The Illinois football offense is coming off one of the best games of the season, as we put up 34 points against USC.
This was a great victory for the Illini. We needed it after the Indiana debacle. With No. 1 Ohio State waiting a couple of weeks from now, Illinois can’t get caught looking ahead. Purdue is always a tough team for us, and the Illini offense is going to need to be on its game.
Here are three keys for the Illinois football offense against the Purdue Boilermakers
- Expose a poor Purdue rush defense
On paper, the Illinois football program is not a good running team. We only average 114.3 yards per game on the ground, but if you know the team, you know we have some horses in the backfield.
Illinois needs to use those horses and run all over Purdue on Saturday. The Boilermakers come into the contest giving up 184.0 yards per game on the ground, which ranks No. 101 in the country.
The Illini backfield was somewhat healthy last week against USC. Aidan Laughery was eased back into playing time, but the Illinois ball carriers, including Luke Altmyer, had 35 carries for 171 yards and a touchdown. I want to see that number go over 200 yards in West Lafayette.
- Illinois offensive line has to protect
It was the tale of two offensive lines for the Illini in the last couple of weeks. I thought we had one of the worst offensive lines in the country against Indiana. A hard week of practice, and that same group came out strong against USC.
Purdue always has a solid defensive line. This is going to be a test for Illinois on Saturday. The Boilermakers average sacking opposing quarterbacks 2.0 times per contest. That ranks No. 53 in the nation.
This is a big game for someone like JC Davis. He is protecting Altmyer’s blindside. If you give him enough time in the pocket, Illinois should be able to torch Purdue’s defense. That will all depend on the offensive line play.
- Be the more disciplined program
There are so many games in college football that can be more competitive than they should be due to one team being more disciplined than the other.
I need to see a focused Illinois offense against the Boilermakers. Getting dumb penalties and too many false starts will hurt us throughout the game.
Controlling the penalty situation helped Illinois knock off USC last week. We only had five penalties for 42 yards. In fact, we are one of the best teams in the country when it comes to penalties. This season, Illinois is averaging 40.5 penalty yards per game, which ranks No. 34 in the nation. Let’s keep that number solid, and I think the offense should be able to forge ahead and get to the Ohio State game 5-1.