive game because of that. However, with injuries taking a toll and removing some of your better players, this game may well be competitive now. Still not sure we can win on the road, but we have a small chance now.

YSU has had no bye week and players are dealing with nagging hurts. That has lead to changes in OL and WRs. QB remains a challenge as his run game is good but lacks a long pass game. Our D remains horrific. Expecting a high scoring game.

Fair disclosure- expecting a loss but hoping for a win.

I can't imagine either team feels strongly about playing well this week. Other than, Spack usually solves his defensive problems sooner than later .. plus the bye week always helps. If we get Abdullah and Jackson back near 100%, that can only help us find our stride defensively. But right now, my confidence in our defense is very low, especially compared to expectations.

Usually a very competitive game between us .. we'll see who shows up or not.

[Paladin1aa]

YSU opens tackling the QB in the end zone. Safety.

YSU 2-0

[Paladin1aa]

ISUr. FG

Birds 3-2

[Paladin1aa]

Bird TD pass

Birds 9-2, missed Xpt.

[Paladin1aa]

Another Bird TD

Birds 16-2

[Paladin1aa]

King 1 yd TD run.

Birds 16-9

[Paladin1aa]

Redbirds TD

Birds 23-9

[Paladin1aa]

Brungard throws another INT

[Paladin1aa]

YSU TD pass

Birds 23-16

4 minutes to go

[Paladin1aa]

Birds win 23-16.

We now have lost 7 games. Have hit my preseason prediction of losses going 5-7 but have 2 more games to play. I expected we were not going to be very good, but are there more losses ahead ? Both SIU and UNI are awful but so are we. Games should at least be competitive.

The weaknesses remain - the D and QB.