Illini football quick hits | Wisconsin game week: Monday
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Illinois coach Bret Bielema and his coordinators were available Monday afternoon ahead of Saturday's game against Wisconsin Here's some of what they had to say, courtesy beat writer Scott Richey:
Midseason taper
Bret Bielema had three sheets on his desk Monday morning detailing different approaches for Tuesday's practice, with varying walkthrough and live segments. The ultimate choice lined up somewhat with how he handled a Week 8 practice a year ago. A few more mental reps in practice and a few fewer physical during the course of the week.
Bielema started that process last week and got a strong finish from the Illini in Saturday's 27-24 walk-off win against Maryland. The midseason taper is an approach Bielema has used in his 15 seasons running a team, but it comes with the appropriate tweaks for the specific team, schedule and opponent.
"Last week in particular we had those two freshmen running backs and knew they were going to be probably the guys on Saturday, so we wanted to get a lot of good early-down reps with them (in practice)," Bielema said about Kaden Feagin and Aidan Laughery. "We increased the number of early-down reps and minimized the third-down reps they took. It's a little give-and-take each week, but you do all year long kind of taper as you get going."
Successful double dip
Illinois shifted gears at the end of the first half when it opted to run Kaden Feagin on fourth-and-short from the Maryland 2-yard line instead of kick a field goal. Bielema's trust in offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. paid off in the moment and then again roughly 25 minutes later. The Illini managed a successful double dip thanks to an eight-play, 59-yard drive at the start of the second half that ended with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Luke Altmyer to Isaiah Williams.
Bielema emphasises those consecutive scoring opportunities. Even more so after spending a couple seasons with the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick.
"Possessions are so vital," Lunney said. "To be able to score touchdowns on back-to-back possessions was huge. I don't know what the percentages are — coach makes a big deal of it and we do in our organization — but when you double dip with two touchdowns your percentages of winning the game are probably through the roof. I know they are. I just don't know what the numbers are, but it's a really strong indicator. To have 14 points before the other team touches the ball is a big deal."
A screen pass issue?
Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa completed 27 of 39 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns Saturday against Illinois. The Terrapins took their deep shots, trying to exploit the Illini's cornerbacks in one-on-one situations, but had limited success with what's typically a staple of their offense. What worked significantly better was the screen pass after screen pass after screen pass Tagovailoa completed, with 11 different Maryland players finishing with at least one reception.
"They ended up running 16 screens," Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry said. "I've never been a part of a game where a team ran 16 screens. ... Some of them came from the tailback. Some were wide receiver screens. The majority of those screens, someone made contact with them either at the line of scrimmage or 2-3 yards around the line of scrimmage. What that tells me is we missed tackles. I think it was a missed tackle issue.
"Football boils down to either you're going to make a tackle or miss a tackle. If you miss it, miss it with leverage. (Illinois safety) Nicario Harper had one that went for 24 yards versus Jeshaun Jones, and he misses it inside. If he missed it outside, you've got the inside piece coming and maybe it's a 5-yard gain instead of a 24-yard gain."
