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.

NCAA 10 on Xbox 360

Ohio State 34       Illinois 3

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. 

My Prediction

#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...