227 rushing yards. From one player.
Nate Sheppard is 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds. Last week he took 35 carries against Tulane and turned them into 227 yards and two touchdowns, the best rushing line in the country after one week of football.
He is the problem Illinois has to solve Saturday in Champaign.
What makes that awkward is the film the Illini have from last year. In Week 2 in Durham, they built everything around stopping Darian Mensah. He threw for 334 yards and two scores anyway. Illinois still won 45-19, mostly on a five-turnover margin.
Mensah is at Miami now. Duke tore up the blueprint.
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A game plan turned inside out
In their 17-3 win over Tulane, the Blue Devils ran the ball 49 times and dropped back to pass 28. Twelve months ago in Champaign they did close to the reverse.
Bobby Hauck, the Illinois defensive coordinator, is not pretending otherwise. “They were very different, both in personnel and in scheme, from last year. Same offense. A lot of the same concepts. But they’re approaching it in a very different way, so we’ll have to decide where we want to lean,” he said.
Before Illinois picks a lean, it might want to work on tackling. UAB moved the ball on September 3 despite losing 42-23: 413 yards on 79 snaps, 194 of them on the ground against the Illini’s new 3-3-5 front.
Bret Bielema took the blame for it. “I made a conscious decision not to spend much time on tackling this fall. I knew it was going to cause us a little problem,” the head coach said.
Duke’s defense did not change at all
The offense got rebuilt. The defense did not need it. Tulane managed 54 rushing yards on the night. Bryce Davis piled up three tackles for loss and two sacks and walked off with ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week.
Katin Houser is next on his list. The fifth-year Illinois quarterback went 13 of 17 for 182 yards and three touchdowns against UAB, adding one on the ground in his debut for the program.
“Their quarterback is really efficient once the ball leaves his hand. The timing on the throws is good. He’s got a live arm. And his feet help him get out of trouble in the pocket,” said Jonathan Patke, Duke’s defensive coordinator.
Both teams are 1-0. Only one of them has shown a plan built for what is actually coming Saturday.
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