Illini ISU recap

In my last post I created a fantastic list of things that we as Illini Nation needed to see to in order to quell the urge to jump off the Illini football bandwagon, and jump right into a big bottle of scotch. Some of the fears that I had were in fact put to rest, and then a few new fears are now keeping me up at night. Although I like to be over critical, I along with my 7 readers need to all get a grip and realize that it is only the 3rd weekend of the season.

Now everyone has agreed that no matter what Illinois did against ISU, we weren't going to learn alot because the level of talent that ISU brought to Champaign would not give Indiana a game. However there are some things that you could see about the Illinois philosophy this season. Before we move past this game lets recap, and see exactly what areas Illinois improved in, and also where they failed miserably.

The 5 places that I wanted to see Illinois improve in were:
1) Pressure defense
2) Throw deeper routes
3) Substitute Better
4) Coach Better
5) Catch the DAMN BALL!!

1) Pressure defense
Illinois did a much better job of blitzing in this game. On the first series, we saw both a corner and linebacker blitz on the SAME PLAY!! Now this was obviously based on the fact that Illinois knew that ISU's line could not handle the pressure that would occur with a blitz, but it was still nice to see the coaches recognize that.

Also the defensive backs played much tighter in coverage. I know that they still gave up over 300 yards passing, but that is going to happen when when you are winning by 31 at half and the offense can't run the ball. Even on quick throws that were made in zones, the safeties did a much better job of being in position and delivering a big hit! What Illinois did early was negate the 5-7 yard passes on 1st and 2nd down, which allowed them to have more 3rd and longs. Was the secondary fantastic, not by any stretch, but they did actually break up a pass this game. I can live with giving up yards in a game that was decided in during the National Anthem, as long as players don't get lazy and play sloppy in the next game.

Now in the last post I made a comment about playing man against a 5 wide set. That was a completely stupid mistake on my part. There really is absolutely no way that you can play man in a situation like that. What every QB looks for when he drops back to pass is where the safeties are lined up. If you have no safety over the top, chances are the ball is going there. When I said Man-up, I meant to say that you need to play tighter underneath in order to take away quick routes. For the record, I am not admitting that I was wrong, I am admitting that I made a mistake.

2) Throw Deeper Routes
Illinois did try to run more vertical routes in this game. However watching Eddie McGee throw those deep routes made me wish that we used the Mizzou game-plan. The only good thing about having Eddie play in this game was that it put to rest all of the idiotic ranting over the last 2 seasons that Eddie should be our starting QB. Although now the crazies are going to want to have Jacob Charest as the back-up, even though 99% of them have never seen him throw a football.

3) Substitute better
The only receivers that played in the first half were Benn, Fayson, Duvalt, and Sykes for one play. Thank God!! It was first team offense and defense for basically the first 3 quarters of the game. And I'm pretty sure that you never saw a WR group that did not include anyone of the 3 starters.

4) Coach Better
The game plan was obviously much better offensively this game. Schultz wanted to run, then run, and finally run some more. Many of the passes were off of play action, and the receivers were open because the safeties were frozen by the threat of the run. The first play of the game was what I have wanted for 13 games now! I straight speed option, and it worked beautifully.
Defensively, the game plan will never change against a spread team. That is fine by me as long as we allow our secondary to play tighter, and send better blitzes, which did occur. Many of the longer plays that ISU had were due to missed tackles, not because our safeties were playing in the endzone. That is going to happen with a spread offense. It negates gang tackling, so you have to be sound in man on man open field tackling, or else you will get blown out. (See Mizzou 2007 and 2008)

This was not a game where you were going to see Ron Zook and Co. have to make many make or break decisions. The only thing I would have liked to have seen was to go for it on 4th and 2 on the 3rd possession. It didn't matter though because Anthony Santella got crushed on the punt, so Illinois got the ball back anyways. This turned out to be the best play that Santella had all game, but I will get to that later.

5) Catch the Damn Ball
I did not see any receivers drop any balls this game, which was nice. Illinois did not throw very much at all, so this helped the receivers in this category.

Now for the checklist:

1) Run more than we pass, over 200 yards.
Big time. Illinois rushed for 384 yards on 44 carries. For the record, Juice almost had more yards on one carry than Eddie did on 18.

2) At least 1 touchdown over 30 yards
Chris Duvalt 27 yard touchdown catch..... close enough

3) No interceptions or Fumbles
As soon as Eddie stepped on the field, this went out the window. Eddie really needs to take care of the ball on the option. If Juice gets hurt in a meaningful game, one fumble or botched snap could be a difference maker.

4) A touchdown on the first drive
2 plays, 50 yards...... I'll take it.

5) Donsay breaking up a pass with his hands
Had a couple chances, but was a step behind. I'm not giving up yet

6) At least 3 sacks by our DE's or linebackers
1 sack by a DE, and 2 by linebackers.

7) 50 points
45 points with a back-up QB. Close, but ever with Eddie at QB, we still should have scored more

8) Defense giving up less than 6
Epic Fail! Held ISU scoreless in the first half, and then fell asleep in the second half when they had the big lead.

9)No Mistakes in the redzone
The amount of holds in this game was disgusting, especially in the red zone. I will get to this later

10) 1 Interception
2 Interceptions, but none by the DB's

11) Less than 200 yards given up in the air
Epic Fail!! although based on our defense this was more of a dream than health care reform!!

12) No dropped passes!!!
None, thank god!!

Now that we have looked at that, lets actually look at the game. I only have a few points.

First, Juice Williams is our QB and will be until he leaves or gets hurt. I like Eddie McGee. He could be an okay QB next season, but I am so tired of seeing him fumble snaps and hand-offs. He has been running option out of shotgun for 4 years now, and it is the same thing every game. I don't care about how he throws a ball next season, his main goal before 2010 needs to be ball security.

Next, after having a pretty good game against Mizzou and being one of the only bright spots, the offensive line digressed completely. Illinois had 13 penalties, and I am pretty sure that at least 8 of those were holdings by the offensive line. I understand that holding can basically be called on every play, and the refs were really looking for it, but 3 or 4 holdings are too many!!

Finally, the defense needs to tackle better. It is getting redundant, but since the coverage is not going to be tight to break up passes, the defense has to tackle the ball carrier when they do inevitably catch the ball in front of them.

Like I said in the last post, no matter what happens in this game, we weren't going to learn much. Hopefully with a week off before Ohio State Illinois can learn to play like they did during their run to the Rose Bowl.