[NU Sports] Illinois, 2007

[WildElk2 at aol.com]

A fine performance by our opposition yesterday.   I  wasn't too upset as it 
felt a little like 1995, except with Illinois wearing the  glass slipper.   
Just for fun, would we have been a BCS at-large in  1996?  Keep in mind, we tied 
for 1st in the conference.
   6-6.  Our fellow list member Dennis can attest to my  lament while 
watching the Nevada game with him.  Prior to the season,   I predicted 8-4, 7-5 at 
the worst, and 6-6 would be a disappointment.   While this was true,  I bellowed 
while watching Nevada push our defense all  over the place. "We're a .500 
bunch if ever I saw one."
   I expected our defense, especially our d-backs and d-line, to  play much 
better than they did.  As Dennis stated in his post,  they  did an OK job 
stopping the run, but pass rush and pass defense was awful, all  season. John Gill 
was the only one not asleep at the wheel; I  was unimpressed with Ngene and 
Wooten.  I remember Mims making a  few big plays, but not enough.  I thought 
Corbin Bryant would supplant some  one in the starting line-up, but that never 
happened.
   The line backers performed better than I thought.  I  don't remember 
Dennis's  grade at LB, but with Simpson, Kadela,  Kwateng, Malleo, Davies, etc. ; I 
thought they deserved a B.  The  d-line checked in with a D, as they did OK 
stopping the run, but beside Gill,  could not put consistent pressure on the 
opposing QB. 
  The defensive back field was equally un-impressive as our line  men.  I'll 
give them a C , as I like McManus (despite getting torched vs.  iowa) , and 
Phillips received 12 games of OJT one year prior to when he was  projected to 
start.   As Dennis stated, a better pass rush would have  helped good but not 
great players like McPhearson and Battle.  Thus, I give  them a C,  rather than 
a lousy mark such as a D or F.
   Punting:  I'll give an ugly B, as the directional kicks  prevented big 
returns.  Looked nasty, but it worked.  
   Over-all defensive grade:  D.  Too many yards and  points.  I saw no 
over-all improvement from 2006.  Keep in mind  that our 2006 defense stayed on the 
field as on offense went 3 and out,  especially the first 7 games.
   OFFENSE:  QB:  Improved from an F in 2006 to a "C"  in 2007.  I like 
Bacher, but I'm from Pennsylvania, and I would love to see  competition for QB in 
2008; i.e. I want to see Dan Persa given a chance to win  the starting 
position.   While I know this probably won't  happen,  I know (from watching him two 
times in persa, I mean person  hahaha) Dan can run better than C.J.  Bacher 
looked better at the beginning  of the season when frequently he pulled a Baz abd 
chucked the ball out of  bounds.  Late in the season , he felt a need to try 
to throw impossible  passes that had little chance at success.  
   RB:  1400 yards produced between our 3 RB's.  I  didn't look at the amount 
of receptions, but what our coaches asked the RB's to  do, they did.  Our 
yards per carry was around 4.8, so while the production  was average, I think the 
RB corp deserves a B as they did better than I thought,  what with Sutton's 
injury, as well as few carries.
   OL:  Dennis, I'm not as disappointed with this group as  you are.  I 
thought they did a better than average job pass blocking for  CJ, and an average 
job opening holes for our 3 backs.  This group, while  not over whelming, 
deserves a C.
   FG:  Villareal started like a house on fire.  He hit  his 1st 7 FG tries, 
but was .500 after that.  As such,  his cold  streak had to cost us at least a 
game.  At NU, we need to find an A  kicker.  This season, we improved from an 
F in 2006 to a D.  It was  better, but not by much.
  Specials:  I was impressed by our ability to cut down on giving  up big 
plays.  I trusted our special teams.  While we rarely produced  a big play,  our 
special teams didn't blow games like we have done in  seasons past.  As such, 
I give them a C, bordering on a B.  If  Villareal kicked a few more through 
the pipes, it would be a B.
   The Question:  I commented that our schedule would save  us  this season  
We traded Penn St. and Wisky for Indiana and  Minnesota.  We went 6-6 ; and 
while Wisky and PSU are not the New England  Patriots, chances are we wouldn't 
have swept them.  Are we any better than  what we were last year?   Especially 
the last 5 games, when we went  2-3, and blew a 38-3 lead in one of those 
losses.?  
   Certainly, we were better than the group that checked in at  2-5 before 
Bacher came back from his injury.   In 2008, we have to  replace Thiry and Rees. 
 Under Walker, replacing OL men was never much of a  problem, as RW always 
had guys ready to step in.  We also know that Brendan  Smith will help our 
Defensive backfield, as he received a medical hardship, and  I assume Jordin Mabin 
was red-shirted and ready to join McManus.
  On defense, we lose Kadela, McPhearson and Battle.  I see it  both ways 
here:  we need to replace a lot of starts, but how much talent  are we losing?  I 
think we'll miss Rees and Thiry much more.
  In closing this long post,  we went in the right direction, but  I fear it 
wasn't  enough. We needed to get to a bowl, and there's a  99% chance that 
won't happen.   To be sure, a bowl needs to happen  next season, for reasons to 
numerous to mention.
 
            GO  CATS!!!               Eric



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