| Welcome to 1983, as we break down Illinois' power run game against Iowa's suddenly inability to tackle inside the box. It's been three straight weeks where the Hawkeyes' run defense has had major question marks. Braelon Allen ran for 104 yards on 5.2 ypc for Wisconsin, and Minnesota, which was shut down by Illinois the week prior, ran for 4.5 ypc aside from a couple of long Tanner Morgan sacks, which made the overall numbers more palatable. The Illini are getting 56.1% of their offense on the ground, #9 in the nation, and if Bielema wasn't losing, it would certainly be higher. We know Iowa wants to run the ball, as inefficient as it's been. Both teams rank in the bottom 25 of the FBS in terms of sack rate, which is aided by how infrequently they pass in non-passing situations, but it also really shows how critical it is for both teams to stay on schedule, and not put their lines, both of which struggle in pass protection, behind the sticks. After the Northwestern game, Alex Padilla was the darling of NFL Draft Twitter (a sentence I definitely did not type back in my first year of doing these in 2003). While his overall numbers were not gaudy, after coming in for the injured Spencer Petras, he made a couple of Sunday throws that made scouts drool over what he might be able to do with a full week of first team reps. The answer was an offense that definitely took more downfield shots, to take advantage of Padilla's army, but at a 44% completion rate, so in the end it sort of balanced out. My guess is that this week, against an inferior roster, Kirk regresses to leaning on his crappy running game, and his good defense. |