5 painful observations from the Illinois football loss to Oregon

5. The Illini defensive game plan seemed off

The first half is what we call a train wreck. It was one of the worst first halves of football I have seen Illinois play in quite some time.

On one hand, you have to expect Oregon to come out firing and looking good. Illinois is the one that had to travel out to the West Coast. On the other hand, I am not so sure Illinois’ defense came out of the gates with the right game plan.

For much of the first half, Illinois didn’t bring much pressure and played a lot of zone. That is not a great idea against a quarterback as experienced and talented as Dillon Gabriel. He sat back and picked apart the Illinois defense because of this game plan.

Illinois wasn’t able to get pressure on Gabriel with a four-man rush. That isn’t a surprise, as the Ducks have a solid offensive line. We needed to bring some type of pressure, and that never happened in the first 30 minutes.

Finally, in the second half, Illinois did bring a little heat. Oregon struggled with that pressure, and we forced punts and a turnover. This was the Illinois defense we needed to see in the first half.

At the end of the day, I think Oregon is just a more talented team than Illinois. That is also why we needed to be a little riskier than normal. Bring extra guys because the Ducks are going to be able to run around us regardless. That didn’t happen until it was too late, though.