Game 6: Minnesota

It's Homecoming weekend here in Champaign, and that means all the old Alumni will be heading back into town tonight to flood my beloved Murphy's, Legends' and the Immortal White Horse Inn, making it impossible to drink outside of my apartment. It also means that there are an awful lot of people who will be watching the game tomorrow that have yet to see what this Illinois team is all about. Hopefully, the team will ot have a let down after last weeks historic win at the Big House.

This team has had its off games this year, most notably against EIU and ULL, giving up too many yards on the ground, making poor decisions in the passing game, and just plain not executing on key plays. I feel however that Illinois has played its 3 best games against quality opponents. Were Penn State and Mizzou not on the schedule so early in the season, I think that Illinois would be undefeated at this point in the season. That sort philosophy, not playing any teams in non-conference that are as good or better than your team is called scheduling for success. It has its benefits and its drawbacks. Perhaps there is no better example of a team scheduling for success than the visiting team. The Minnesota Golden Gophers won exactly one game last year, and in many of their losses they were not a factor. This year the Gophers are off to a very strong 5-1 start, far exceeding expectations for this year. The team is very much improved this season, but it has had some help with scheduling. Thus far Minnesota has wins over 2 MAC teams, an FCS team and Indiana. Of these teams, only 1-AA Montana State has a winning record at 3-2. Its one conference win over Indiana, was a clinic in bad football, as Minnesota won 16-7. Indiana has one of the worst defenses in football giving up 40+ to both Michigan State and Bowling Green, despite this however Minnesota's supposedly powerful offense scored exactly one TD through 4 quarters.

Obviously the most significan improvement on this Gophers team has been the defense, they are no longer getting blown out week in and week out. Against Ohio State however, that defense was unable to stop the potent OSU offense. The final score of 34-21 being deceptive as UMN scored 2 TDs in the fourth quarter against the second team defense, when the game was well out of reach.

That is not to say, that this game will be a gimme. Illinois indeed does have a worse record than Minnesota at this point in the season and Adam Weber can pass very effectively. Weber I believe leads the Big Ten in Pass efficientcy at a freakish 67.8%. If you leave receivers open Weber will make you pay for it, and if you give him time in the pocket he will find these recievers. The answer to this of course is to get into the backfield and put Weber on the ground. The offense is good, but it is no where near what Illinois has seen thus far from PSU and Mizzou. The answer to me seems to blitz Weber and make sure to keep Decker, a true threat at WR covered. Stick Vontae Davis on him like OSU did with Malcolm Jenkins, and Deckers production is sure to go down. This is a good offense, but I finally have confidence in this defense to do its job.

On offense the Illini should do what it did last year, and what Ohio State has done already this year. Run, run, run. Pryor and Wells each had about 100 yards in their dismantling of the Gophers. Coming off a career day against a better defense from Michigan, I see no reason why Juice and Dufrene, along with the stable of freshman, cannot put up similar numbers Saturday. I have visions of Illini running up and down the Metrodome last year, and Mendenhall, Walter Mendenhall that is, getting huge chunks of yards on every attempt.

The team needs to play its game, stay disciplined and take care of business. This game will not be handed to us by any means. I am confident though that Illinois has turned the corner in the season, where it can now do some significant damage to the teams it faces over the next 3 weeks.

Predicted score: 35-17 Illinois.