10 September 2011 Entertainment….

Workout notes 4.2 mile run (hilly; cornstalk course) in 40:57; 10:17 was the first 1.05; 9:04 was the last.
Note: this was my best time for this course since March; that is good. But, when I was runnin 23-24 for 5K, I was finishing this course in 35-38 minutes and I am not close to that right now.

Football

Then we drove the 95 miles to the University of Illinois to watch the South Dakota State vs. University of Illinois football game.

The game was close for the first 7 minutes; the teams traded punts. The Jackrabbit punter was outstanding; he averaged 51 yards per punt. But Illinois drove the ball 70 yards to go up 7-0, and the game kind of deteriorated after that. The next U of I possession saw them break a 60 yard run off of an option to set up the second touchdown; on the next play (just prior to the end of the first quarter) an ill-advised Jackrabbit pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. So the first quarter ended 21-0.

After that, SDSU couldn’t stop the faster Illinois receivers nor contain the run; they did manage one drive to cut the lead to 28-3; it was 35-3 at the half. This description from Yahoo was apt:

The 215-pound back took a handoff from Scheelhaase at the Jackrabbits 41 with just under two minutes left in the first half and burst through a hole opened by Prosch on the left, running through four would-be tackles on his way to the end zone and a 35-3 lead. South Dakota State linebacker Mike Lien had perhaps the best shot at Young a few yards past the line of scrimmage, but found himself on his stomach grasping at air where Young’s lower leg had been, watching the freshman sprint toward the goal line.

Scheelhaase took a seat in the third quarter with 93 yards rushing and 102 passing yards on six completions.

Illinois’ defense never gave South Dakota State serious reason to believe it could compete with the Illini.

At the half, U of I had over 300 yards of total offense and over 240 yards of rushing; SDSU had only 24.

A long second half drive made it 42-3, followed by yet another interception that was almost run back for a score. The second and third team quarterbacks came in and mopped up; it ended 56-3.

Though SDSU had good size up front and their punter knocked the ball into orbit (51 yard average!) they simply didn’t have the team speed to compete; time and time again the U of I quarterback was able to improvise and the SDSU defenders simply weren’t athletic enough to tackle him.

SDSU was a step down from Arkansas State, in terms of football ability.
Or put another way: a middling Missouri Valley team (I-AA, or “playoff division”) is not as good as a middling Big Ten team.

Next week’s game against the Sun Devils of Arizona State will be a huge step up in competition.

Other: Navy, Texas and Notre Dame all play at the same time. It should be interesting.

(photos from yahoo)

10 September 2011 posts

9-11 stuff….

Mother Jones has a point.