Fan Blog

A Tale of Two Rivals

Posted by: Kim Johnson

Sunday, August 31, 2008 2:13 PM

What a day yesterday. Yes, I was fortunate enough to attend my first Arch Rivaly game. That was an experience! We went with our good friends, Kurt and Sue Lenschow (you know him - he's the State Farm Agent). They are the ultimate Illini fans, and I can take lessons from them. We had a great time, until about 11:00 pm when we had to deal with another loss to Missouri.

If you have never been down to this game in St. Louis, you really need to go. The atmosphere is just about unbeatable. After arriving at around 12:30, we had lunch at Charlie Gitto's, being waited on by staff dressed in Missouri T-shirts. We headed to the Alumni Tailgate at around 3 p.m., where a good time was had by all. The Marching Illini were there. They had a great DJ that kept things entertaining and playing good 80s party music. All fans were in a festive mood, awaiting the arrival of the big game. It was definitely the place to be if you were an Illini fan!

I had never been in the Edward Jones Dome, nor had I ever been to a college football game in a dome, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But walking in and seeing a packed house full of 66,000+ fans was quite a sight to see. However, we learned a valuable lesson as we walked to our seats right at kickoff: make sure you are in your correct section, as the 4 grouchy Missouri fans quickly pointed out to us, saying, "we don't care what you do, just get out of the way and get to your seat!" Ease up, people.

For the game, Juice looked great on his passes. The first 2 were a little shaky, but very strong after that. We had lots of action in our end zone. It was especially great to see Will Judson's catches from dead-on passes.

I was a little disappointed to see the coverage team seem to ease up on their pursuit of Jeremy Maclin on the 99-yard return for a touchdown. I know I shouldn't be throwing stones, as I couldn't run 40 yards without stopping for a rest. Maybe he was out of reach completely. Who knows?

Now for the whining. Why is it that Illinois always gets the personal foul/unsportsmanlike conduct calls? It's football, for crying out loud. You're going to get hit. Seems to me, though, that there was a late hit on one of our guys after he was already out of bounds, but no call there. Hmmm. No more complaining....

All in all, the game was encouraging. The passing game was huge. To Missouri's credit, they had a couple of key plays in the 2nd quarter: the 99-yard kickoff return and converting on 3rd and 10 toward the end of the 2nd quarter to set up their last touchdown of the half. Take away those, and the Illini win.

As a famous coach once said, "We didn't lose, we just ran out of time." That is kind of how I feel about this one, though we don't have one in the "w" column. It was still quite a game, and I hope they don't move this from St. Louis. I plan to be there next year. As for next week, the Illini should get one in the "w" column then. I'm looking forward to that! Go Illini!

 

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