Happy Friday everyone,

Here are some of my final thoughts going into the game tomorrow. Sadly the offensive line is still on the list but at least I put an amusing twist on it... Maybe.

Final Thoughts Before Oregon v Illinois

Another week and another game.

Good thoughts David. Seeing the O line settle in and be productive is on everybody's wish list. Hope we do see it Saturday. I also want to see Mehringer earn the title of OC this week. A steady diet of up the middle for no gain on first and second down followed by a five yard pass on third and nine has got to stop. Mixing in screen passes that get blown up in the backfield time and time again don't count as variety.

There are plenty of teams with far less skilled O lines that figure out how to move the ball and with far less skilled playmakers. If the offense can just become mid, the D can take over the game. Is that too much to ask?

1 hour ago, The Kamikaze Kid said:

There are plenty of teams with far less skilled O lines that figure out how to move the ball and with far less skilled playmakers. If the offense can just become mid, the D can take over the game. Is that too much to ask?

This is at the crux of why I believe there need to be some major changes come the end of the season. There are teams with less talent that are doing more with it than we are and that needs to change. Not trying to get into ANOTHER conversion about coaching changes but it feels like that has become the dominate theme this season.

Thank you, David.

This is the first road trip outside the Pacific time zone since Dante went down.

The journey to Champaign is one of the trips on the schedule that has OBD traveling East every other week before playing UW at home in Week 13. To the Central time zone this week, and then to the Eastern time zone in Week 10 and Week 12.

Defense travels, right? Hopefully, as you noted, David, the Defense that showed up against UCLA and Nebraska, is the D we'll see on Saturday, absent a raucous Autzen crowd.

In the other road game played in the Central time zone this season, with a 9 AM Pacific kickoff, the defense was MIA. Saturday's game kicks off at Noon Pacific.

Illinois starting QB Katin Houser, who was having an excellent season in the midst of his team's struggles, is one of many B1G starting QBs injured and out. True freshman QB Michael Clayton gets the start.

Clayton played well in relief of Houser on the road against Michigan State, leading the Illini to a victory in OT. Clayton and the team have had an extra week to prepare for this game. A scheduling quirk that should not happen to a team traveling two time zones to play a game.

Saturday is Military Appreciation Day in Champaign. 3-3 Illinois is hoping for the eighth sellout in the last eleven games.

It is difficult to win a conference game without a run game, especially a road game. Which version of Dylan Raiola will we see? If it's UCLA Dylan ... Gulp!

I think Oregon wins but does not cover the 9.5 points.

Thanks for your pregame thoughts.

All time, Oregon is 1-1 at home vs. Illinois, 0-2 on the road. Oregon is 2-0 vs. Bielema, including the 2012 Rose Bowl win against Wisconsin.

Can't catch him! Him being DAT. And Kiko Alonso played a great game.

BEAT BIELEMA!

24 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

In the other road game played in the Central time zone this season, with a 9 AM Pacific kickoff, the defense was MIA. Saturday's game kicks off at 11 AM Pacific.

In fairness to the defense that game... The offense was even more mia.

If the defense is on the field for like 2/3rds of the game it's hard for them to hold up.

The defense in that game kept the Ducks in it but they couldn't seem to put it all together.

But also the defense played poorly. It feels like the defense has settled since then as they also didn't play well that game.

But let's also not forget to blame the offense.

I expect the OL rotation to match the 4th quarter of Nebraska. I expect much more success on the ground against against a lessor DL, especially with Smith as our change of pace back.

I still expect our offense to be clunky/inconsistent. That will come from inconsistent OL and QB play, and interspersed confounding play calling. The inconsistency will kill some drives, but not all of them.

I expect to see a top 5 defense playing against a first time starter at QB (for better and for worse). Points will be tough to come by for the Illini, but there could be some moments they catch us our heals.

This game is 2 time zones away, but has a reasonable start time and reasonable weather, so comparisons against OSU earlier this year are unwarranted.

That's my expectation.

Imo, fix the O line and everything else falls into place. The 3* upperclassmen are not good enough and the 4/5* youth is just that, youth.

Tough spot for Terry to be in. Hopefully the young guy start finding their game and the O starts getting production in The run game. 90 yards isn't ok

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Log Haulin

With Bret Bielema as the head coach, Illinois is 7-2 coming off a bye. 🤔

2 hours ago, Log Haulin said:

Imo, fix the O line and everything else falls into place. The 3* upperclassmen are not good enough and the 4/5* youth is just that, youth.

Tough spot for Terry to be in. Hopefully the young guy start finding their game and the O starts getting production in The run game. 90 yards isn't ok

And yet... they only brought in one transfer?

Turns out we needed at least three transfers to bring some stability to this line.

8 minutes ago, David Marsh said:

And yet... they only brought in one transfer?

Turns out we needed at least three transfers to bring some stability to this line.

Yea, that's what's so perplexing. Not sure where or how the ball got dropped.

My theory is they spent so much to retain the D and QB. The ones cutting the checks were probably done.

Perhaps they didn't want to raise eyebrows with the feckless NCAA. Not sure but it seems the most understandable.