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LAWRENCE, Kan. — Bret Bielema reworked his defense in the aftermath of Illinois’ 42-14 loss at Virginia in early September 2021.
The Cavaliers picked apart the first iteration of Bielema’s defense in his debut season as Illinois coach. Virginia quarterback Brennan Armstrong was nigh on unstoppable, contributing the bulk of the Cavaliers’ 556 yards of total offense and five of their six touchdowns.
Bielema didn’t completely scrap his defensive plan in the wake of that game, but significant changes were made. To personnel. To scheme.
Illinois doesn’t face the same kind of defensive upheaval after Friday night’s 34-23 loss at Kansas, but Bielema understands he has to address the problem areas that have led to the Illini’s 1-1 start.
The Jayhawks simply finished what Toledo started last week and put a bright light on Illinois’ defensive deficiencies behind an elusive, playmaking quarterback. Kansas’ Jalon Daniels was just the better version of the Rockets’ Dequan Finn.
The Illini escaped their season opener with a close win despite Finn’s dual-threat nature nearly generating an upset in Champaign. There was no escape Friday night at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in a not-really-that-close 11-point loss to the Jayhawks.
“Defensively, what I get concerned about is when we have fundamental things that break down,” Bielema said. “Containment of the quarterback. Sloppy tackling. Pursuit angles to the back side. Leveraging the football. Getting in our coverage, whether we’re zone or man, and the principles of that. Maybe we need to trim it up a little bit and get better playing what we play well.”
Illinois did some of that in the second half Friday at Kansas. But it wasn’t enough to counter another poor first-half performance that saw the Jayhawks jump out to an early lead just like Toledo did a week prior.
Kansas scored on its first two drives of the game and added two more touchdowns in the second quarter. That final score of the first half was particularly damaging.
Illinois finally got onto board with 41 seconds to play when Luke Altmyer connected with Tip Reiman on a 4-yard touchdown pass. The Jayhawks’ answer was a four-play, 75-yard drive in just 36 seconds to go into halftime with all the momentum.
“If you take the second half, obviously, we made some adjustments and did some good things, but there were enough things that we did poorly in the first half that really put this game in a tough spot,” Bielema said. “When you start off poorly like that, it puts you behind the eight-ball and makes guys flinch a little bit. I really was encouraged by the way they responded in the second half and the way they played, but you can’t give a team two quarters of football to get up like that.”
Those early struggles run counter to how Illinois views itself defensively. But this isn’t 2022. A smothering defense ranked No. 1 in the country a year ago is not this defense. The personnel is different, and the execution even more so.
“We’ve just got to step it up,” said team captain Johnny Newton. Four of six captains were made available after the game. The Illinois defensive tackle finished with six tackles, two tackles for loss, two sacks and one quarterback hurry.
“We’re not playing to our best potential,” Newton continued. “A lot of mental errors, mistakes, leading to touchdowns. A lot of penalties leading to touchdown drives.
“We just got too comfortable. We’ve got to come out with a chip on our shoulder. We come out playing around. Just too comfortable. We’ve got to come out mad, aggressive. We’re known as an aggressive team to a lot of people. A physical team. We’ve got to show that off rip rather than waiting until the team has a lead and then trying to play comeback football.”
Daniels put Illinois in that position. The Jayhawks’ dynamic, dual-threat quarterback completed 21 of 29 passes for 277 yards and two touchdowns buoyed by his ability to scramble and keep plays alive. Kansas running back Devin Neal was just as slippery and elusive and rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown and caught four passes for 47 yards.
Six Illinois penalties for 58 yards — an improvement from a week ago, but still an issue — didn’t help the defensive cause.
“We’re a lot more disciplined than that,” Illinois linebacker Tarique Barnes said. “Coach talks about it. We harp on it with each other. That’s something we shouldn’t be doing. If we can minimize that, these type of games won’t happen.
“It’s just us communicating a lot better and being a lot cleaner with how we operate. We play fast and violent, though, smart and dependable. That’s the thing we need to make sure we’re showing every day.”
Illinois hasn’t been those things through the first two weeks of the season. Bielema reiterated that point to his team after the game. He said he was strong with them, but took responsibility for the struggles, too.
“I’ve got to do a much better job of getting our guys ready and having a plan we can execute,” Bielema said. “This is a big week (with No. 7 Penn State coming to Champaign next weekend). A big week for us as a program. We’ve got to eliminate the things that gets you beat.
“We just can’t spot them points. I think in our first two games there’s probably 2-3 scores in both games we just kind of gave them. You can’t beat good teams doing that. We’re just not good enough to overcome that.”
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