The Jackrabbits turned in their most complete game of the season in defeating the Illinois State Redbirds 31-14.  ISU was the national runner up last season and returned much of the same roster.  However, the Redbirds were coming off of their first lost of the season, they were at home, and their head coach spent most of the week begging fans to buy tickets for their blackout game.  It was a huge game and the Jacks walked out of Normal with their second top-10 victory of the season.

Rants & Raves

Rave: This was indeed the most complete game of the season.  The Jacks ran for 239 yards and passed for 153 while allowing just 92 yards on the ground and 187 through the air.  The Redbirds struggled to keep their best offensive players engaged and seemingly had no answers for the Jackrabbit offense, especially in the first half.

Rave: Again, the #605Hogs and #TheStable were excellent.  1 sack allowed and an average of 8 yards per rush on 30 carries is wildly impressive.  It is amazing how far these two groups have come in just a year.

Rant: The one area that I thought the team struggled was in penalties.  10 for 93 yards.  Woof.  The yardage would have been much worse but 3 occurred inside Illinois State’s five yard line which limited the damage.  Yes, their some questionable calls and I’ve heard that the Niekamp brothers had a flair for the extracurriculars that went unnoticed but I still think we can do better in this area.

Rave: I thought Josh Holst played a really solid game.  Sure, the 153 yards passing isn’t going to win any national awards but it was efficient and he was safe with the ball.  I can’t think of a time where as a passer he put the ball in harms way.  Most of the passes were on the money and allowed his receivers to keep moving.  Exactly what you need out of your backup quarterback.  Plus, I thought he added a bit with his legs and showed that he too has some wheels.

Rave: I loved that the Jacks incorporated Lofton into the offense early and often.  YSU did not want to get beat deep so they played soft and let Lofton catch it and then tried to rally tackle.  He finished with 7 receptions for 89 yards and a  TD.

Rave: The Jacks also go the TEs involved.  Kunz had a couple of early opportunities and finished with 2 receptions for 13 yards while Greyton Gannon had a 7 yard TD reception on a beautifully designed play.

Rant: Both Lofton and Josh need to maybe have a bit better ball security when they running in the open field.  Lofton reminded me of Nelly’s character from The Longest Yard remake with how he was carrying the rock.

Rave: I love how we are using Josiah Johnson and James Basinger right now.  I can’t imagine getting hammered by Josiah for 3 quarters and then James comes in and hits you with the speed (and physicality last night).  Josiah finished with 19 carries for 131 yards (6.9 ypc) while James had 7 carries for 90 yards and 1 electric TD run.  I still think there is room for Corey Blair Jr and Junior McKinney when he returns from injury.  This room is deep and it is really really talented.

Rave: Although the Jackrabbits were unable to sack the Redbirds QB last night night, I thought they had pretty good pressure for much of the night.  Kirschenman was charged with roughing the passer late in the game but I didn’t see a replay on it.

Rave:  I was blown by goal line stand and how the Jackrabbits stood up to a dozen Redbird attempts to score.  I was even pleasantly surprised when I realized the defensive line that was playing was the second unit.  Bergan Tetzlaff, Rhett Schaefer, Luke Krempges and others were all in.  That has to be slightly scary that the Jackrabbits did that without the beef of Logan Green, Jace Sifore, Ripp, Kirschenman, and Sitzman.  That is a good veteran Redbird offensive line.

Rant: Who do I need to talk to about the kickoff out bounds?   haha!  On a previous kickoff the Jacks had allowed a pretty sizeable return by the Redbirds (34 yards).  Why event tempt it at that point?  The game was essentially over.  Why not just kick it out of the back of the end zone?

Rave:  Speaking of Bergan, I think he has firmly taken over the role as the #3/#4 defensive tackle.  The true freshman has been impressive and again batted down another pass last night.

Rave: I thought Noah St-Juste and Amaje Parker played an excellent game last night in their coverage of Dylan Lord.  Lord came in with 34 receptions through 4 games and the Jackrabbits held him to just 2 for 21 yards.  Noah had a pick as well and did a tremendous job with his body control and ensuring he got in.

Rave: Myles Green has maybe had a quiet start to his season but he hasn’t been bad by any means.  However, his pick 6 shows the high end potential that he has.  He’s simply a play maker and I know the coaching staff believes he could play anywhere in the secondary.  Good for Myles to make the big play in his home state!

Rant: That Illinois State siren that blared on nearly every down when the Jackrabbits had the ball was awful.  That has to be crossing some artificial noise maker line. Plus, their band sounded decent.  Let them play and make noise instead.  That’s part of the pageantry of college football not a blaring siren.

Rave: I never felt like this game was in danger.  This team just has that “it” factor that makes me feel like they are going to figure it out.  However, the 11 play, 80 yard drive that took 6 minutes and 19 seconds off the clock had me truly believing that the game was ours.  That was about as beautiful of a mix of run and pass that we have seen this year.  The Redbirds were completely on skates.  Nice work, Coach E and offense.

Rave/Rant: I love the fire that Coach Jackson coaches with.  I really do.  However, I hate seeing him get an unsportsmanlike penalty. I have no idea what he said but maybe Tyler can get it out of him on the coaches show.

Rave: Dontay Johnson’s stellar play continues.  I talked about him on the A-team last week about how he is finally healthy and doing what we believed he could do all along if his body would just cooperate.  He finished with a team leading 13 tackles.  These aren’t just garbage tackles either.  He’s coming up in run support and or making strong open field tackles.  Exactly what you want your safety to do!

Rave: I’m happy that all of the guys on the team from Illinois, southeast Wisconsin, and eastern Iowa were able to get such a big win in front of their friends and family.  The Jackrabbits recruit that part of the country hard and it was great to see so much blue in the stands.

Rave: Max Pelham and the punt coverage unit… what a weapon! That group is so dialed in right now.  Pelham had a 3 punts that landed inside the 20 and I think 2 of those were inside the 5!

Rave: Cullen was flying around last night.  Holy smokes! He finished with 12 tackles and 2 TFL.  Great game for him!

Rave: In a wild weekend of college football that saw Montana State lose and other big  upsets, the Jacks came out prepared.  There was no letdown and no lack of focus against a team that had to play its best.  Proud of the Jackrabbits for just taking care of business and earning the #1 ranking.

Rave: This was a heck of a win! I’m glad the Jackrabbits have a bye now to regroup for this final stretch run before the playoffs and also to mentally prepare for UND.  They will require 100% focus.

Game Balls

Offense: Josiah Johnson

Defense: Noah St-Juste

Special Teams: Max Pelham

Go Jacks!

Matt