It was a struggle last Saturday but the Illinois football team pulled out a win against Ball State.
This win consisted of some up and down moments. I broke down the Illini offense from that game and you can view that here. Now it is time to go over the defense. This was a challenge because of the amount of plays Ball State ran over the weekend. I have them totaled for 82 plays against the Illini. That is one of the reasons why Ball State came so close to beating the Orange and Blue. They picked Illinois apart with a good game plan.
Let’s start with the main problem for the Illini defense; the short-to-intermediate passing game. Riley Neal, Ball State’s quarterback, tore Hardy Nickerson’s defense apart in this area. He was 7-of-10 for 32 yards on passes that were 0-to-5 yards deep. He was also 11-of-16 for 128 yards on passes that were 6-to-10 yards. That is a combined 69-percent completion rate.
Illinois has to fix this moving forward or it could be a long year. There were two main problems I noticed throughout the game. The first problem was the youth at defensive back. Nate Hobbs and Tony Adams shared time at cornerback and the Cardinals took advantage of their inexperience. They continued to go at these two defensive backs the entire game and in doing this, the ball moved down the field way too easily. Either these two need to play press coverage with safety help over the top or they need to play press coverage with a blitz from the linebackers to put pressure on the quarterback. Status quo is not working. They can’t continue to keep giving wide receivers an eight-yard cushion in man-to-man coverage. They aren’t that skilled yet.
The second problem for the Illini defense against Ball State was their pass rush. Most of the time, Neal had the ability to sit in the pocket and deliver the ball without feeling an ounce of pressure. Illinois would continuously bring the linebackers up to the line and then drop them back into zone coverage. They rarely blitzed and Ball State called their bluff too many times. Toward the end of the game, Nickerson started to bring those linebackers on blitzes and it worked out with some clutch sacks. The opposing quarterback has to have some pressure or teams will just pick us apart in every game.
Another issue I saw with the defense was they didn’t seem to know where they were supposed to line up at times. Both young and experienced players seemed to be scrambling a lot to get to their man or spot on the field. That, in turn, would make the defender late and the offense would recognize that most of the time and target the wide receiver the defender was supposed to be covering. Having youth is one thing but not being prepared is unacceptable. That needs to change this week.
Overall, though, Illinois didn’t have a bad game on the defensive side of the ball. The usual players played well and there were even a few pleasant surprises too.
Tre Watson had a good game. There was only one play where Watson bit hard on a zone read play fake but besides for that, he had a great game. He stayed home and kept contain and that enabled the Illini to really do well against the Ball State run game. Fellow linebacker, Del’Shawn Phillips, had a solid game. There were times you could tell he was a little rusty and the speed was an adjustment but for the most part, he was on point and led the Illini in tackles.
I really liked Tymir Oliver in the middle of the Illini defensive line as well. He has a home there the rest of the season if he plays the way he played against the Cardinals. Ball State had a hard time handling him and I look forward to him being a force for the rest of the season.
There were three players that I want to point out that really showed some impressive stuff on the defense side of the ball that I didn’t expect. The first player is Christion Abercrombie.
I think a lot of people overlook Abercrombie because of his size. He is only 6-foot-1, 230-pounds but he is a beast on defense. The football intelligence this kid has on the field is impressive. He not only got pressure on the quarterback but he also can see the field and sticks to his job. He doesn’t try and stray away from what his assignment is and that benefits the Illini greatly. There were multiple times Abercrombie’s abilities strung out the running back or he stayed home on a zone read where the Illini shut down Ball State. Don’t overlook this kid anymore because he could be a great asset to this team moving forward.
Isaiah Gay also had a nice game as a true freshman as well. He was by no means highly rated coming out of high school as a low three-star recruit. But, I could make a case he played like a four-star on Saturday. The quarterback pressure Gay put on Neal was impressive. This pressure forced Neal to throw shorter passes or incompletions. He also had a huge sack with time running down that likely won the game for the Illini. There was only one bad play that I saw from Gay and that was when Ball State did a wide receiver reverse and the ball carrier went right by Gay. But, that is just being a freshman and he will learn as he continues to get playing time.
The final player I want to point out is Bobby Roundtree. This kid was clearly extremely raw coming out of high school and he showed it as the starting defensive end for the Illini last Saturday. There were times when he would bite hard on a zone read and not keep contain. This lets the quarterback run free and we can’t afford to have that happen in the future. But, for the most part, Roundtree was extremely impressive.
Roundtree would get pressure on the quarterback and make him scramble at times. When he couldn’t get past the offensive line, he made sure he got his arms up so he could deflect passes. On multiple occasions, he tipped passes at the line of scrimmage and one of those passes was toward the end of the game when Ball State was driving. He had a big sack toward the end of the game as well that helped the Illini seal the deal. The strength of Roundtree was also impressive. There were times he was being held by the offensive line and he would still make the tackle. This kid has a chance to be really special in the Orange and Blue.
Next: Game film breakdown of the offense against Ball State
The Illinois defense didn’t play badly against Ball State. There are some things that need to be worked on, but the young talent on defense is going to continue to get better and that only bodes well for the Illini in the future.