well they have pulled out the Vagina playbook the last 3 possessions going to have to hold on to this one in a nailbighter, I want that Menkenhall character on my fantasy team

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"Stay out of courtrooms-but if you must go in be Well Armed and Don't compromise. You are innocent, remember that. They are guilty" -- Dr. Gonzo

McGee is definitely a good backup and the better passer, but Juice is the man

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Vagina playbook just worked 8 straight runs TD, lets hope Juice is okay, couldn't tell if it was ankle, achillies, or knee. GO ILLINI!!

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"Stay out of courtrooms-but if you must go in be Well Armed and Don't compromise. You are innocent, remember that. They are guilty" -- Dr. Gonzo

This is a big-ten title contender THIS season, my friend. I'm going to be watching this OSU/Purdue game with a very close eye, as these are the only other teams in the Big 10 that can compete with the Illini this year.

By the by- Erin Andrews is a babe in person. I didn't get up close, but close enough to see the real deal. I'm wondering if she has appropriate lodgings this evening. If not, I'd be happy to oblige.

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Fire Phil Emery

Here's what I said last week:



Well, they just beat Wisconsin, and Michigan State just lost at home to Northwestern. Meanwhile, Michigan struggled again at home against a directional school (question: why does Michigan get so many games at home? That's 5 of 6 by my count.)

The late game tonight is going to show a lot. If OSU stomps Purdue, OSU is the clear #1 and Illinois is the clear #2. If it's close but OSU wins, OSU, Purdue and Illinois have to be considered about equal, with a slight edge to OSU for winning at home. If Purdue wins, you figure that it's a two-way tie with a slight edge to Purdue for going out and beating OSU on the road, then Illinois for knocking off Wisconsin, then OSU, who would be dangerous but down one loss in the Big 10. Here's my quick and dirty power ranking right now, before the game tonight

OSU
Illinois/Purdue (too close to call)
Wisconsin
Penn State
Michigan State (yes, I still have them higher than NW after the loss)
Michigan
Northwestern
Indiana
Iowa
Minnesota

It feels good to be an Illini fan today, folks.

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Fire Phil Emery

we'll see what happens tonight but I feel like Illinois is better than Purdue

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I'll be honest- I do too, but some of that is homerism, so I'm skeptical of my analysis.

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Fire Phil Emery

Irish Boy,

Was the officiating as bad as others have made it out to be? I was at the game (que the "We're happy for ya" button) and while I could see the obvious BS calls (the roughing the passer penalty, the fumbled kick off called down, the no call on hitting Juice out of bounds), one of my buddy's told me that virtually every replay showed a Wisky linemen holding one or more Illini defenders.

Hawkeye Vince et al should be frightened. The Illini have not yet played their best all around game. Hopefully Benn's shoulder is not separated.

The holding was really bad I thought, and I noticed it as well, but I'm always loathe to bring up penalties and officiating. (I was at the game as well, but I was pretty close. I also taped and rewatched the game.) What compounded it was that the DEs were getting pressure using speed rushes off the outside and they got dragged down a couple of times. One play really stood out- on the bogus roughing the passer call, there was a really bad block from behind by one of the Wisconsin lineman where he dove at the knees of an Illini D-lineman. When I saw the flag on the ground, I figured it was that. It seemed like every close call went Wisconsin's way, and going back and watching the tape, it also seemed like the Illini got a lot of bad spots. Usually those things even out, but in this game they didn't. The kickoff fumble was a missed call, and by calling it "forward progress" they couldn't even go back and check it. At the time of the game I thought the Arrelious Benn catch in the first quarter was incomplete, but after seeing the tape I thought that he had possession before he stepped out. On the Wisconsin long pass review, I thought it was incomplete at the time, after seeing the tape I was unsure, but the announcers sure thought that it was incomplete. No matter, they won, so hopefully it'll even out when they need it.

There was also a lot of dirty hits after the play. The camera picked up the one on Juice where he was thrown on the ground about 2 seconds after he stepped out of bounds, but each of the next two plays someone got plastered off camera. That was the same drive with the offsetting penalties, IIFC. Wisconsin was getting frustrated, and you could really tell in that 2nd quarter.

One thing that TV really doesn't do justice is the velocity with which Juice Williams can throw the ball. He needs to work on his decision-making and his accuracy, but he has a gun.

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Fire Phil Emery

It's funny, because there were two meathead Wisconsin fans sitting behind me and my son and they were clamoring to put eight in the box because Williams doesn't have an arm. I wanted to turn around and explain to them that he quite possibly has the strongest arm in the Big Ten (just not so accurate yet). Another thing, Mendenhall (sp) is a stud. I just hope no one gets in his ear after the season about turning pro. This team could be lethal next year on offense.

And that roughing the passer penalty against Illinois was total BS. I listened to the post game show on the drive home and they said he didn't lead with his helmet AND he didn't even hit the qb in the head. They said the Benn play was ruled correctly and the Wisconsin catch was inconclusive.

That was my impression 100%

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Fire Phil Emery

I knew I should have brought my binoculars .

Irish, what the hell are you doing on here at nearly 10:00 on a Saturday night?

I'm pretty sick, actually, plus I have a shitload of work to get done. I was happy just to make it out to the game- I spent most of last night on the bathroom floor. I'd love to be out right now, but my stomach just won't allow it.

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Fire Phil Emery

You're a trooper to make it out to the game then.

So ... go get your work done and get off this damn message board .

Multitasking... I'm writing a paper, and I refresh the board/my e-mail/college football scores every paragraph or so.

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Fire Phil Emery

At least your priorities are in order .

homerism or not...its true.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

As an aside- I'm watching Mizzou do bad things to Nebraska, and I'm thinking that the loss really wasn't that bad. After all the losses this week, if Mizzou can hold on they'll be somewhere around #11-15th in the country. There's really no shame to losing against that highly ranked of a team on a neutral field, especially in the first game where the team may have been still establishing an identity. For example, I think a lot more highly of that loss than Michigan's loss to Oregon.

So, where will Illinois be ranked? I'm guessing 16th. But I haven't broken it down yet.

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Fire Phil Emery

Jack Arute is talking about doing acid at Woodstock- it's time for me to go to bed.

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Fire Phil Emery

Well, things don't get much more perfect than that Saturday afternoon in Champaign. My only regret is that I was not in attendance to meet with young Ms. Andrews myself.

I am sure she would know me from my letters, emails, flowers, etc. that I have sent her over the years. She knows my name because I've seen it on the court documents.

Anyway, a great weekend all around, the big Illini win, the Bears upset, and I've got both Cub games Tivo'd and I'm going to watch them tonight before the big Game 5 tomorrow, so don't tell me what happened.

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You know me like that.