I missed the second half of the Illinois - Western Michigan game because of a wedding. Thank God! However, I finally made myself watch the game again and watch the end of the game. After spending the better part of 3 months with a positive outlook, I have finally been broken and here are some thoughts that I have:
1) Eddie McGee will play QB in the Ohio State game
Eddie will play not because Juice will get benched, Eddie will play because Juice might be killed in this game. Our offensive line is absolute garbage right now. When Western Michigan's front 7 looks like the 85 Bears, you might want to rethink your personnel choices. Xavier Fulton has been hurt the last few games, so maybe you shouldn't play him. I actually thought I was having a nightmare because he looked a lot like Fred Miller, and everyone assured me that I would never see Fred Miller destroy the offensive line of a team I love again. Ohio State is going to pin their ears back and blitz the shit out of us because they know that Juice is going to defenseless in the backfield. On the bright side, we didn't get nearly as many holding calls, on the bad side, that is because we decided not to touch anybody. I haven't decided which is better, but I'm pretty sure that Juice wants the holds back. Although when the other team knows you are going to throw the ball on every play, it makes it pretty hard on an offensive line.
2) What happened to running the football?
I got a text at the wedding from Pac-Man asking me when Mike Martz became our offensive Coordinator? Our running backs carried the ball 16 times! Part of the reason that Juice got killed in this game is because we completely abandoned the running game. We were down by 2 touchdowns in the second half, not 5. Damn near every play we ran in the second half was a play action pass. To be exact we had 8 designed runs in the second half, and only 1 running play in the 4th quarter. We had the ball with 11:50 left in the game, down by six, and we never ran the ball again. Juice threw 25 passes in the 4th quarter! It is hard to run a play action pass, when everyone in the stadium including the concessions guy knows you have no intention of running the ball. We used to run the ball constantly out of the shotgun, now we only seem to do it in I formation with Jason Ford. Except for when we are in field goal range against Iowa. When we needed 2 yards, we decided to try and get it from shotgun. Everyone has fallen in love with Jason, but realistically he had one good game against one of the worst teams in college. As the season has gone on, we have run the football less and less. Which means that we are usually in 3rd and long a lot, and we have been turned into a big play offense, so if we are not clicking early, we are screwed.
3) Why do we always come out flat against shitty teams?
Losing to Minnesota at home on homecoming should have been enough of a lesson to this team that they can't take anyone for granted. I am getting real tired of hearing Ron Zook say that "we are gonna get it figured out", and that "these things are fixable." I have to put this on the coaches, and the leaders of this team. When you are down to the last 4 games of the season and you aren't bowl eligible yet, somebody should tell you that you are not as good as you think you are and maybe you shouldn't take anybody lightly. Guess what? Nobody is afraid of this team, nobody has been afraid of them all year. Just because we made the Rose Bowl last year doesn't mean people are going to treat us like USC. We don't have to worry about that now, because we only have 2 games left, we are gonna be underdogs in both of them, and if we come out flat, they will both kick the hell out of us.
4) Why is Martez Wilson still playing?
I drank the kool-aid. I thought Martez would have a breakout year and show why he was one of the best high school football players in the country. The kool-aid has run out. For all of the great flashes he shows (none have come in the last 3 weeks) he is out of position or getting burned by a WR, TE or RB out of the backfield 5 times as much. He is like the abnormally tall kid in junior high who everyone thinks is going to be great at basketball but he sucks because he has the motor skills of a toddler. I am to the point where I don't even get upset anymore, I just think it is funny. I wanted to create a drinking game out of how many times Martez takes himself out of plays by being out of position, but I can't afford that much beer. I don't want to depress Illini fans even more, but just wait until next year when Martez is our only returning linebacker.
5) Our wide receivers suck!
I'm not trying to make excuses for Juice, because he has been at fault for most of his interceptions, but for the love of god, catch a damn ball. In high school, I was told over and over again, if you can get a hand on a ball then you can catch it. Since when did "he throws the ball too hard" become an excuse? Not every QB throws the ball perfectly every time. You know what the first thing you are taught as a WR is? Adjust to the damn ball!! Fred Sykes can't catch balls that are perfect, so I don't expect him to catch a ball that requires him to move a step outside of his route, but Cumberland, Duvalt, and Judson have been catching balls from Juice for 3 years now, so perhaps they should work on this.
6) How old is the Undertaker?
This has nothing to do with the Illini game other than the fact that I saw a commercial for WWE Smackdown during the game, and he is still wrestling! I had nightmares about the Undertaker when I was a kid because he put the Ultimate Warrior in a casket during Wrestlemania. I was 9, and the only comforting thought I had was that by the time I was in my late 20's this scary bastard would be long gone! That and the fact that people would finally get tired of Chris Berman's shtick on ESPN. Looks like I lose. Back to the Illini.
7) Were Florida fans right?
I am not nearly as fanatically delusional as SEC fans, but I have a long laundry list of complaints with this coaching staff. First obviously is why we don't run the football anymore, but beyond that I have problems both the offense and defense. On offense I don't understand the people we have on the field. Do we need to constantly rotate running backs on every play? Every time Dufrene ran the ball and gained 4 or 5 yards, be was pulled for Pollard or Ford. The only receiver that is on the field for constant plays is Benn. I understand that you want to make everyone happy, but how about making me happy and putting players on the field who will win a game! The best example of this is the losses to Minnesota and Wisconsin. On the Hail Mary at the end of the Minnesota game, the 3 receivers that Juice threw to were Benn, Duvalt, and Judson. Jeff Cumberland is 6'7, Cordale Scott is 6'3 Judson is 5'8 and Duvalt is 5'10. At the end of the game against Wisconsin, we had Sykes and Jenkins in the game, until the dropped back to back passes, then they were replaced by Duvalt and Judson. I would probably have gone with experience here instead of a receiver who caused 2 interceptions.
As far as play calling goes, when did we stop running draws with Juice, or besides that, on 3rd or 4th and 1, why don't we line Juice under center and let him lean his big head forward and pick up a yard? We only run Juice on draws in the red zone. Who gives a shit if the other team knows it's coming? I feel that Locksley feels the need to out-guess defensive coordinators too much. If you actually run draws, then teams won't blitz 30 times a game, and you might actually have a healthy Juice next year. Also I don't think that we have hot routes when a team blitzes. If the coaches think that our offensive line and one running back can pick up the blitzes that we have seen, then maybe they are delusional.
On defense, it would be nice if we blitzed somebody other than Martez and Brit Miller. Everyone and their stockbroker knows that when Martez lines up on the line of scrimmage that he is coming, and offenses don't care. When we actually brought a corner, Hicks got a sack, forced fumble, fumble recovery, and touchdown, all on the same play!!
We have to be the worst team in the country against screens. It doesn't matter if it is a WR, RB, or TE, it always works. When defenses have a jailbreak against us, it is because our offensive line chose to take that play off, when we have a jailbreak, it is because a screen is about to go for at least 20 yards. Thank god we have Britt Miller, because he actually can sniff these out and at least get somewhere near the receiver.
If Vontae Davis is really a top 15 draft pick, can we actually line him up closer than 7 yards deep on a receiver? On the two point conversion that Iowa converted on us, Dere Hicks was 5 yards deep in the endzone against a TE in motion. Where did he think the TE was going? If the TE ran 20 yards, he would have been in the locker room. Instead, by the time Dere got to the TE he was already in the end zone. Hicks actually did bump the receiver on his touchdown against Western Michigan and it was called back on a questionable call, but it did work.
Missouri, Minnesota, Penn State, and Western Michigan killed us by throwing underneath against our cover 2. Terrell Pryor is going to have a great game against us because he will do the same thing. All you have to do is get the ball out fast on short routes and pick up 7 yards. Iowa would have beaten us, but Ricky Stanzi had the accuracy of a drunk man against us. Offenses don't let us get a pass rush, and we are gonna set a record for drags and 7 yard stops allowed in a season. The only time teams throw deeper than 10 yards on us is using play action. Minnesota, Western Michigan, Penn State, and Louisiana all completed over 70% of their passes, and people wonder why we only have 5 interceptions this year.
The only saving grace for our defense is that Britt Miller has turned out to be a great middle linebacker, Josh Brent and Corey Luiget are the real deal at defensive tackle, and our safeties are finally laying the wood to receivers. Derrick Walker has been a pleasant surprise at defensive end, but Will Davis' play has been sporadic. Vontae has been great coming up against the run, and has only gotten beat for one touchdown, but I hoped for more.
I still have hopes of going to a bowl game this year, but Ohio State is gonna be really fired up to play us, and Northwestern is not going to be a cupcake. I'm really afraid that if OSU beats the hell out of us, that this team will fold and we finish the season 5-7.
Durty
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