Hello football fans!!!
Illini Re-Cap:
I’m re-capping Illinois right now (earlier in the week) before I talk about the Penn State game and week 11 on Thursday night/Friday morning. This is probably how I should do this every week; I planned it that way when I launched the site but my pesky work schedule has gotten in the way.
Once again, we could have won that game. However, this wasn’t as bad as the Northwestern game – or even the Michigan State and Pitt game – as it really didn’t come down to turnovers; we just didn’t make enough plays. Do I still think that we’re a better team than Illinois? Yes – we have a better defense and we can run the ball. But after we scored that 2-point conversion, our defense had the chance to force that game into overtime and they failed. There’s no excuse for that, and they said the same thing themselves after the game.
We lost this game in the first half. We HAVE TO convert red zone visits into TD’s, not FG’s and especially not missed FG’s. Giving up a 50-yard bomb is indefensible. And Stanzi has to play better for us to beat a solid team. There’s no getting around that. It was obvious that Illinois was absolutely selling out to stop Shonn Greene, which meant that we had to get first downs – and more importantly touchdowns – by going through the air. I do not blame O’keefe for throwing the ball, as I even kinda thought that was going to happen and typed about it before the game last week.
However, he was too erratic, as his 11-29, 1td, 2int stats show. That is not going to win us any games against good or even decent teams; especially when you’re on the road and that team is hungry like Illinois was last Saturday.
But…once again…we’re running the ball and we’re stopping the run. That’s why we’re in every game. But the close games come down to your QB – and ours hasn’t made enough plays to win one of the four games that we’ve lost by a total of 12 points. It’s frustrating (the Northwestern game still wakes me up at night) but it’s the hand that we’re dealt and we have to play it. There’s no way we can go back to Christensen or give McNutt a chance unless Stanzi gets injured.
This looks like the 2001 team. I heard that from my bro Daron on Saturday after the game, and I know I’ve read it somewhere before. As long as that’s followed by a 2002-like season…that isn’t so bad. However for that to be true, we need to wind up going to a decent bowl, and we need to be 7-5 to make that happen. More on that Thursday night.
Have fun voting today! Even though up here in Minnesota (or just about anywhere) voting for my guy is like trying to put out a forest fire by urination.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO HAWKS!
Posted by Jeff Buch 
