ST. LOUIS — Once again, Illinois suffers through a loss that can either be viewed as the same old stuff or as another sign that wins are just around the corner.
Considering the Illini played the final 40 minutes with a redshirt freshman quarterback making his collegiate debut, there deserves to be an asterisk next to the 40-34 defeat at the sterile Edward Jones Dome.
Eddie McGee committed 4 turnovers (2 fumbles, 2 INTs) as he learned on the fly after Juice Williams got knocked out of the game, apparently with a bad bruise above the right eye and temporarily blurred vision.
But even as McGee’s fumbles led to 13 Mizzou points — and his interceptions negated two fourth-quarter drives into Mizzou territory — he showcased some skills that differentiate him from Juice.
Let’s get some things straight right away: McGee’s arm strength isn’t close to Juice’s and he doesn’t have the same running instincts (though he did run for a 16-yard TD on a bootleg keeper).
But McGee displayed superior touch and accuracy. His 41-yard touchdown bomb to Kyle Hudson in the third quarter couldn’t have floated down to a better spot. And he rifled a few slants, including a 25-yarder to Arrelious Benn on 4th-and-10 on Illinois’ final drive, that had to be in the perfect spot or it was no good.
Between Eddie and Juice, Illinois completed better than 50 percent of its passes for the first time since the Sept. 30 win at Michigan State last year. Since the coaches have made such a stink about all of last year’s drops (and how Juice’s completion percentage would have been far better than 39.5% had the receivers done better and his throwaways been taken into account), we’ve decided to keep track of every incompletion to assess our own credit or blame.
JUICE: 6 of 9 for 59 yards; 0 INT, 0 TD, 1 sack.
INC No. 1: Juice throws slant behind an open Joe Morgan. Blame: JW
INC No. 2: Juice steps up in the pocket and fires a laser at Morgan as he crosses over the middle. He gets his hands on it, but I’m guessing no one short of an NFL guy pulls it in. Blame: JW
INC No. 3: Juice does play-action and delivers a beautiful 20-yard-plus pass to Morgan near the Illini sideline. The refs signal that Morgan was juggling it as he went out of bounds. Blame: JM
Eddie: 17 of 31 for 257 yards; 1 TD, 2 INT, 2 sacks.
INC No. 1: Eddie runs a bootleg and throws it too far for Rejus Benn.
INC No. 2: Eddie rolls on play-action and throws it way over the receiver’s head. I guess you could call it a throwaway.
INC No. 3: Eddie throws a deep slant a little behind Morgan, who gets his hands on it. Couldn’t tell much from the replay, but I’m going to go with JM getting three-fourths of the blame.
INC No. 4: Eddie’s quick slant gets batted down at the line by the outside linebacker. Just a guy making a play.
INC No. 5: Slant through Kyle Hudson’s hands. Drop.
INC No. 6: Short pass too short for Benn. McGee’s fault.
INC No. 7: Smart throwaway on what appeared to be a busted play/route.
INC No. 8: Swing pass to an open Daniel Dufrene out of the backfield. It tips off Dufrene’s hands, but the pass appeared to lead him too far. Split the blame.
INC No. 9: Crossing pass near the goal line for TE Michael Hoomanawanui. Though in tight quarters, it appeared to be right there for “Uh-Oh” and his reaction seemed to confirm he thought he should have caught it. Would’ve been a TD, too, but no biggie. Rashard Mendenhall rushed for it on the next play.
INC No. 10: Good pass rush and McGee throws it away, though it was close enough to the sideline that Morgan jumped and got a finger on it.
INC No. 11: Another throwaway.
INC No. 12: On third-and-10, he launches a bomb down the Illini sideline that Morgan can’t get because he’s double-covered and it’s just OB. A little bit of an odd play call, but hard to give anyone blame for this INC.
All in all, I’m guessing Illinois would take 23 of 40 for 316 yards every week. The 4 turnovers (not including Chris Duvalt’s fumbled kick return that led to Mizzou’s FG just before halftime)? Gotta cut those in half, at the minimum.
NEW FEATURE:
As a sign of solidarity with Roger Ebert, who used to work with my pop at the Daily Illini all those years ago, let’s give some thumbs-up and thumbs-down to the Illini.
UP:
Rejus Benn: Team-high 5 catches for 74 yards, including one highlight-reel grab on the sideline as two defenders leaped with him. Also rushed 3 times for minus-6 yards. Rashard Mendenhall whiffed the block on his first big loss, but the second loss was big because Rejus tried to reverse field for no good reason. He needs to learn that college guys will catch him, but that’ll come.
Daniel Dufrene: The backup tailback piled up a game-high 58 yards on just 6 carries. The junior juco transfer seems to have good vision. Not bad for his first FBS game.
Justin Sanders: This is why Zook brought him in prior to spring semester in 2006. The senior juco transfer got to the quarterback more than once on blitzes. One forced a turnover that led to the touchdown that made it 37-34.
Brian Gamble: Catches 4 passes for 48 yards in his first college game. He also was the intended receiver on Eddie McGee’s final interception, so he must have some major trust built up with the Illini QBs.
DOWN:
Eddie McGee: Tempted to give a thumbs-up for supplying hope in his first college action, but he fumbled four times (losing two) and threw 2 interceptions on balls that should have been directed elsewhere. Yes, it’s an experience thing, so let’s make this a weak thumb. He made at least as many good plays as bad plays, but the pain of the latter outweighed the benefit of the former.
Chris Duvalt: Good to see him hitting top-speed immediately on kickoff returns, but gotta hold on to the ball. Rule No. 1.
Bo Flowers: Maybe we’re reading it wrong from the press box, but there appeared to be two coverage-assignment miscues on your watch. One was a 28-yard pickup that kept alive a touchdown drive in the 2Q. We’ll chalk it up to this being your first football game in, oh, five years.
Time to get out of the dome…
LW
