Game 8: Ohio State v Illinois

GAME 8                OHIO STATE v ILLINOIS

          November 1 2014       Ohio Stadium              Columbus, OH

Illinois Fighting Illini

Location: Champaign, IL

Stadium: Memorial Stadium (60,670)

Coach: Tim Beckman (3^rd year): 10-22 at Illinois/31-38 overall, 5-21 v B1G, 0-4 V OSU

Series: OSU 65, Illinois 30, 4 ties

Last Meeting: 11/16/2013: OSU 60, Illinois 35

Last Illinois win (with asterisk) 11/17/2007: Illinois 28, OSU 21 (officiating and replay gaffes led directly to the outcome for which the officiating crew was suspended by the conference)

Last Illinois win (w/o asterisk) 11/17/2001: Illinois 34, OSU 22

Coach Meyer (3^rd year): 30-3 at OSU, 134-26 overall, 22-2 v B1G, 2-0 v Illinois

2013 Illinois Fighting Illini (4-8)(1-7)                       2013 Ohio State Buckeyes (12-2)(8-1)

42        Southern Illinois          34                                40        Buffalo                        20

45        Cincinnati                    17                                42        San Diego State            7

24        Washington                 34                                52        at California                34

50        Miami University        14                                76        Florida A&M                0

19        at Nebraska                 39                                31        Wisconsin                    24

32        Wisconsin                    56                                40        at Northwestern          30

  3        Michigan State            42                                34        Iowa                            24

17        at Penn State               24 (OT)                       63        Penn State                   14

35        at Indiana                    52                                56        at Purdue                       0

35        Ohio State                   60                                60        at Illinois                     35

20        at Purdue                     16                                42        Indiana                        14

34        Northwestern              37                                42        at Michigan                 41

                                                                                    24        Michigan State            34

                                                                                                (B1G Championship)

                                                                                    35        Clemson                      40

                                                                                                (Orange Bowl)

2014 Illinois Fighting Illini (4-4)(1-3)                       2014 Ohio State Buckeyes (6-1)(3-0)

28        Youngstown State      17                                34        at Navy (Baltimore)    17

42        Western Kentucky      34                                21        Virginia Tech              35

19        at Washington             44                                66        Kent State                     0

42        Texas State                  35                               

14        at Nebraska                 45                                50        Cincinnati                    28

27        Purdue                         38                                52        at Maryland                 24

28        at Wisconsin                38

O18                                                                             56        Rutgers                        17

28        Minnesota                   24                                31        at Penn State               24 (2OT)

N1       at Ohio State                                                               Illinois

N8                                                                                           at Michigan State

N15     Iowa                                                                            at Minnesota

N22     Penn State                                                                   Indiana

N29     at Northwestern                                                          Michigan

            Illinois Offense v Ohio State Defense: Illinois suffered a big blow when sophomore quarterback Wes Lunt fractured his fibula against Purdue on October 4 and may be out for the rest of the regular season.  Little-used senior Reilly O’Toole has filled in well for him, however with his best game last week in the Illini’s upset of Minnesota.  In that game, O’Toole was 14 of 21 for 118 yards and a score and also added 59 yards on the ground and another touchdown.  Helping O’Toole get his feet wet as the starting quarterback is a trio of very dependable receivers.  Mike Dudek leads the team with 42 catches and is adept on the short and medium routes.  He has combined with deep threats Geronimo Allison and Malik Turner for 85 receptions, 1238 yards, and eight scores already in 2014, which accounts for slightly under half of Illinois’ receptions and over half of Illinois’ receiving yards.  Also figuring in the passing attack is RB Josh Ferguson out of the backfield, with 31 receptions.  Ferguson and Donovonn Young provide a formidable 1-2 punch out of the backfield. Both have over 1,500 career rushing yards, with power back Young sitting at 1,599 career yards and 16 touchdowns, and speedster Ferguson at 1,661 career yards and 13 TDs. So far this season, the duo has accounted for 719 rushing yards and 10 TDs,  The Illinois offensive line features three linemen with over 30 career starts each.  Senior left guard Michael Heitz leads the way up front and has shown his versatility by occasionally moving over to right tackle until that position finally got some consistent play out of redshirt freshman Christian DiLauro.  Next to Heitz on that line is fellow classmate Simon Cvijanovic who is listed at a mammoth 6-6 and 310 pounds.  They provide a steady influence to relative newcomers sophomore Joe Spencer at center and junior Ted Karras at the other guard spot.  The Illini line has shown improvement over the season, but they will be hard-pressed to keep up with the athleticism of Ohio State’s front seven on defense.  Joey Bosa and Joshua Perry, coming off their best games at Penn State, will look to have big games this week.  Illinois will have to hope Ferguson can find at least some room running the ball to take pressure off of O’Toole.  Otherwise, Bosa and company will be able to tee off on O’Toole, get sacks, and force mistakes.

                                                            Josh Ferguson

            Illinois Defense v Ohio State Offense: The Illini defense has shown some improvement over the horrid performance last year.  They held Minnesota to just 86 total yards in the first half last week and have racked up 59 tackles for loss in their eight games thus far to rank second in the conference just behind Ohio State.  Up front, Illinois is solid in the middle, with DTs Jarrod Clements and Austin Teitsma showing their ability to shed blocks and stuff opposing runners behind the line of scrimmage.  The remarkable up-and-coming sophomore linebacker Mason Monheim leads the team in tackles with 72.  He also made the watch list for the Butkus Award and is currently fifth in the conference averaging just under ten tackles per game.  Monheim is not alone at linebacker, as T,J. Neal and Earnest Thomas III have also shown flashes of brilliance.  Neal had his best game last week as he garnered 12 tackles and Thomas caused the fumble that sealed their win against Minnesota.  The secondary is led by do-it-all V’Angelo Bentley at one of the corner positions.  Bentley is up for the Hornung Award, given to the nation’s most versatile player and Bentley is a very good candidate.  He has returned a kickoff, punt, interception, and fumble for scores and his 12-yard fumble return for a score last week was the difference maker.  His opposite number, corner man Eaton Spence, will be making his 23^rd career start and has shown his skill at run support.  It’s not easy to go deep on the safeties, as senior SS Zane Petty leads the team with five pass break ups and ranks 8^th in the conference in tackles.  Just behind him is sophomore FS Taylor Barton, who ranks 11^th in the conference and had a big game in the Illini win over Texas State, with 14 tackles.  The Illini defense has shown spurts of improvement and toughness over last year, but will still be hard pressed to slow down all the offensive weapons Ohio State can throw at them.  Ohio State will have the advantage up front verses Illinois’ front seven, so look for Ezekiel Elliott, Curtis Samuel, and Doter Wilson to carry more of a load than in past games to take advantage.  The offensive coaching staff also may not want J.T. Barrett to do much running to make sure he will not further tweak the ACL he strained last week to ensure he will be full-go for the trip to East Lansing next week.  The Illini defense will be in a quandary, as they pull up to try to load the box against the run, they could be exposed to the deep routes run by Devin Smith and Michael Thomas.

                                                   Mason Monheim

            Special Teams: David Reisner is listed as the starting kicker, but the Illini also have Taylor Zalewski, who kicked last year.  Reisner started kicking during the Texas State game and is 1 for 2 for field goals, while Zalewski is 1 of 3.  The Illini have no such problems in punting as senior Justin DuVernois averages 45.8 yards per punt, which leads the conference and is 7^th nationally.

            SUMMARY: This is not last year’s Illinois team as they have shown improvement on defense and Reilly O’Toole has filled in well for the injured Wes Lunt at quarterback.  But they are running into the best offensive and defensive lines they have faced yet this year.  Illinois has also been up-and-down this year.  They defeated the Gophers and Wisconsin only beat them by ten points in Madison, but they were run over by Washington and Nebraska and struggled against FCS Youngstown State, Western Kentucky, and Texas State.  Ohio State simply has too much speed, size, and talent (not to mention the home field advantage) for Illinois to keep it close for more than the first two quarters.

                                             OHIO STATE 46, ILLINOIS 14