Illini hammered by Western Michigan,
34-10
By Jeff Mayfield
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[September 19, 2016]
I wouldn’t say the cupboards are bare
for U of I Coach Lovie Smith, but the former coaching staff did not
leave nearly enough behind as was evidenced in Saturday’s 34-10
smack down by Western Michigan University. It is hard for this
writer to conceptionalize that a directional school could have more
athletes on hand than a power 5 team like Illinois, but that is
actually currently the case.
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With all that being said, the Illini had some early
chances. The defense throttled the Broncos on their first 2-3
possessions, but when the offense couldn’t move the football, it was
just a matter of time before the WMU high-octane offense got into
gear. Our offensive problems kept our defense on the field way too
long, and the Broncos exploited that on air, and land, and at sea!
By not scoring on one of those early offensive possessions, it
continued to put Illinois’ defensive backs to the wall and they were
almost helpless to stop the onslaught. If the defense covered the
pass well, WMU hurt them on the ground. When the defense bottled up
their backs, the Broncos hurt Illinois via the air. It just seemed
to be an exercise in frustration and futility, all afternoon long.
Western Michigan lit the tote board three times in the first half,
twice on runs by Jamauri Bogan, the first for one yard and the
second he rambled in from 36 yards out. Then Bronco QB Zack Terrell
took one in himself from 3 yards out and before our cooking grills
had cooled off for the day, we were in a big hole down 21-0.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Sep/19/images/ads/current/lincolntheatre_sda_031016.png) The Illini finally scored, but it took a razzle-dazzle, double
reverse pitch back to the quarterback to get somebody open. That
somebody happened to be Ainslie Johnson, who caught the 56-yard pass
from QB Wes Lunt to make the score 21-7. The Broncs tacked on a
field goal to close the first half scoring with the Illini trailing
24-7.
Since Illinois had won the pregame coin toss (virtually the only
thing that went right all day) and had deferred, they would receive
the second half kickoff. All of us optimists were saying, score a
touchdown and get back in the game. Once again Illinois came out as
flat as they had started the game and began placing their defense in
harm’s way again, by leaving them out on the field for too much of
the action. [to top of second column] |
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Illinois missed another good offensive chance when a 3rd down
pass headed for two wide-open receivers was thrown too high and
was unable to be hauled in for a touchdown that would have kept
the Illini marginally close. When they settled for a 22-yard
Chase McLaughlin field goal at that juncture the writing was on
the wall.
WMU’s J Franklin and Butch Hampton tacked on 10 more Bronco
points to make the final score 34-10, but the final outcome had
been decided way before that! The Illini just couldn’t seem to
execute the game plan on either side of the ball and Western
Michigan never acted like they were an inferior opponent from
the start. In fact, they took it to Illinois all day. You rarely
see an opponent as comfortable as the Broncos were Saturday in
Champaign.
It wont get any easier for Illinois as up next is a road tilt at
vastly improved Nebraska, who was a 49-28 winner over Oregon.
Hopefully Illinois will find some ways to move the football,
manage and control the clock, not over work the defense, and
ultimately find ways to put points on the scoreboard. This is a
tough stretch for the Illini, but hopefully lessons learned now,
will have some payoffs later in the season. [By JEFF MAYFIELD]
Respond to the writer at
jeffqmay@gmail.com.
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