3 biggest worries for the Illinois football team against Oregon

3. Passing game weapons

With the upper-echelon programs, they have weapons everywhere on the field and at all levels. You can go to the second and third string and find talented athletes.

Dillion Gabriel is a good quarterback, but he also has incredible weapons that can open up a game and destroy a secondary.

Tez Johnson is one of those weapons. Coming off a season where he went for 1,182 yards and 10 touchdowns, Johnson is going to blow those numbers away as a senior. He already has 536 yards and seven touchdowns on 57 receptions this season.

As a slot receiver, Johnson has tremendous speed and quickness. I would argue the most important thing is Johnson’s reliability. He has 68 targets this season and out of those 68 targets, he only has three drops. That is a mind-blowing number.

Oregon’s passing weapons go much deeper than Johnson too. They have seven players with at least 12 receptions this season. Four of those players have already hit 300 yards receiving.

Top tight end Terrance Ferguson, who has 20 receptions for 321 yards this season, is injured. He isn’t going to play against Illinois, but the Ducks have a rotation of talented tight ends. They can just call on Kenyon Sadiq to perform. He has 13 receptions for 170 yards this season.

The elite level of talent at the top and the quality of talent throughout the passing game depth chart is overwhelming. Illinois will have our hands full on Saturday. The Oregon passing game weapons scare me.