Illini turn the page from Duke to Southern Illinois
· Yahoo Sports
Sep. 15—The weekly postmortem of Illinois' 31-27 loss to Duke happened Sunday. Tuesday will be the first day back on the field ahead of Saturday's game against Southern Illinois.
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In between was the regular Monday press conference with Illini coach Bret Bielema and his coordinators. Beat writer Scott Richey highlights what each had to say:
Interior offensive line depth takes another hit
TJ McMillen had to be helped off the field during the fourth quarter of Saturday's game against Duke and hobbled to the locker room after the loss to the Blue Devils. The injury update Monday wasn't positive. The senior offensive lineman will miss the rest of the season after suffering a foot fracture, further chipping into the Illini's interior offensive line depth. Who starts Saturday against Southern Illinois is now the question with both Maika Matelau and Brandon Henderson not expected to return from their respective knee injuries in time to face the Salukis.
"Technically, after TJ got ruled out, I was just looking at our entering fall depth, and he was listed as our third overall guard," Illinois coach Bret Bielema said. The Wheaton St. Francis grad had also been the top backup at center, which is now junior Zafir Stewart. "In reality, we'll be down to our fourth and fifth (starting against SIU) and six and seven will be backups. Eddie (Tuerk) will be in there. Obviously, (Brandon) Hansen.
"Dez Schuster popped in there (against Duke) and did some good stuff. We'll also probably pop in some Kai Pritchard, who hasn't played yet but has been repping at tackle and guard. Champ Smith ... we'll put him in there at guard, and it's a very natural position for him."
Lack of execution finally hurts Illinois late
Illinois scored on its first five full possessions against Duke with three touchdowns from Katin Houser to Collin Dixon and a pair of Ethan Moczulski field goals. The only miss was a 32-second drive to close out the first half that ended with a missed 62-yarder from Moczulski. Production that apparently outpaced execution errors Lunney saw from his offense. Execution errors that mounted late in the game when the Illini's final three possessions ended with a turnover on downs, a Houser interception and another turnover on downs. That included a final drive that relied heavily on Ca'Lil Valentine and the run game but only managed 18 yards on six plays in three minutes, 19 seconds, before a failed fourth down pass.
"If you really peel it back, the production was there, but the execution was not," offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. said. "Some of the lack of execution caught up to us later in the course of the game. It starts with me. Are we doing too much stuff or do we have too many plays or are we not communicating well enough to our guys? They're little bitty things that maybe the naked eye wouldn't pick up on.
"It starts with me and then it just goes on down to quarterback, running back, tight end. There was enough to go around, and I think our guys saw that. In order to win against good competition, which we face every week, there's a fine line between winning and losing. When you don't execute in some of those moments, a little detail can rear its head in a bad way."
End-of-half issues repeat for Illinois defense
UAB scored with 18 seconds remaining in the first half of its Week 1 game at Illinois, with Ryder Burton hitting running back Roderick Robinson II for a 10-yard touchdown pass. An Hail Mary from Houser to Ty Robinson as time expired in the half kept the Blazers from using that late second quarter score as a momentum builder. Duke, however, pulled that off on Saturday, getting a 7-yard touchdown pass from Walker Eget to Nate Sheppard with 38 seconds left in the first half and double dipping with another Eget-to-Sheppard score to start the second half.
"We didn't do well enough, again, for the second week in a row at the end of the half," defensive coordinator Bobby Hauck said. "I've got to do a better job there. Put our guys in position to make plays and not give up that score at the end of the half. We need to do a better job in that situation.
"The offenses were way diverse from one another. The one common denominator in it is I, as the guy calling the plays, probably need to be a little more aggressive. I did put us in a bad call against a rollout — a flood deal. It was a bad call, but sometimes they get the pen last, too."