Things - Illinois

[J_Heater]

A lot less zone stretch running and much more power running. We actually ran a lot tonight into 8 and 9 man fronts and ran it well when running straight ahead. Stretch not so much.

Not sure why Akrum didn’t play the first series but you could see it was all straight running. IKM with the fumble and he really wasn’t hit that hard. But show of hands who had Wadley as the 3rd RB to touch the ball on the day.

Great to see Brandon back out there. Unreal return. Him and Taylor started at safety.

Wirfs started at RT, moved Sean back inside where he belongs. Render and Reynolds swapped out at LG.

Really great day when you have to look at the roster to see whose playing with 8 minutes to go.

Absolutely loved special teams. The onside kick and the fake punt were things of beauty. Miguel could not have kicked that ball any better. Only 1 kickoff coverage today but once again it’s just outstanding. It got to the 12 yard line.

Really didn’t miss tackles on their long runs, we just had DT’s getting beat or over pursuing and LB’s couldn’t get off blocks and safeties (not just Taylor) taking bad angles.

1st half no punts at all.

I only saw 1 audible all day long and it went for 5 yards.

BIG 10 STUDIO 0-2 on the reviews.

Might be the competition but I think this is the best our FB’s have played this year.

I think it’s nice to see the refs and other teams getting involved in the wave. More the merrier.

Unbelievable at the half way point of the season Iowa has 16 Passing TDs to 6 Rushing TDs. Really think they are missing that banger like Leshun. Toren I think is slowly going to be that guy.

We only blitzed 3 times the whole game and 1 of those was a run blitz.

 

[J_Heater]

1ST QUARTER
1ST play. I am pretty sure had A. Nelson and Lattimore not got there and forced the fumble, the Outlaw was going to intercept that pass. Perfect position.

13:25 The Outlaw being the Outlaw. What a read.

11:32 They get a 9 yard gain, Josey was held as he was stepping into that hole and couldn’t get there.

9:40 A. Nelson pushes the T all the way into the QB and knocks him down

7:20 We throw to Matt on a short gain, Noah Fant had left the LB in the dust and the safety deep was in the middle of the field. It would have been a big gain providing Nate got him the ball.

6:07 Fant with a good block

4:57 Brandon Wieting in the game and makes a good block. Haven’t seen him much this year.

3:36 Nate has done this a few times this year, escapes from what appears to be a sure sack. Pressure came from Tristan Wirfs who lost his balance.

Next play, pass to Easley for a 1st down and he throws a nasty couple stiff arm shots to the defender.

1:35 Bad spot on that ball.

:32 They get a long run, Lattimore got way deep into the backfield and ran right by the runner.


2nd quarter
13:30 Josey leaves and Hockaday comes in, once again proving a KF 2 deep is useless. Welch was the backup on the 2 deep I believe.

11:40 Hooker with a great pick here but Jeff George JR pumped to the same place he threw the ball. Almost like he faked our safety to where the pass was going.

9:15 Nate had made up his mind at the snap where he was going with that ball, watched Easly the whole way and threw into triple coverage. Meanwhile, Wadley was out in the flat and nobody within 7 yards of him.


8:50 Epstein rips off 58 yards and 54 of it was untouched. Reiff got destroyed and Bower couldn’t get off his block. Bad angles. Just a really bad play.

6:40 Not a good series. Nick drops a pass, Nate misses him on 2nd down and Easley seems to get pissed here and I’m not sure if it was at Nate. I hope not considering he dropped one right in his hands the play before that. Then next play T. Young all alone in the flat and Nate goes deep and overthrows Noah for the pick.

5:10 The outlaw hits Epstein so hard his mouth piece goes flying

2:45 Loved how we started this drive. Just power running with only 2 minutes to go. I almost thought they were going to just to hell with it, let’s bloddy some noses and win this in the 2nd half.

4:31 Garrett Jansen into the game.

1:35 Announcer at the end of replay said DB got his feet tangled up with Fant. No, he grabbed Fant’s jersey and held it, causing Fant to lose his balance.

Next play, Wadley gives up the sack

:20 Wadley with a nice punishing run and still gets out of bounds

Wadley’s TD at end of half, clearly PI on ISM. I always call it even when it’s on us. The LB he ran into was never going to get to Wadley anyway.

 

[J_Heater]

3rd quarter
12:10 Offensive pass interference called on Illinois. You can see Lovie pointing to the endzone where ISM got away with the same play right before half. Otherwise thought the game was pretty cleanly played and well called by officials.

11:46 Ward almost got that punt.

6:45, Comes back from a torn ACL in the spring and houses a pick 6 in his first game back. Amazing. Bower almost shot out of a cannon leading the way on the blocking. Didn’t know he had those wheels. Hesse puts a big OLineman on his ass near the end of the run.

5:50 Jansen in the game again as is Manny Rugamba. Manny gives up a big play but the WR bull dozes him right off the LOS and Manny still got up and damn near made the play. Has to keep his feet though. You can see on the replay he’s limping.

4th quarter
13:00 Ojemudia cannot guard a WR better than that. That’s just a great catch at the highest point.

9:30 Nobody saw pass on this play, Fant with a great catch for 32 yards.

8:46 Now it gets fun, lots of players coming into the game. Hockaday in for Jewell and Gervase in at safety

7:45 Max Cooper in the game. Brady Ross takes a DT 12 yards down field.

7:10 Toren Young seems to be limping after this run.

6:30 Wieting with a great block

4:59 Your defense is Hulett and Jansen at DT, Brincks and AJ at DE, Mends, Hockaday and still Ben Nieman. Boswell and Hanks at CB and Gervase and Stone at safety.

4:26 Nice to see our 5th CB talking some shit.

Next play, Gholsten in at DE

4:12 Wirfs moves to LT, Render goes to C, Barnwart to RG and Levi at RT. Also Austin Kelly in at FB and Wisnewski was at TE.

On Weigers TD pass to IKM, Wirfs really has a long way to go with technique but it’s great to see the other guys on the field. Love it. Also, so happy for TW to get his 1st TD pass. Shaun Beyer was in at TE on this play.

3:36 Nick comes in to replace big bro Ben. Welch at LB.

1:52 Would have liked to have seen a replay of AJ hitting George as he threw the ball.

1:34 Amani Jones in the game as well as Daniel Gaffney

:34 Legrand at LT, Landon Paulsen at LG, Spencer Williams c, Barnwart at RG, Levi at RT.

Last play. Great example of what we did today. We were facing a 9 man front and instead of going wide and looking for cut back lanes, we just punched them in the mouth for 11 yards.

 

[J_Heater]

STATS

RED ZONE
6 TRIPS, 4 TDS, 1 FG, 1 TURNOVER, 1 TURNOVER ON DOWNS

YAC 139
VANDEBERG 35
EASLEY 33
FANT 32
HOCKENSEN 24
WADLEY 12
ISM 3

RUSHES INTO 7 MAN FRONTS 12
12-61-1TD

RUSHES INTO 8 MAN FRONTS 24
24-110

1ST DOWN PLAYS 27
RUNS 19 19-89-1TD 4.6AVG
PASS 8 2-8-50

PASSING RANGES
1-10YDS 14-23-119-3TDS
11-20YDS 3-6-97-1TD
20+YDS 1-5-32-1INT

Last 2 weeks we have broken the tendency of running on 2nd down after an incompletion. However, here was this week’s results. Not sure I’ll keep it going forward
6 1ST DOWN INCOMPLETIONS
3 RUNS25 YARDS
3 PASSES 2 COMPLETIONS 15 YARDS

1ST DOWN PLAYS
19 RUSHES 89 YARDS 1 TD
2 OF 8 PASSING 50YDS

DROPS 2
EASLEY 1
ISM 1 (TOUGH CATCH ON THE SIDELINES BUT IT WAS IN HIS HANDS)

MISSED TACKLES 15-54 YDS 3 1ST DOWNS 1 TD
SNYDER 3
JACKSON 2
JEWELL 2
A NELSON
EPENESA
BOWER
MENDS
HOOKER
TAYLOR
BAZATA
HESSE

 

[BigHawksFan]

It was a good game

 

[83Hawk]

It *was* a good game!

Not perfect by any means. The Hawks still give up way too many yards defensively. If George had not thrown those 2 INT's down by the goal line (both bad passes, not great defensive plays, and one was a pick 6), they could have had 14 points and the Hawks would have been in a dogfight to the end and could very well have lost.

However......I was encouraged by the offense. Probably Brian's best job of playcalling this season. I felt he should have run the ball more early in the 3rd, and also think we need to run more screens to Wadley, but overall a good mix. Our future opponents will now have something to think about and can't assume we'll just run Wadley into the line on first down.

I was really impressed with Snyder. To play as much, and as well as he did coming off the ACL injury was amazing!

 

[Hawk_4shur]

4:26 Nice to see our 5th CB talking some shit.

Sarcasm?

Thanks for the game summary.

 

[hwk23]

One thing I really liked were all of the pass plays with the QB under center. There were a bunch of 7 step drop type pass plays which I think will work well since the defenses are keying on our formation. These seem to be much more effective (than shotgun pass plays) and will help the run game to.

 

[RocknRollface]

One thing I really liked were all of the pass plays with the QB under center. There were a bunch of 7 step drop type pass plays which I think will work well since the defenses are keying on our formation. These seem to be much more effective (than shotgun pass plays) and will help the run game to.

Now mix in some runs out of shotgun