Tate: Turnovers only part of lost year

For Ron Zook's reaction, click here

CHAMPAIGN – Juice Williams surely will top the Big Ten in passing yardage and total offense this season. He is way ahead in both categories. He might not reach 4,000 pass-run yards, but he's only 414 yards shy going into the finale at Northwestern.

But he is also leading in turnovers.

Therein lies the problem. When the UI junior quarterback fumbled on the UI 19-yard line Saturday at Memorial Stadium, it set in motion another dismal day in which Illinois started out bucking a cold, biting wind, seemingly facing 80 or more yards, while the Buckeyes were looking down the UI's throat from short distances.

That's been the weekly scenario. This time, facing an opponent with ample returnees from two straight national championship games, the Illini rushed for 91 yards on their first 10 carries, outdowned Ohio State 15-7 in the first half and 25-16 overall, and outgained the Buckeyes 455 to 354.

But UI failures in special teams cropped up yet again – freshman A.J. Jenkins bobbled a kickoff and Anthony Santella had a punt blocked out of the end zone for a safety.

OK, the defense must take some blame, but consider: Ohio State's second TD march capped a string of five opponents' TDs that measured 36, 39, 44, 19 and 43 yards. That is the upshot of consistently bad field position over multiple games. And when Williams threw his conference-high 15th interception in the second quarter, the writing was on the wall. Inspired Ohio State took it straight down the field in six plays, forging a 23-7 lead that was finalized at 30-20 when Illinois scored in the game's final minute.

Fanning the flames

Near the end, with coach Jim Tressel still apologetic about a late TD scored against Northwestern on Nov. 8, he declined an easily reachable 42-yard field goal just as the fans began exchanging chanted barbs.

"Scoreboard! Scoreboard!" roared the ample crowd in red, repulsing previous unprintable insults from UI students in the north stands.

"USC! USC!" came the response, bringing up a 35-3 embarrassment that knocked the Buckeyes out of the national championship picture.

"Western Michigan! Western Michigan!" was OSU's clever counter-chant. And that pretty much did it. Cold and windblown, the UI students had no answer for that one. This was Ohio State's day, and it is developing into Illinois' lost season.

For Ron Zook, it is a campaign in which this team has never really peaked. Wins against Michigan and Iowa were offset, in particular, by subpar efforts against Minnesota and Western Michigan. He said we'd find out what this team is made of, but he didn't repeat that Saturday. Now we know: five wins, six losses and heading for a lakefront game that has, more often than not, brought out something less than the best from the downstaters.

Coming up short

In a season with close losses, offensive strategy has been a sore point. Not so much Saturday. This was more a lack of execution and repetition of established shortcomings.

Oh, we can argue whether Illinois should have attempted a wind-aided 49-yard field goal that could have cut the score to 23-16 in the third quarter. Ohio State drew a 5-yard penalty just as Matt Eller faked a field goal and punted to the Buckeyes' 1. Zook preferred to keep the Buckeyes pinned down rather than take the chance that a miss would put them back in good position. Sure enough, the Illini held and made Ohio State punt against the wind.

But it was during this third quarter that Ohio State began to blitz and, like Western Michigan, found success. Williams was sacked in the UI's only two possessions in the scoreless third quarter, and the fourth quarter opened with Eddie McGee at quarterback.

"Not every day is a day at the beach," Zook said. "Fifty percent of the teams lost today. We all go through it. We can't give up 300 yards on the ground and expect to win."

Thus we place in the record another "team loss" in which the offense backfired early and scored just one TD in the first 59 minutes. The blocked punt gave the special teams another bad grade, and the defense permitted 305 rushing yards to Beanie Wells, Terrelle Pryor & Co.

This is, unlike a year ago, an Illini team that never quite came together.

Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com.

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