9-voit Battery: In-game Adjustments Prove Illini Is Resiliency
What it must have been like to be A.J
What it must have been like to be A.J. Jenkins (1). Not the postgame media magnet who deftly deflected bait dangled by reporters after his volcanic 268-yard performance, but the young man who pierced the Northwestern secondary for 40 yards just seconds after his bobble of the opening kickoff had quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase (2) throwing from the bar under the Illinois logo in his own end zone.
The uncanny short memory displayed by Jenkins on his record-breaking day was flattering in two ways: One, it proved he is undoubtedly a member of the elite at his position in the Big Ten, and two, the rest of the team copied his miraculous adjustment en masse.
On Saturday, Illinois not only proved it could win through the air, but that it could make other, less-publicized but significant adjustments on the fly at numerous position groups. While Jenkins went from kickoff doghouse to hero in 268 yards, the coaching staff and offensive line teamed up to engineer a similarly impressive turnaround up front against a Northwestern defense that pulled a host of tricks from its sleeve.
In the first half, Northwestern" is front seven was wreaking havoc behind the line of scrimmage to a degree it hadn't approached all season. Four different Wildcats dropped Scheelhaase for a sack, and defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz's (3) unit recorded six tackles for a loss and two for no gain. Contrast that to a second half in which the Illini offensive line limited defensive tackle Jack DiNardo (4) and company without a sack and just one tackle for a loss to see the impact the coaching staff's adjustments made.
"They were bringing a lot of different twists, things we didn't see on film," senior tackle Jeff Allen said. "When we got over to the sideline we made our adjustments, especially when we got into halftime.'
Scheelhaase, too, made perhaps his biggest leap as a quarterback in Saturday' game and not merely because of his lifetime-high 391 passing yards. After a frustrating two-sack first possession, the sophomore committed what was perhaps his first truly reproachable mistake of the season. As he was flushed toward the left sideline by a pack including linebacker Bryce McNaul, Scheelhaase floated a ball toward the corner of the end zone off his back foot to no one in particular for an easy interception by safety Brian Peters (5), his third against Illinois in two seasons. In a truly noteworthy display of resiliency, Scheelhaase got the Illini comeback bus in motion immediately after Dan Persa executed another masterful red zone possession to make the score 28-10 in Northwestern's favor.
Scheelhaase led the offense on a seven-play, 74-yard touchdown drive in which he went 3-for-3 for 56 yards and a touchdown pass. After sophomore defensive end Tim Kynard (6) came up with a sack on third down to force a punt on the ensuing Northwestern possession, Scheelhaase picked up right back where he left off, completing a 50-yard touchdown pass to Jenkins to bring the Illini within five.
As momentum continued to build, Scheelhaase engineered another charge through the air. On that drive, Scheelhaase continued to pick apart the Northwestern defense and finished the possession 6-for-8 for 76 yards and a completion to Spencer Harris (7) to give the Illini the 31-28 lead. Harris finished the game with a career-high 63 yards on six catches, a commendable bounce-back performance given the sophomore's struggles at times this season to hold onto the ball.
When asked if he thought Illinois opponents knew if the Illini could take to the air so effectively, Harris offered a, They do now, and added: I don't know if they did or not Maybe we didn't come out and perform as well as we could the first four or five games.
Defensive coordinator Vic Koenning (8) said he would make adjustments in the secondary this week for Indiana after Persa led the Wildcats to three red zone touchdowns and a 39-yard bomb to Jeremy Ebert.
I put our DBs in some bad situations, Koenning said. On the long pass we gave up I didn't give Tavon Wilson any inside help.
Koenning said the secondary was particularly pressured thanks to the Illini's inability to stop the run. Because the front seven couldn't plug the holes of Northwestern's zone blocking scheme, Koenning was unable to, as he put it, chea by subbing in extra personnel in the secondary. As far as sophomore linebacker Jonathan Brown's (9) unsportsmanlike conduct call, in which Brown kneed a Northwestern player in the groin, Koenning said he didn't see it happen but that he had cautioned his defense against getting caught up in the tempers of a rivalry game. However, he also spoke about how he felt Northwestern had dramatized contact in the past.
I've also seen their guys do flops before on film, he said.If the guy pushes him they flop on the ground. It looks like the old Lakers, like (Kurt) Rambis and those guys.
As a team, the Illini adjusted after a sloppy second quarter that saw them draw five penalties for 49 yards; in the second half they drew just three flags for 21 yards. Though it took a heart-stopping comeback to move to 5-0, Saturday's game represented a measure of comfort in the long term, as Illinois proved it can shape-shift and adjust in true Jenkensian fashion.
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