Posted by: Tom Young
Now, things start to get difficult. Illinois travels to Columbus to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes this Saturday. I simulated the game last night with NCAA 10 on the Xbox 360 and it wasn’t pretty.
This game was one sided the whole way. QB Juice Williams had a rough game, completing 17 of 37 passes for 202 yards and an interception. He also only ran for 10 yards. RB Daniel Dufrene never got going, running 14 times for 36 yards. Juice spread the ball out with seven different players making receptions, with WR Jarred Fayson leading the way with five catches for 75 yards.
Defensively, nothing real special here. LB Russell Ellington led the way with eight tackles, and DL Sirod Williams had the only sack. K Matt Ellar had a rough game, making only one of his three field goal attempts, a 38 yarder.
On the other hand, some OSU players came out with nice numbers. QB Terrelle Pryor went 19-30 for 303 yards and 4 TD’s. Despite those nice numbers, RB Daniel Herron was the player of the game. He totaled 230 total yards of offense (123 rushing and 97 receiving) and racked up 2 TD’s. Like Juice, Pryor spread the ball around. Four different players each caught a touchdown pass.
#13 Ohio State 38 Illinois 21
Man I want to see a win here, but I can't. There are two reasons why. One, Illinois won in a Columbus a couple of years ago when OSU was ranked #1 in the country, and two, OSU lost at home already this year, and they won’t let that happen again.
Juice will play decent, but Ohio State’s defense will make things tough for him. I’m also hoping we see the offense that was run against the Illinois State Redbirds. If we do see it, we have a chance. Plus, I just want to get through a game where Juice and Benn play together. I think that alone will be enough to spark some things.
On the other side of the ball, LB Martez Wilson is out so we’ll have to see how that MLB spot is filled. I don’t know if this alters what Ohio State was going to do, but we’re going to see a lot of runs from both Pryor and Herron. With both teams running the ball, this could be a very fast ballgame. In the end, OSU has too much firepower for our defense to keep up, and we fall to 1-2, and 0-1 in Big Ten play.
Time to update the standing from the Illinois State game. Illinois won 45-17, so Illinois was +28 on the real spread.
Name (Score) W L *RSDT
Jshaw (ILL 42-10) 1 1 39
chrispatton33 (ILL 40-16) 1 1 40
Tom Young (ILL 42-21) 1 1 42
NCAA 10 (ILL 31-3) 1 1 49
Jweeks (ILL 38-3) 1 1 56
Combatmedic44 (DNP) 1 0 24
dave1956 (ISU 23-13) 0 1 38
* - Real Spread Difference Total from all the weeks combined.
The NCAA 10 simulation was perfect on the spread with it’s 31-3 Illini win, but since it was so far off last week, it wasn’t able to leap everybody. Most people had close guesses on the spread, but in the end, Jshaw grabs the early lead.
Now it’s time for your score predictions for the Illinois-Ohio St. game. Just leave a comment below with your prediction and why you feel the game will turn out that way. Looking forward to hearing what you all have to say. The Illini are now a 14.5-point underdog. Let’s hope the Illini find a way to get to 2-1 after Saturday.
I-L-L...
This has nothing to do with anything, but I was able to get a score of 33 on the whack-a-buckeye game. It was mildly satisfying...
Oh, look whos in the lead!!!
OSU 28 IL 17
We couldnt stop ISU or Mizzou's QB's now we face the most mobile and game changing QB of the year. I just dont see us being able to keep him in check. I think we can keep it close for a while with a big game running the ball. I think we struggle moving the ball the first half due to Juice not playing in a game situation for 3 weeks now. If OSU can contain USC's speed what will they do to our unimpressive offense? So much hype and no results, I throw out all things done offensively against ISU. We are way to reliant on a big play to score. Look at the ISU stats, not one scoring drive lasted over 3:30. To win Benn will need probably 10 catchs for 100+ yards... but seeing how she has no stats? yet for the season not sure that will happen.
If we cant put pressure on ISU QB, I dont see Pryor getting touched by our defense at all. This game is only close bc we for some reason always play OSU tough. I dont see us playing with 3 LBs anyways this weekend.
Is it possible to put Hardiman at the outside backer position?? I mean he can only hit someone, hes got no coverage skills at all, so he fits right in, and frees up a spot of Hawthorne or Sani to start?! What you think bout that?
Im having issues seeing a winning record now this year. we are 1-1 right now. i see L's to OSU, PSU, UM and Cincy. W's to IU and PU. That puts us at 3-5 with toss up games against MSU, NU, Minn and Fresno. We would have to go 3-1 against that just to finish .500 and I dont see that happening. Looks like a 5-7 season from my point of view.
Posted by Jshaw on September 22, 2009 at 8:41 AM
OSU 24 ILL 17
well I think osu will have their way with us, but Illinois will play inspired, like they always seem to against OSU.
jshaw moving our hard hitting safety wouldn't do much look how often he misses when he tackles he is incapable of wrapping up... big ten running backs would laugh when he comes up to tackle them....
we just have to bite the bullit here as see that we have another coach that can recruit offensive talent but not defensive talent... the days of furousious defense is over...
Posted by jweeks on September 22, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Id rather have him miss 5 yards deep than being the last line of defense then!
Posted by Jshaw on September 22, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Jshaw beat me to the 28-17 score guess, so I will go with Ohio State 30, Illinois 17.
Posted by chrispatton33 on September 23, 2009 at 11:06 AM
someone please take the gun away from the football team.... they just keep shooting themselves in the foot.... nearly every productive drive ended in a stupid mistake...........embarrassing
Posted by jweeks on September 26, 2009 at 9:14 PM