Our Nightmare was realized

On Saturday, two of my biggest fears were realized. First that Rejus Benn would get hurt, and second, that I could possibly be wrong about the Illini this year. Now that I have had time to relax, rehydrate and bring my body back to equilibrium after drowning my sorrows in Amstel Lights and O Bombs, I am finally ready to tackle this post. Rest assured that I will in fact tackle this unlike the Illinois Secondary trying to tackle anything.

Now that I have dealt with the overwhelming sadness that comes from being wrong, lets figure out what I was wrong about and what we can expect for the rest of the season.

1) Our Offensive Coordinator

When we hired Mike Schultz I was so supremely happy. Namely because he was a coach who was dedicated to running the ball. I did not however suspect that he would bring back an offensive strategy that became extinct while football players were still wearing leather helmets. I have to go back and research this, but I'm pretty sure that TCU plays in a conference that does allow the forward pass. So I cannot explain why every route we ran was less than 5 yards. Last year Juice threw for over 450 yards and 5 touchdowns against Mizzou. They only brought back one player in their secondary, and Schultz says that they didn't want to throw the ball downfield????? I am all for balance, but I didn't think that we had just hired the Anti-Locksley. If Juice threw the ball over 20 yards I didn't see it. Now after this debacle that happened on Saturday Zook said that he will throw the ball downfield more, but the damage has already been done. Don't get me wrong, I am not asking for the Illini to throw the ball 40 times a game like last year, but please use the speed and size that you have at receiver. I did like who we ran a lot of option and Juice, Leshoure, and Pollard looked really good doing it, but it boggles my mind that after running, and throwing the ball 7 yards, how do you not run play action and take a shot deep when you are down by 2 touchdowns. I almost punched somebody when Juice got tripped up on the fourth down play. Why the hell are you not running a sneak on that play? Who cares if everyone knows that it is coming? For the record that play was not a run. Both Uh-oh and Graham released from the TE position and it was supposed to be a play action pass. I am almost glad that Juice got stepped on.

2) Our receivers

When Rejus went out, I wasn't completely worried because I felt as though we had enough depth behind him at receiver so that others could step up and make plays. The only person who stepped up was Jarred Fayson. He made a great catch to put us in the red zone, and overall played very well. Beyond him, nobody was exceptional, and Jeff Cumberland and AJ Jenkins should never see the field again. I am done with Cumberland. He is a senior this season, couldn't block as a TE so he was moved to receiver. He is bigger than everyone on the field, and probably one of the fastest players on the team, but it is now or never for him. The fumble is inexcusable, but at least he was trying to make a play. The next 2 dropped balls from him means he should be benched. He wasn't running a route, because obviously Schultz frowns upon that. No, Cumberland was standing by the sidelines 7 yards downfield, and tried to cradle one ball in his chest, and the second ball he tried to catch with his junk. Jenkins continued his stellar pass catching from last year by letting another ball fly right threw his hands for an interception. Jenkins actually is probably the one receiver that is hurting most by the conservative playcalling because at least when he runs a deep route and drops the ball, no one is there to pick it off. I absolutely hate bashing college players, but seeing the same mistakes for 2 seasons is making me take off the orange colored glasses. I can forgive interceptions when you are pressured, and I can forgive fumbles when the defender makes a great play. There is no excuse for dropping balls, just like there is no excuse for blowing coverages on defense.

3) The Athletes in the Secondary

Donsay Hardemann played one of the worst games I have seen an Illini safety play in a long time. He blew his coverage on the first touchdown, and then he leveled a receiver and got flagged on a play that would have 3rd and 13. At least he came back and made a stop to make Mizzou punt. Bellamy and Tavon Wilson are still lost, but it doesn't help when you are playing a weak cover 2. The linebackers played much better than anyone could have anticipated. By that I mean that they didn't let Washington run all over them like last season. However, the secondary blew so many 3rd downs that the front 7 had to get disheartened (which they did in the second half.) Like I mentioned in the previous post, the DT's played very well. Ian Thomas will be a force for the next 3 years for Illinois. He had 13 tackles in this game, and was one of the few bright spots for the Illini defense.

4) Overall coaching staff

I still don't understand our substitution patterns and also our personnel in general. I understand that you didn't have Dufrene and Ford got hurt early, but does true freshman Justin Green need to be in the backfield on the first series? Also why do you have Duvalt running the ball for you? Fayson is 30 pounds heavier. For that matter, why do you need to have a receiver running the ball at all? Going for it on 4th down in the second quarter, and then not running a QB sneak is appalling. Continuing to play Cumberland after the drops is stupid, and not opening up the playbook when you have no momentum or continuity and are down by more than 2 touchdowns is ridiculous. After watching this team fall apart last season, and seeing this game, I have to believe that when Illinois gets down now, they have no faith in their coaching staff. The only thing that really worked well for Illinois was the option, but of course we didn't figure that out until we were down 10. What the shit was Eddie McGee doing in at QB in the 2nd quarter when we still in the game? Hey, here's a great idea: Lets put Eddie in the game and run 2 terrible plays and give us 3rd and 15 when Juice actually moved the ball the last 2 series!!!!

The worst part about this game is that it seemed like an extension of the Northwestern game from last season. Before that game, you never saw Illinois give up, and you always knew that they would be able to get it going and score. This game Illinois was out of it half way through the 3rd quarter, and they stopped fighting. Giving up the last 2 games is what scares me more than anything else I saw on the field on Saturday.

Now that that is over, lets talk about some good things:

1) The front 7 looked good, especially Thomas and the DT's
Looking forward to our schedule, the only teams who might put an offense like Mizzou on the field is Minnesota and Northwestern. Playing against teams who want to run the ball will help out this defense. Lord knows what will help our secondary though. In our defenses defence, they did hold Mizzou to 3 field goals in the first half and kept Illinois in the game, the offense just didn't help them out at all.

2) Fayson is the real deal
He made some good catches and played hard, getting Benn back will only help the rest of the receivers

3) Pollard and LeShoure played extremely well
I was pleasantly surprised by how well LeShoure caught the ball, and now it seems like the coaching staff will be dedicated to not only running the ball, but also running the option again.

4) Juice made good decisions
I can handle Juice throwing a few balls high, I can't stand when he makes the wrong read and throws the ball into coverage. The only ball that Juice forced was on the first drive when he tried to fire the ball across the field to Duvalt on the sideline and it was knocked away. Other than that he completed 65% of his passes

5) Our special teams weren't terrible
We actually punted well, and more importantly covered punts and kickoffs really well. For the first time in a year, I didn't have to close my eyes when we kicked the ball.

6) The Offensive Line played very well
Juice didn't get sacked until the 4th quarter, and they did a very good job of not only giving him time to throw, but they also opened up a few holes in the middle. Illinois moved the ball very well. They had the ball at the 20 and then turned it over on 4th down. They had the ball at the 25 and Cumberland fumbled. The offensive line was not the reason for the offense looking horrible.

Getting Benn, Dufrene, and Ford back next week will help, and Illinois SHOULD handle ISU pretty easily, but they need to play flawless next week in order to give them a little confidence going into the murderous schedule they have to start out the Big Ten. Illinois will play OSU, Penn State and then Michigan State to start the Big Ten season. If they lose those 3 games, the season will be over, and it won't seem much better for next season.