USC Trojan Football Analysis

2007 Rose Bowl Preview - Illinois Defense

Date - December 25, 2007

Here are some short notes about the Illinois defense to pass the time leading up to the Rose Bowl. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to watch this team during the year (except for highlights etc.) Fortunately, thanks to an Illini fan, I managed to obtain a copy of the game versus Ohio State game played earlier this year in Columbus Ohio where the Fighting Illini upset the Buckeyes 28-21. The following notes are an overview of the Illini defense based upon season statistics, game trends, and the Ohio State game in particular. As such the contents may or may not reflect how Illinois will play versus USC - the Ohio State game is just one data point that I was able to obtain.

(Note: The following statistical data is all from the NCAA's CFB web site for Division I football and the 2007 defense figures are all year to date numbers as of today.)

2007 USC vs Illinois Overall Defense Comparison

Category	2007 YTD USC	NCAA Rank	2007 YTD Illini	NCAA Rank
Rush Yards Per Game	79.2	#4	114.5	#24
Rush Yards Per Carry	2.5	#4	3.3	#24
Pass Yards Per Game	179.7	#7	240.9	#76
Pass Yards Per Completion	9.4	N/A*	11.2	N/A*
Pass Completion % Allowed	53.7%	N/A*	58.5	N/A*
Total Yardage Defense	258.8	#2	355.4	#41
Scoring Defense	15.9	#4	19.5	#20
Sacks	40	#6	37	#12
Tackles For Loss	85	#24	80	#40
Fumbles Recovered	14	#13	8	#76
Interceptions	10	#86	16	#26
3rd Down Defense %	31.2%	#9	37.6%	#48

*Not available in any easy format

Statistically on defense USC has an advantage in most categories listed above but in some the difference is quite small. The area where Illinois has the biggest advantage on paper is in the area of interceptions where USC has been weak all season. Of course this sort of relative comparison is difficult due to strength of schedule factors as well as a lack of common opponents.

This season Illinois finished with 9 wins and 3 losses overall. The losses were against Missouri, Iowa, and Michigan. Quality wins were posted versus Penn State, Wisconsin, and of course Ohio State. Here is the Illinois season at a glance. For those with LOTS of time on their hands the Illinois football website posts 5-10 minute highlight films of most games. Click here if you are interested in viewing any of the games.

Illinois Season Results

Game	Team	Illini Score	Opponent	Opp. Score	Sagarin Rank	Win / Loss
G1	Illinois	34	Missouri	40	9	L
G2	Illinois	21	Western Illinois	0	122	W
G3	Illinois	41	Syracuse	20	111	W
G4	Illinois	27	Indiana	14	61	W
G5	Illinois	27	Penn State	20	30	W
G6	Illinois	31	Wisconsin	26	29	W
G7	Illinois	6	Iowa	10	74	L
G8	Illinois	17	Michigan	27	27	L
G9	Illinois	28	Ball State	17	69	W
G10	Illinois	44	Minnesota	17	119	W
G11	Illinois	28	Ohio State	21	2	W
G12	Illinois	41	Northwestern	22	81	W
G13	Illinois		USC		8
	Average	28.8		19.5	57.1	9W-3L

Note: Losses highlighted in red

Illinois Defense Introduction

Here are the starters for the Illinois defense at the time of the Ohio State game. I don't have any injury information pertaining to the squad so this may or may not be up to date.

Defensive Lineman	Linebackers	Secondary

The most well known figure on the defensive side of the ball for the Illini is their star middle linebacker J Leman. Leman was on numerous lists such as the Butkus award for the nations top linebacker. He is the strength of the middle of their defense and ranks 23rd in the country in tackles with 124 total tackles. Here is a link to a short video clip about J Leman and some of his highlights.

Illinois Base Defense Formations

Illinois shows several different looks on defense in the sole game that I watched versus Ohio State. As such it may or may not be representative of what they will do versus USC in the Rose Bowl.


Here is Illinois lined up against a fairly typical Ohio State I Formation set with twin receivers split to the right and TE to the left. Illinois seems confident enough in its run defense on many run plays to keep just six men in the immediate tackle box. One free safety is deep on this play out of the picture.	Other times against such formations as this single back alignment with 3 WR's they will put seven men near the line of scrimmage and play more of a quarters look in the secondary pre-snap at least.

Against the Ohio State 2TE I Formation look the Illini just had 7 men in the immediate tackle box again indicating their confidence in run defense it appears.	Against spread 5 WR formations Illinois played the boundary receivers tight and much softer on the field side.

Illinois Defense Game by Game Trend Charts

Here is the Illinois season at a glance on a game to game basis. The shaded columns in red indicate the three losses and the respective yardage outputs allowed to the opponent in each game.

Run defense is the overall strong point of the Illini defense as I'll show in some pictures below. For the most part the Illini limited opponents to 114.5 yards per game on average. Six times that figure was exceeded however and it included two of the losses even though the rush yards allowed per carry in those games were not all that substantial. Testing the Illinois run defense early on I suspect will be one of the focal points for USC in the Rose Bowl. I'll highlight several run plays from the Ohio State Illinois game below.

The Illini pass defense on the other hand ranks just 76th in the nation and was exploited at times during the season. Missouri, Indiana, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Northwestern all had good days in terms of total pass yardage versus Illinois. Only the Missouri game resulted in a loss however in the first game of the season. It appears from the game to game trend that the Illinois pass defense improved significantly over the latter course of the season with the exception of the final Northwestern game. While allowing a fair amount of yardage however the Illini defense did intercept 16 passes during the season including three in the pivotal Ohio State game.

In terms of total yardage surrendered you can see that the Illinois defense settled down considerably the second half of the year as the unit jelled. Oddly two of the Illini losses came in games where they surrendered less than their season average. Turnovers and sustaining a few key drives by the opposition were enough to win. Iowa beat Illinois 10-6 as mentioned above and Michigan won 27-17.

Big Plays Made on Defense By Illinois Versus Ohio State

Run Plays

Ohio State did gain 180 yards rushing on 36 carries for a 5.0 yard average in the Illinois game. However the average is a bit misleading. Illinois allowed 136 yards of those on just seven carries. On the other 29 carries in the game by Ohio State the Buckeyes gained just 44 yards for just over a 1.5 yard average. Here are a couple of snap shots of those plays that were well defended by Illinois.


OSU I Formation with WR's split.	Hand off to tailback Wells who tries the right side of the line this time.	The play is stopped for about a one yard gain.


OSU I Formation alignment with twin receivers to one side.	Hand off to the tailback Wells who tries to go off left tackle.	The play is stopped for no gain by Illinois.

Anyway you get the picture. Ohio State lined up on the I formation and tried to pound away at Illinois much of the game with mixed results. 29 times they ran the ball and generated just 44 yards. Up the middle Illinois appears to have a very strong rush defense and the linebacking unit plays disciplined gap control football. There were seven good running plays by Ohio State however that netted 136 yards. I will post several of them below.

Pass Play Defense By Illinois

In addition to playing strong run defense most of the game versus Ohio State Illinois did a good job on pass defense as well. QB Todd Boeckman of Ohio State was 13 of 23 in the game for just 156 yards passing. In addition he also threw three critical interceptions which helped to seal the Buckeye's fate in the this game. Here is a link to the three pass plays that resulted in drive and score killing interceptions for the Buckeyes versus the Illinois defense.

Interceptions

The first interception came in the first quarter when Ohio State tried to run a WR underneath the twin receiver to his inside. The outside corner stayed in the flats however and just read the throw and worked his way underneath it for the easy interception. The pass was also somewhat underthrown on the play. The second interception in the middle came when Ohio State marched down the field and was about to tie up the game at 21 all. Under pressure the QB Boeckman scrambled and then forced an ill advised pass between the Illini defenders. The pass was tipped and intercepted in the end zone on the rebound to end this scoring drive attempt. The final interception came when Ohio State was trying to drive and tie up the game in the 4th quarter. Boeckman again forced an ill advised pass down field on some sort of a go route. The corner and the safety had the WR bracketed on the play and it was an easy drill killing interception. This effectively was the final play of the game for Ohio State I believe as Illinois controlled the clock the rest of the game to win the game. The lesson I take from this is not to force bad passes into coverage against this defense or they will make critical interceptions.

Big Plays Given Up By Illinois Versus Ohio State

Big OSU Run Plays

As mentioned above however the Ohio State rush attack did find some success in the game and generate a few big plays. Four big runs of greater than 10 yards were recorded by the tailbacks and three times the QB scrambled for big yardage as well. Here are pictures of a couple of the run plays and I'll put the others in a short video clip at the end of the section.

Big Run 1

This play was another out of the I Formation for Ohio State. It looked like it was designed to go towards the right guard following the lead block of the fullback. The tailback veered left however and found room to the outside. This 11 yard run was the first score in the game for the Buckeyes

Big Run 2

Here is the second big run in the game for Ohio State. This one came out of a 3 wide receiver set with 2WR's left and the tight end and flanker to the right. The play was a quick toss to the tailback Wells who simply took it quickly outside for a 17 yard touchdown run. If the Illinois defense has a weak spot it may be to the perimeter and not the middle - at least judging from the Ohio State game.

There were seven total big runs in the game on offense for Ohio State that netted greater than ten yards. Here is a link to a short video clip of them from that game. Several however were just plays that broke down and the QB scrambled for a big gain. Replay angles are included on several of them as well.

Big OSU Pass Plays

QB Todd Boeckman was 13 of 23 in the game for just 156 yards passing. 65 of those yards came on the first play of the game which I'll show below in pictures. There were just four pass plays completed in the game of around 15 yards or more making this one of the stronger pass defense games for Illinois this season. There was a big pass play down field that was incomplete that I will show as well in the video clip as well as in pictures.

Big Pass Play 1


First play of the game from a 2 TE set for Ohio State.	QB drops back to pass and has good protection.	Down field the WR was wide open. It appeared that coverage was blown on this play by either the corner (who stayed low) or the safety (who came over too late). 65 yard gain on the play with run yards after catch.

Big Pass Play 2


I Formation with TE left and WR's split to both sides.	Illinois applies pressure but the QB just gets the throw away.	The TE crossing underneath made the catch and rumbled for good YAC.

Big Pass Play 3 (Incompletion)


I Formation 2 TE's in the game which is normally a run formation for most teams.	QB drops back to pass and has good protection and time to throw.	The TE is wide open down the middle but just overthrown on the play.

Here is a link to a short video the big passes as well as a key incompletion from above where an open receiver was overthrown on the play for those interested.

Special Teams & Kicking Game

I did not see anything of particular note in either the area of special teams or the kicking game. Illinois did block a punt this season and also did return a kick off for touchdown that I saw in other game highlights. There may have been more as well I just did not find them. For the year Illinois ranks 60th in punt return defense in the NCAA allowing an average of 8.78 yards per return. In terms of kick return defense they rank 11th allowing just 18.59 yards per return. In terms of net punting they rank 93rd in the nation at 32.93 net yards.

Summary Observations & Takeaways

The Ohio State game was the signature win for Illinois this season and established that they can beat a top team on any given day. Illinois held Ohio State to 180 yards rushing and 5.0 yards per carry. As unimpressive as that may sound at first it kept Ohio State below their season average of 201 yards per game. Also a majority of the Ohio State runs were stopped for about two yards or less. Seven big plays were the reason for most of the rush yardage. Ohio State's better runs seemed to be either power off tackle plays, the toss sweep play above, or on cut back runs against the grain. Illinois produced seven tackles for loss in the game on defense.

On a more impressive note Illinois also held Ohio State to 156 yards passing on 13 of 23 completions with three interceptions. The Ohio State QB Todd Boeckman did not have a good day versus Illinois missing a couple of wide open passes as well as throwing three poor interceptions in the game. Illinois applied good pressure on several plays and sacked the QB twice in the game.

Overall Ohio State gained just 336 yards in the game on 59 plays for a 5.7 yards per play average. Illinois did give up big chunks of yardage on several plays but they stopped most plays fairly well and importantly limited the Buckeyes to just 5 of 13 on third down conversions.

One of the keys to the win over Ohio State was simply that Illinois forced three turnovers in the game with one coming on an end zone interception that stopped a sure Buckeye scoring drive. Illinois on the other hand played mistake free ball making zero turnovers and only one penalty in the game. Ohio State had 11 drives in the game and scored on three of them. Three others ended in interceptions. One drive was a single play kneel down to end the first half. The other four drives ended in punts. Amazingly Ohio State only had 3 offensive drives in the entire second half of the game as Illinois controlled the tempo and ball in the second half. One of the final three OSU drives resulted in a touchdown while the other two resulted in interceptions. Illinois simply held onto the ball and did not allow OSU any final drives in the final quarter of the game.

Other General Takeaways

Avoiding costly interceptions and fumbles versus this defense is important as always
It appears from the OSU game that perimeter off tackle runs or toss sweeps are more effective than running straight forward
Inside and outside zone run plays might be effective as well especially on the cut back opportunities
Crossing routes as well as seam routes with the TE appeared to work well at times
Effectively utilizing play action helps create chances on some deeper pass plays for the WR's
Multiple receiver flood routes might work better than isolation routes depending upon the individual match ups of course.
Stay out of second and third down and long situations (i.e. limit penalties) or the defense will apply pressure

The Missouri game and Wisconsin game overall would probably be a better preview to see what works in the passing game against this defense than the Ohio State game.