I didn’t get to see most of the fourth quarter and I watched it after I knew the result.
I can say that what I saw in the first three quarters would have had me thinking the final score was much, much worse than what it ended up being. Chase Daniel to Jeremy Maclin (or Illinois kicker to Maclin, for that matter) was just deadly.
You had to come into this game knowing it was going to be high-scoring. I watched this match-up last year and came away impressed with both teams. This time, I’m a little more weary about the defenses. I know it stands to reason that these two high-octane offensive machines would be better than last year in many ways, but there was simply too much open space to say that it was all just too much talent on offense. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the lack of defense will ultimately hurt both of these teams at some point, whether it be in a conference championship game, or at a BCS bowl.
For sure, however, is that Juice Williams is a bona fide force on the field. His accuracy and touch seems to have gotten much better in the offseason. Illinois should be fun to watch at the very least. I don’t know how they will ultimately match-up in the big games, but stopping the Juice will take some doing.
Missouri…I just don’t know. They look like they picked up where they left off last year, so they’re in the Big 12 mix for sure. I just worry about how they looked against Oklahoma last year and wonder why the results would be any difference this year. Otherwise, neither team has a horribly daunting schedule. I could see both teams in the BCS but out of the National Championship picture in which case the BCS people could do the Bowl-watching nation a favor by setting the rematch, as it’s bound to be entirely more entertaining than a lot of the other potential match-ups.
I’m just sayin’…
