(Written by kencraw)

(Note, there was no TV coverage for this game so the recap comes from my memory and reading the play-by-play.)

After the Washington game, Bear fans had a great deal of confidence back in their team. Ayoob had apparently just needed a week to get comfortable with D-I football. While there was still a little bit of trepidation, Washington was very early in the process of rebuilding under Willmingham after all, the thought was that Illinois would provide little resistance.

The one caveat to that feeling was the absence of Marshawn Lynch who had to sit out the game with a broken hand. Nevertheless the concensus was that Justin Forsett and Marcus O’Keith would fill in acceptably.

Illinois was on the bottom of the Big-10 heap. Desperate for a turn-around, Illinois had hired a new head coach, Ron Zook, who’s first order of business was to install the spread offense. Their first two games of the season showed both the positives of the spread and the negatives of switching to a new offense, having difficulty beating a weak Rutgers squad and finally getting some productivity against San Jose St..

Seeing as how the Bears had struggled mightily on defense against the spread happy Texas Tech Raiders, the lone concern facing the Bears it seemed would be whether their defense could hold Illinois to few enough points for their prolific offense, now back on track, to win the day.

The first series for each team confirmed that idea with both teams fairly easily marching down the field for a touchdown with Illinios showing great patience at chipping away at the Bear defense.

The Bears went 3 and out on their next possession after Forsett’s run on 1st down was stuffed and Illinios was able to fall back into pass protection on 2nd and 3rd downs forcing two incompletions from Ayoob. After the punt, Illinios was able to march down the field again for another touchdown, putting the Bears in a 7-point hole, down 7-14.

Luckily for the Bears, their defense stiffened, having apparently finally figured out how to defend the spread. Both teams traded a number of punts before Marcus O’Keith busted a 25-yard run down to the Illinios 18 yard-line. From there the drive stalled and the Bears were forced to attempt a field-goal. Sadly the attempt was missed.

To add injury to insult, Illinois was able, with 4 minutes left in the half, to march down the field and convert their similarly distanced field-goal as time expired to increase their lead to 10, the Bears trailing 7-17.

At half the upside for the Bears was that they had finally seemed to figure out how to defend the spread after the first couple drives. The offense however, was not doing well against the Illinios defense. Of particular note was Ayoob had settled into a nasty funk, completing only one of his nine first-half passes. As the funk continued, the play-calling swung to emphasizing the run, something Illinois was anticipating even with Lynch unable to play.

The 2nd half proved to be very different than the 1st. After Illinios opened the half with a drive that got them close to midfield, Cal responded with a touchdown drive where Ayoob managed to find his game again, completing all three of his passes. With Ayoob completing passes again, the Illinois defense was forced to play a more balanced defense, opening holes left and right for Forsett who had 4 carries for 34 yards. The touchdown however was a 26 yard completion from Ayoob to O’Keith.

After trading punts and forcing Illinois to punt again, the Bears went back to work with a short field. Two Ayoob passes, one to Jackson and one to Jordan, got the Bears to the Illinois 2 yard-line where Forsett was able to punch it in, to give the Bears their first lead of the day 21-17, early in the 4th quarter.

The next Illinois punt netted yet another Cal touchdown, this one on a 79 yard punt return by Tim Mixon, putting the Bears up by 11, 28-17.

Illinois was able to strike back for their first score of the 2nd half on the back of a 52 yard pass up the seam, putting Illinios just outside the Cal redzone. The Bears were able to hold Illinois out of the endzone, ensuring that the Bears kept an 8 point lead with less than 9 minutes remaining, 28-20.

The Bears put the game away on the following possession with a heavy dose of Forsett and O’Keith. The Bears scored a touchdown in 6 plays, the only possible downside of their performance being that it only took 3 minutes off the clock. Nevertheless with the Bears up by 15, the game looked to be in hand, 35-20. After a punt by Illinios with 4:26 remaining, Cal was able to run out the clock.

Overall this was an uneven performance for the Bears. Ayoob took a full half to get his throwing motion working for him and the defense took 2 full touchdown drives to finally figure out how to defend the spread. However, once both sides of the ball was clicking in the 2nd half, the Bears dominated, outscoring Illinois 28-3.

Nevertheless, the optimism surrounding Ayoob’s performance in Washington had quickly diminished. Instead that optimism was being replaced by confusion, wondering just how inconsistent Ayoob could be. Only future weeks would tell, starting with the New Mexico State game, to be posted next Tuesday.