Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech Predictions
MY PREDICTION
ILLINOIS 41 LOUISIANA TECH 28
I have gone back and forth on this one all week. For a while I was picking in favor of La Tech, thinking their offense was going to be too much for our defense to handle. Then I look at the fact that this team can't stop anyone. They've scored 50+ points in their first two games (Houston and Rice), but have allowed a combined 86 points. They gave up 49 points to the Houston Cougars, a team that could only score 13 against Texas State in a 30-13 loss. Against Houston, they gave up 580 passing yards! Against Rice, 272 rushing yards! The Bulldogs have struggled at stopping average teams.
Their first crack at a solid team got postponed because of Hurricane Issac. They were suppose to play Texas A&M in week one. That game got rescheduled for October 13th. I feel this will be the best overall team they have faced so far.
It looks like Nathan Scheelhaase is in prime position to return to the field Saturday. As of the Wednesday report, coach Tim Beckman said he was almost at 100 percent. Even though I'm glad to see him back, I am worried a bit about the fact he hasn't seen game action in what will be 20 days. It will be important to get off to a good start and put the pressure on their offense, so we need Nathan to be on his A-game.
The place where I feel Scheelhaase will help us the most is with the running game. What's the best way to stop a high power offense? Keep them off the field. This is why we need Nathan's legs. So far, Illinois' rushing attack has been underwhelming. We will need these guys to eat up some clock to keep the Bulldogs offense on the sidelines.
In the end, it boils down to how Illinois' defense plays, I think they will come up huge. They are out to prove to us that what happened in Tempe was a fluke, and I believe it was. If they get their signals straight and play physical, I feel we will be looking at a 3-1 record.
What do you guys think? Do the Illini slow down this high power offense enough, or do they get WAC smacked? Let me know with your thoughts and predictions below. Utah State, predicted to finish 2nd in the WAC behind La Tech in some places, gave Wisconsin a scare last week. Let's hope Illinois is ready to go this weekend. It won't be easy.
CRAZY FACT: In Louisiana Tech's 56-49 win over Houston in week two, the Cougars ran a ridiculous 115 plays (77 passes and 38 runs) of offense! Six different Cougar receivers had at least five catches.
CRAZIER FACT: Despite running all of those places, Houston still lost the time of possession battle. The Bulldogs had the ball for 30:31 while the Cougars had it for 29:29.
Talk to you guys after Saturday.
I-L-L...
Louisiana Tech QB Colby Cameron is hoping he and his gorgeous head of man hair can lead the Bulldogs to a victory at Memorial Stadium on Saturday...
Illinois never got any pressure on charleston southern if you watched the game. This game this week is the WAC against the MAC and by the doubt and aprehension in the voices and the body language of the Illinois non-players I can tell you with out a doubt that we get WAC SMACKED! This week. I hope that I am wrong and that the orange and blue makes me eat my words, but I just dont see it happening this week, with so many years of being a bad football team I just dont have any faith in this team against a well coached team that has players that want to win and come to play every week! Louisiana Tech 48 Illinois 24
Your score sounds about right. Illinois can score on them but I doubt they can match their scoring and will fall behind. Illinois needs a high octane offense to beat teams like ASU and LT like they had back when Mike White was coaching and had QB's like Wilson, George, Eason, Trudeau. No way I can put Scheelhaase in a group with those QB's. But once again that's the kind of firepower Illinois would need. LT 45 ILL 20
I had a mini "Ron Zook" moment when we went for two last week after the first TD..but when it becomes 44-0, it doesn't matter...this week should be different and I am concerned about this one and our injury list, but I think we can pull it off. It might be a struggle...a preview of a conference game ya think?
Bulldogs 31
Illini 35
Our defense will force turnovers and our offense will capitalize with TDs.
Illini - 32 (14 pts off turnovers)
Bullkittens - 16 (they get stop in the red zone and have to settle for field goals)
Man I hope I get lucky and am right, otherwise this post is going to be made fun of all year!
ILLINI- 30
La Tech- 23
Illini's front 7 on defense has to step up on Saturday and put consistent pressure on "Sunshine" Cameron!! With or without Scheelhaase, the offense must produce in the run game and make an effort to throw vertically down the field... we'll see tho. Go Illini!!
Yikes, remember that 65-67 loss to Michigan? We had a great defense team that year too, so I am concerned. It's pretty clear that Lousiana Tech can't stop anyone on defense. Rice and Houston combined for nearly 1200 yards of offense on Tech , and these two teams have a combined 1-5 record. I am predicting that Illini win a crazy 42- 37 game.
So, against ASU, my head told me pick ASU and my gut told me to pick the Illini. I went with my gut and boy oh boy was I wrong. In this game, my head is telling me to pick Illinois, but my gut thinks Louisiana Tech will stun us, pulling out a victory as we just can't stop their potent offense late in the game. For those who watched Louisiana Tech last year and saw their bowl win, this is a team very capable of beating us and quite frankly, better midmajors win these types of games. And I have a feeling that will be the case here.
In fact, nothing shores up a bad defense better than a bad offense, and with no real passing game (Charleston Southern notwithstanding due to being the equivalent of a high school jv team in Delaware), I could see LA Tech putting 9 in the box and daring Illinois to throw on them.
I went with my gut last time and lost terribly, so this time I'm going with my head. Hopefully it works out better than last time:
Illinois: 31
LA Tech: 23
I didn't get to see any of the game last week. Even if I did, it wouldn't have proven anything except illinois can score and shut down an awful division I-AA team (FCS? FBS? Whatever.) This game is definitely a tricky one to predict. LT has moved the ball on both teams they have played...but the teams they have played do not possess good defenses. Illinois does. I really wish LT would have played Texas A&M earlier so we could've seen what they did against a power 5 (Big East no longer counts) team.
Nate better play. It won't be easy but I think our defense does enough to get us the W (Black Cat with a pick 6 at some point!):
Louisiana Tech (Gorgeous man-hair included): 27
Illinois: 38
I'm at odds over this cause last weeks game didn't really prove much. There were some things that didn't take place last game; no 100 yard rusher or receiver on offense and if I'm correct only 1 sack and 1 turnover against a lower level opponent, not good. Hopefully Nathan plays but he will be a tad bit rusty from the injury. The offense will take a couple of drives to find its groove cause La. Tech can't stop anybody, the defense will be tested early and often the key will be to bend but don't break. In the end I'm confident Nathan will carry the team to victory and the defense will assert themselves in the second half...........
Illini 38
La. Tech 20
This is a really tough one to pick!
Their defense is terrible but so is our offense. You would think we could dominate running the ball but our offensive line is simply not making the grade. Therefore, I don't think we can put up the kind of points most teams will against this group this year.
I wish our defense could be our savior this week but they don't turn the ball over and if our linebackers continue to show an inability to cover a receiver, we aren't going to give our line enough time to even sniff many sacks.
Unfortunately, unless our linebacking crew shows much better than we did against ASU, I think we fall in this one. If they do turn it around then I think we win a close one.
LT - 35
ILLINI - 31
Social Media
Comments
News-Gazette.com embraces discussion of both community and world issues. We welcome you to contribute your ideas, opinions and comments, but we ask that you avoid personal attacks, vulgarity and hate speech. We reserve the right to remove any comment at our discretion, and we will block repeat offenders' accounts. To post comments, you must first be a registered user, and your username will appear with any comment you post. Happy posting.