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Scouting report: Ohio State-Illinois
Your Ohio State-Illinois scouting report, courtesy of our friends at Scripps Howard News Service (more previews on Page B7 of your Saturday DDN):
No. 10 OHIO STATE (8-2) at ILLINOIS (5-5), Noon, ESPN
FAVORITE: Ohio State by 10.
COACHES: Jim Tressel (81-18 in 8th year at Ohio State) and Ron Zook (18-28 in fourth year at Illinois).
LAST WEEK: Ohio State won at Northwestern, 45-10. Illinois lost to Western Michigan, 23-17.
SERIES HISTORY: Ohio State leads, 60-30-4.
LAST MEETING: Illinois won, 28-21, last year.
STAT THAT MATTERS: Since October, 2004, Buckeyes have won 14 straight Big Ten road games including eight by 20 points or more.
GAME FACTS: Needing win to stay alive in race for third straight Big Ten title, Buckeyes also want revenge for last year when, ranked No. 1, they fell at home and never had the ball the final eight minutes of the game. After hardly being accurate as passer all season, freshman QB Terrelle Pryor found big-play groove last week (9-of-14, 197 yards passing, 3 TDs) with RB Chris “Beanie” Wells doing his usual heavy-lifting with 140 yards, 2 TDs. Defense (7th in nation in total defense, 269.8 ypg, second in Big Ten with 24 turnovers forced) has given up only 5 TDs in last five games.
With 2-3 skid that has put bowl hopes in jeopardy, Illini really fell hard last week with humbling loss to MAC member Western Michigan as offense was dismal 1-for-13 on third-down conversions. QB “Juice” Williams threw for 328 yards and a TD but also tossed pair of crucial ints. that set up WMU scores as he leads Big Ten with 14 ints. Williams has much better memory of last year when he completed only 12 passes but four that went for TDs as UI beat No. 1 team for first time in 48 years. LB Britt Miller leads Big Ten with 110 tackles.
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