Notes from the game:
(1) Altmyer now has a 164.3 passing efficiency rating. Last year he was at 131.9 (Scheelhaase's best season was ~140). NFL passer rating last year was 85.4. This year? 120. His PER will likely regress - Kansas' has an excellent defense but Nebraska and Penn State are also excellent plus the weather will turn - but this is a much better start to the year than last year. You can see the staff's imprint on him: they rather he leaves so yards out on the field to mitigate turnovers. I'm fine with that during the crux of the game, but I was appreciative of him letting things loosen up when they needed points against KU and he was reading the zone well against CMU. Question is whether he can trust the team's offensive line more on passing plays and avoid lowering his eyes under pressure. A couple of the sacks yesterday had an obvious safety valve option but LA preferred avoiding all risk. I'm fully expecting Nebraska to bring more pressure based on CMU's success and force Altmyer to trust his personnel.
(2) Seeing lots of complaints about offensive line but I think too many folks are conflating running game issues with all offensive line concerns. Right now, there are no lanes being opened on the interior. Lots of finger pointing going around and it all might be warranted. Feagin looks indecisive and slow to change directions. McCray broke a couple runs but tough to decide if something is different there or a couple well schemed runs. Saw more linemen disagreements yesterday than past weeks. Is that things where the team needs to get on the same page or frustration boiling over?
(3) Want to point to how PFF stats can be wildly inaccurate to what you are watching? PFF has Illinois with the 8th (!!!!) best team run blocking rate in the country. They have them as the 70th (!) best pass blocking rate in the country. The only defense is PFF weighs WR blocking the same as o-line blocking, so Pat Bryant being a run blocking extraordinaire carries the same weight as Priestly. I do not trust PFF with those team stats, you can look at Altmyer's time to throw stat and it's increased this year - but it does likely mean Illinois needs to consider more wham blocking fits and/or stretch runs to take advantage of good blocking WRs.
(4) Really happy to see some Collin Dixon passing success. Bryant and Franklin are awesome, but someone else is going to need to step up (and Altmyer is going to need to trust them) and become a relief valve or 3rd trustworthy WR because defenses like Penn State/Nebraska/Michigan are going to have the personnel to make things harder on two reliable pass-catchers. Speaking of....
(5) This might be the worst set of TEs on Illinois' roster in a long time, which is saying something. Every summer there are folks on here asking why we aren't getting the TEs 25-40 catches a year. Want to know why? Watch the CMU tape. Not sure this is going to be an easy fix next year either. I'm sure Arkin will improve and Rusk will come back but each has their deficiencies and Rusk will be back from a major knee injury. We still don't know if Rusk can block. Heck, I'm not sure any of the TEs blocked this past week.
(6) Defensive edge play was awesome this past week. Going to need that to make up for interior deficiencies and/or obvious passing downs. Even the non-stars, the Triple B's (Briggs, Barna, Bryant) have been playing well. Wonder if the staff might mix and match them for a few snaps on the interior if necessary. It also shows the benefit of moving Jacas more inside and giving them OLB 2-deep more opportunities.
(7) 25 snaps for Terrance Brooks this past weekend. With him and Strain back it gives lots of rotational options for Illinois in the secondary.
(8) Illinois is badly needing a thumping LB. Rosiek is built for modern pass concepts but is likely in a tough spot playing in the Big Ten. His coverage scores are awesome, his tackling and run defensive scores are....not. Kreutz is going to keep eating into those snaps, let's hope he's ready to make the right reads.
(9) Starting to see an adjustment this week as teams were heavily attacking Xavier Scott at the end of last year and beginning of this year - CMU only threw at him three times. I'm guessing Illinois' opponents will start testing quick, horizontal passing concepts to test Illinois' CBs without safety help. That likely fits better with Cox's skillset (quickness and negates his height concerns) but Canada and Patterson will have to prove they can tackle and force offenses to string together long drives.
(10) It won't stay perfect for the season but it's refreshing to see so few in-season injuries to close the non-conference schedule. Bray is nicked up. Laughery too, but I think he would have played if this was a tough opponent. There were a lot of big injuries this week to good teams. Grateful going into Lincoln with good health.
