Illinois

Mr. O'Shea Jackson says it best.

It was a good day.  Let's enjoy it.

    It feels great to win a rivalry game, even if it’s just our opponent who considers it a rivalry. By my count, Brady is now 4-1 in rivalry games. I’m including San Diego State, because you don’t just take another team’s coach without there being some hurt feelings. Brady is like the personification of the little brown jug, if only it wore short sleeves and was neither little, nor brown.*

Link: http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/111211aaa.html

Burst of Impetus

• Initial impetus went to Michigan after Touss’ 65 yard run that basically told Illinois, yeah, you have a good defense but we can run on you. We controlled the impetus for the rest of the half.
• Illinois had two nice plays to start the second half, but our defense followed that with a Desmond Morgan de-cleater (everyone who saw/heard it knows what I’m talking about), a blitzing Kovacs TFL, and a monster sack from Van Bergen, who split a double-team and jumped on top of Scheelhaase’s back. Burst of Impetus regained.
• It did appear that Illinois adjusted to our inside running game, and started to slow us down. When Denard went out injured, things got a little dicey. Then, JT Floyd picked off Scheelhaase and almost returned it for six. When Gardner threw for a TD shortly after that, the game was basically over. Illinois was beaten by our backup QB again.

Trash Cans Full of Dirt

• JT FLOYD!
• Mike Martin lead us with 9 tackles. That’s right, an interior defensive lineman lead us with NINE tackles. I’m going to miss that guy. He also got half a sack and 2 QHs. Roh also had 2 QHs. We were QH’ing Scheelhaase all game long.
• Back to Floyd. He’s been a punching bag on this blog and I’ve thought that was a little unfair, but what do I know, I only watch the game once. I hope the “JT Floyd is not a good corner” meme can die a quick and sudden death after today. He had 4 tackles, an interception that put the game away, and 2 pass breakups. I also didn’t notice him whiffing on any tackles.
• Desmond Morgan was second in tackles with 8, including the aforementioned de-cleater. Can I have 3 more years of that, please?
• VAN BERGEN!!! He gets three of these “!,” one for each of his TFLs, that included 2.5 sacks for 27 yards. On one of his sacks he proved that Lewan is not the only one who likes to ride donkeys.
• The first time Illinois was in our territory, there was 1:45 left in the third quarter.
•  
•  
• Just wanted to let that sink in for a minute. 
• The Team had 6 TFLs, 4 of which were sacks, 5 passes broken up, and the 4 QHs. Yes, Illinois’ offense is struggling, but our guys still needed to go out there and make plays and they did. I can’t see Martinez or Miller doing that much better throwing than Scheelhaase did. We’ll need to stop their run games, but it will be nice having those games at home. Not to jinx things, but 10-2 is still a distinct possibility, and that starts with defense.

Filthy

• I apologize to Touss for that “china in a bull store” crack last week. Touss was in Bull-mode all afternoon. He had 27 carries for 192 yards. That works out to 7.1 yards per carry. He had a 65 yard run that set the tone for the first half.
• Denard had two nice touchdown runs, but was otherwise held in check by the Illini.
• I know “Molk” doesn’t show up in the boxscore, but 223 NET YARDS RUSHING against a good rush defense does, and a lot of that is attributable to one David Molk. What a game he had.

San Diego49ers

• Odoms caught two for 46 yards. One was a 27 yard TD that put the game away. I’ve always liked Odoms, and I couldn’t be happier for him.
• Koger caught two, one for 40 yards where he dragged the DB for the last 10.

Big John R. Studd Referee Section

• The linesman was Tripp Sutter. Tripp, I assume you are a grown man. Why are we still going with, “Tripp?”
• Michigan had 4 penalties for 29 yards, and Illinois was flagged for 4 penalties and 25 yards.
• After last week, it was nice not having to complain about the refs, but man were there a bunch of replays.
• I think the lesson we learned from the Iowa game is that you can get a little physical with the wideouts and sometimes get away with it.
• I thought they missed a helmet-to-helmet hit that knocked out Denard, and a few other late hits on Illinois, but all-in-all, there’s nothing to complain about this week.

Hexadecimal Points

• Normal jerseys from both sides. I will say that I find orange to be a complementary color, like white, grey, yellow, and maize. I don’t think you should wear a complementary color with white pants. It’s not a good look, but Illinois has to concede blue to us, forcing them into the orange unis, and making them look like an orange creamsicle.
• 2H Matthew Cavanaugh had 2 tackles and 5G Frank Clark had one, and gave up the edge, again. Cavanaugh is making the most of his ST play. That guy always ends up making a couple tackles.
• #24, Delonte Hollowell, didn’t show up in the boxscore, but he made a huge play on special teams. On one of our punts, the Illini returner muffed the catch. Before he had a chance to cover the ball, Hollowell nailed him. It was a nice, clean hit that allowed McColgan to recover the fumble.

Derpan Meyer

• Announcers were Justin Kutcher and Craig James.
• Referring to Illinois’ offensive line, Craig James said, and I quote, “They’re athletic and I watch them, and the eye candy of their offensive line is there.” Hey, Illini linemen, if Craig asks you for a post-game interview, you should probably politely decline. And Craig, when the third thing that shows up on Google when you search for Craig James is “Craig James killed 5 hookers,” you probably shouldn’t talk about linemen as eye candy.
• When I found out Craig was announcing our game, I decided NOT to use the “Craig James killed 5 hookers” angle {allegedly, I know, I know,} but when you throw a fat one over the plate like that, you leave me no choice.
• Craig James called Reilly O’Toole, “Freshman O’Toole.” That’s fitting.

Random, as Yet Unnamed, Bullets

• I’m not sure which name is better, Reilly O’Toole, or Pat Nixon-Youman. On the one hand, you’ve got “Reilly O’Toole.” On the other, you’ve got a former First Lady with a great Chris Berman name, “Pat Nixon You-Da-man!” And let’s not forget Illinois DB Supo Sanni.
• Illinois, after getting only one first down in the first half, actually had one more first down than we did, 15-14. But when you only accrue 37 yards rushing, you are usually not going to win the game. Illinois averaged 1.1 yards per carry. I’m giggling.
• Total yards, UofM 362, Ill 214. Big Plays! We had ‘em, they didn’t. Their longest run was 13 yards. Mr. Kovacs, please stay healthy.
• Net yards per punt, UofM 32.2, Ill 34.7. Net yards per kickoff, UofM 49.2, Ill 50. A push on special teams? I’ll take it every time.

* The point of this paragraph is to admit to Illinois that they are our rivals, in the same way that Minnesota and San Diego State are. In other words, not really.

Per Rivals, Laquon Treadwell is visiting Illinois for the game this weekend. It's not only giving him a chance to see Illinois, but Michigan as well. I can't wait for him to get on campus for the OSU game though; I think that once he get on campus with his mother, we'll see a commitment.

The article is paywalled, all the information is in the header.

(http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1292113)

Also, the coaches offered a preferred walk-on spot to Taybor Pepper, a long snapper. 

Again, article is paywalled, all the information is in the header.

(http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1292050)

I'll be making my first trip to Champaign for the Nov 12th game and I'm just wondering if I could get any advice from people who have made the trip there before.  Primarily, I'm wondering what the best route from SE Michigan is.  It looks like there are 2 ways to go: I-94 to I-57 (past Chicago), or I-69 to I-74 (past Indy).  Chicago looks a little quicker/shorter but I'm curious if the traffic might be lighter coming from Indy.

Any random advice on Champaign in general would be appreciated too.  There was a small thread about this a couple weeks ago but there weren't too many replies, nor was there any info about the best route to get there, so I thought I'd revive the topic...

I'm attending my first away M game this year, as 3 friends and I are hitting the road and going to Illinois to watch us take on the Illini. As I've never been to Champaign, do they have a solid downtown/bar-type area, where 4 M undergrads (but old enough to hit the bars) could enjoy themselves, either before or after the game? Similarly, where would be a good spot to tailgate/park? We are thinking of getting a hotel room, and partying the night away after the game, whether we drink in joy or sorrow, and leaving Sunday morning following the game. Thanks for any help!

Don't have time to do a full write up and the game with NW is tomorrow anyway so here's some random observations

NW D:

• Active front seven, not very large.  
• Lots of blitzes
• They like 3 man fronts on passing downs, looked like some 3-3-5 with delayed blitzing (I hope they do that against us, Denard and Vincent will eat that up all day)
• Lots of coverage breakdowns
• Not a lot of elite speed anwhere except the one CB
• One of their safeties got dinged up, wasn't all that great before the injury
• Good tackling from their front seven, pretty decent against the run

NW O:

• Losing Trumpy is a big loss for them, was a big part of their offense
• #9 is essentially and H-back with a little more speed, lines up at WR and all over the place
• Persa throws a nice fade, but the WR's are really dominating
• Persa looks a little down on acceleration, injury might still be bothering him
• #11 Ebert is their main receiver
• QB Coulter at 100% looks better than Persa at 80%.  
• Offense is basically same as RichRod's

ILL D:

• #99 Buchanan is a player to be concerned with
• B1G worthy front seven

ILL O:

• Not very impressed with their left tackle
• Sheelhaus (sp? who cares) is more of a touch passer, not great zip on his balls. But he's got good ball handling skills, good playfakes.
• Sheelhaus is better rolling to his right than his left
• He also throws a nice corner route against the zone
• #8 Jenkins is their main receiver, deep corners and deep crossing routes
• #80, tall receiver, good hands
• Never go for 2 early in a highscoring game (unless you're a team like oregon that always goes for two)

As long as passing Denard is on target and we get a good game from our CB's, we should beat NW by a few TD's.