Tate: Illini go kicking, steaming
CHAMPAIGN – You can't say we weren't warned.
Ron Zook spent a sleepless week wearing his voice to gravel, only to see his worst nightmare realized. The Illini, having scored their most points ever (45) at Michigan, went nearly 50 minutes without a touchdown against a Minnesota club that was unranked and disrespected despite a 5-1 record.
Saturday's 27-20 outcome had all the elements of a classic upset. The opportunistic Gophers dominated field position, ran a successful fake punt, rebuffed Illinois' fourth-and-1 efforts with an extraordinary goal-line stand and were handed two easy touchdowns on tragic Illini fumbles.
If these teams played 10 times, Illinois probably would win eight. But today, Illinois is a disappointed 3-3, and Tim Brewster's 6-1 Gophers are bowl eligible.
This is the case despite Juice Williams setting a stadium total offense record for the second straight week, his 503 pass-run yards at Memorial Stadium surpassing his 431 yards in total offense at Michigan. And Arrelious Benn was never better, turning 12 receptions into 181 yards. Illinois had more first downs 25-16 and outgained the Gophers 550-312.
"We left too many points on the field," Benn said. "We couldn't capitalize in the red zone. This was a team failure ... offense, defense and special teams."
Not-so special teams
If turnovers put the finishing touches on the UI loss, the stage was set in the kicking game. It seemed that every time somebody put his foot to the ball, it worked out poorly for Illinois.
Trouble began when Michael Cklamovski booted the opening kickoff out of bounds, allowing the fired-up Gophers to start from their own 40-yard line. An aerial flurry of five straight completions, coming against a secondary that never appears quite ready in the early stages, brought about a Minnesota TD in little more than three minutes.
Then Minnesota's bounding kickoff caromed off Benn, who didn't realize he could down the ball in the end zone.
"I know that now," he said. "I didn't know it at the time. I thought I had to run it out."
Benn was tackled at his own 2. In their first seven possessions through three quarters, the Illini started possessions from their own 2, 13, 27, 19, 8, 20 and 20. The Gophers started from their own 40, 28, 20, 40, the UI 8, and their own 33. Quite a difference.
So even when they ate up huge chunks, the Illini couldn't reach the end zone. And Gopher confidence soared when (1) Matt Eller shaved the left upright with a makable field goal, (2) Illinois stalled at the Gopher 8 and (3) Daniel Dufrene fumbled on the Illini 8-yard line on the first snap of the second half ... these preceding the remarkable stand at the 1-foot line.
When you're a 12-point underdog, you can try things. And the Gophers, ahead 7-0, employed a fake punt from their own 26-yard line in the second quarter and completed the pass. It was their only first down in the second quarter as coach Tim Brewster strangely stopped using his deadly pass combination of Adam Weber to Eric Decker and went to a ground attack.
And then, in a punting oddity, officials twice ruled that Benn called for a fair catch when he didn't intend to. On the first one, he said he was shading his eyes. On the second, he waved his arm without putting it over his head. And this turned out to be a major break for Illinois, because Benn's fumble was ruled "no fumble" since the ball was dead when he caught it.
Missed opportunity
And so it went. Benn was terrific, grabbing passes and breaking tackles, but he learned something knew in handling punts and kickoffs. Juice was dominant for the most part, but a TV replay disallowed his called TD late in the third quarter, and his lost fumble allowed linebacker Simoni Lawrence to trot in for the final Minnesota touchdown.
Even the Illini stars had their rough moments. And yet, for all that happened, Juice struck back with a TD bomb to A.J. Jenkins and hit three desperation passes to move Illinois to the Gopher 25 with 1:10 showing. An overtime seemed possible. But on second down, defensive end Willie VanDeSteeg hit Williams' arm and the ball fluttered to cornerback Ryan Collado. It was the Gophers' third takeaway, making them plus-12 in turnovers this season.
"We had our chances, and we didn't take advantage," Zook said. "Now we'll find out what we're made of. We had a nice win at Michigan (as did Toledo on Saturday), but we have to understand that everybody in the league is out to get you."
Saturday was hard to swallow, but no more so than last year's loss at Iowa. And this time, Illinois goes forward with Juice Williams and Arrelious Benn reaching their potential as offensive powerhouses. That is an excellent pair to draw to, and it can still be a bowl season if the Illini can figure out how to take advantage of the "foot" in football ... and maybe make a yard here and there when they need it.
Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com.
Games like these explain why Zook got fired from Florida. In 2004 he managed to lose to Mississippi State.
As an 11 point favorite today, you don't lose games like these. PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!
3 home games now, and the coaches and players have been walking death. No life. No energy. Instead of coming out and kicking the Gophers in the jimmy, they sat back and stubbornly waited to see what the Gophers would do.
Illinois had 370 yards of offense in the 2nd half, only because Locksley woke up and realized that his initial gameplan flat out sucked. He pulled the same crap vs. Missouri and Michigan.
Heaven forbid that Illinois starts a game with a foot on the throttle like, oh, I don't know, maybe Missouri and Penn State.
Just a pathetic showing, yet, so typical.
People should get used to this pattern, as it will happen again and again with these coaches.
Sure, we'll have great recruits, but there will always be inconsistency. Just look at the SEC teams -- bad fundamentals, no intelligence, uneven physical play. You can only outrun the entire defense so often.
There will be very few guaranteed victories.
This one falls squarely on the shoulders of Mr. Locksley. His Ron Turner like play-calling in the red zone simply killed us (also known as the "two bad running plays followed by a long third and goal pass play" philosophy). Would it had been a great bother to actually try to throw the ball in the endzone in the first half on first and second down? Waiting to open up the offense until we are two touchdowns behind is getting extremely tiresome.
A six-game season starts with Indiana. Mr. Locksley, please go for broke.
A complete embarassment on in my opinion. But does it fall onto the shoulders of the coaches, players or both? You've got to think that this one has to be blamed moreso on the coaches not getting the players up for this one. Sure, as a player in Division I football the coaches can't do everything but when your playing someone like Minnesota (who aren't that bad of a team) you have to ensure your players are ready. Although I didn't like the play calling down in the red zone where we run a Donovan McNabb type rollout, I have to place some of the blame on the defense. There are far too many holes in too many places. I believe in the philosophy of putting pressure on the other team...because it works! Getting an offense out of it's comfort zone does two things.
1. It makes people tenative which is a huge advantage to any defense.
2. A pressured offense is more apt to make a mistake.
As it's already been noted the offensive play calling needs to be less cautious and get the ball down the field when the opportunity presents itself. If we don't bury a terrible Indiana team next Saturday you'll see some really pissed of people.
Comments
IlliniHQ.com embraces discussion of Illini sports. We welcome you to contribute your ideas, opinions and comments, but we ask that you avoid personal attacks, vulgarity and hate speech. we reserve the right to remove any comment at its discretion, and we will block repeat offenders' accounts. To post comments, you must first be a registered user, and your username will appear with any comment you post. Happy posting.