Well what is there to say?

On a day after a loss like this there are a lot of questions that need answering, and all of them are on defense and special teams.

The game was going very well for Illinois to start the night, they stopped Penn State on their first possession, and promptly marched down the field to take the early lead 7-0. Penn State responded on their next possession and tied the game. Then in what had to be the most impressive catch I have ever seen, Arrelious Benn laid out and caught the ball barely keeping the tips of his toes on the ground and in the end zone. The Illini now lead 14-7 and on the ensuing PSU possession seem to force a fumble from QB Daryl Clark. In my opinion the game changed on that call. If the ball had gone to Illinois on that fumble, they would have had the ball with a touchdown lead, and all of the momentum on their side. Alas the knee was down and PSU retained possession, scoring to tie and never looking back.

The Illini are a team that is built to play with the lead. Unfortunately when an offense that uses the run to set up the pass is paired with a defense that is gashed on the ground and gives up points on three consecutive possessions, the offense is forced to play outside of its strength. Every time Juice and the offense pulled the team back into a single possession game, the defense seemed to let the team down. Or in the case of the second half, the special teams had two key failures. One when Matt Eller missed a 33 yard kick to bring the team within 4 of the Lions, and then after Eller makes a 43 yarder, the kick coverage team gives up another kickoff return to basically close the door on the game. It was honestly too similar to the Mizzou game for my taste.

The team was once again gashed on the ground, to the tune of say 241 yards rushing allowed. The same problem seems to have existed all year. While Brit Miller seems to be playing much better than he has in previous games; our two most talented and supposedly NFL ready players, Martez Wilson and Vontae Davis were repeatedly thrown at and exploited. Wilson is supposed to be known for his speed, but did not show any of it when he was forced to cover passes. Donsay Hardeman in his first game of the season after missing the first 3 due to injury seemed about a step to slow and was short on many of his tackles. Overall in the second half the defense looked out of breath and were not making solid tackles. Thats the sort of thing that snowballs. If first contact does not bring a ball carrier down, then undue extra yards are given up and the drive lasts longer than it should. It is depressing to say that this team's weakness is not its offense, as it has been in the past, but the defense, especially against the run.

I started off thinking that the defense was working from behind the 8 ball because it was missing key parts at DT and Saftey, and that other players were hand cuffed from playing out of their natural or previous positions. Yesterday however the team was as healthy as it will be all season and still showed the same flaws as it has from the first game. Our supposedly sick Defensive front has not lived up to the expectations in the least and have still showed that they are weak in the middle. I can say that this team has given up most of its yards against two of the very best offenses in the NCAA, but that does not excuse the performances against EIU and ULL. Frankly as talented as I thought the defense was, I just don't know how good it is.

The offense again did show a sort of silver lining to this game. The offense seems to play its best games in losing efforts. Mizzou showed that Juice does have an arm and can burn a defense with speed at reciever. Last night Dufrene had a fine game against a very good rush defense, racking up 96 yards, with Juice getting another 60 or so and LeShoure another.20 or so. Juice passed for 183 yards with 2 TD's, both magnificently caught by Rejus who shows that he can out run, out move and over power even as strong a defense as Penn State...again. Benn has to be the player of the game for Illinois with over 100 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns. But despite the nice numbers put up in the game they are accompanied by two turnovers, the most key being Daniel Dufrene's fumble in the fourth quarter that removed any doubt of the outcome. 24 points give or take is what you can expect from this offense, along with alot of clock to be eaten up. With some key stops in this game, it could have been more, or at the very least, alot fewer points would be needed to come out with the win. Turnovers happen, Juice will never be mistake free if he is forced to rely on the pass to win games. Unfortunately the defense has put him in the position to do that twice already this year. He has made progress, but he is not, nor will he ever be Peyton Manning.

When you look at the win loss column keeping in mind the ranking of the teams that Illinois has lost to it doesnt seem all that bad, and it isn't I suppose. As of today, Mizzouri is your number 4 team ala the USA today poll, and Penn State is number 6. You can say that reflects well on the Illini, but you could also say, "who have they beaten?" As of today, nobody. This team needs to show it can beat teams that it is at least better than.That starts next week against Michigan. It needs to get past any ideas of BCS or Big Ten titles and just start beating Big Ten teams. This is a 3 game stretch that can get the team back to healthy, a bad Michigan, Minnesota and Indiana. Once again, if the team plays up to it's talent it should go 3-0 through this stretch. This team will have no excuse not to be 5 and 2 going into Camp Randal. Chin up Illini fans, you may have just lost to a National Championship team.