After 3 games we have a trend of two and one outlier. Illinois State showed that against competition that is literally not in the same league with the Illini, Schultz can run all over a defense. Once the competition gets into the Big Six conferences however, it all seems to fall apart.

Take away the ISU game and you are left with the following stats for 2 games.

• A combined score of 9 to the opponents 67
  
• A total of 495 yards total offense
•  4 INTs (and a fumble loss for good measure,)
  
• A combined 11 for 28 on 3rd down,
• 111 yards in penalties, compared to 85 for opponents.

Juice was right, this is a horrible nightmare from which we cannot awake. The weirdest thing to me is that all of this runs counter to history for nearly everyone involved on this offense. Schultz had TCU running the exact same offense for years, and never struggled to score this much. Benn was an AA last year, Fayson was much better than this at Florida, Juice has improved every year passing, except for this year. I told you before Saturday's game that I refused to believe that all of these players and coaches had regressed that much from last year, but until they prove otherwise, that is what we have to assume.

Our friends and SBN comrades at the Rivalry ESQ gave their opinion on what the hell has happened and what is going on.  Graham writes

Two games have showed us the exact same thing. The gashing run attack featured so prominently in '07 is gone. The zone read option is gone, because teams blitz a linebacker directly where Juice might run, unafraid of his passing prospects. The highly touted wide receivers (I called them the Big Ten's best) are dropping balls and unable to stretch the field vertically, something Fayson and Benn should be able to do. And Juice Williams, who I have ardently supported and whose talent I assumed would trump other issues, has been underthrowing routes and irresponsibly slinging balls into tight coverage.

Eventually you have to stop making judgments on a team based on potential and talent and start evaluating them based on results and production. As I said before, the Illini did not have to win this game in order for people to feel much better about the offense and their chances of making it to a bowl, they simply had to show us that the Mizzou game was an anomaly, and not predictive of the rest of the season. Having seemingly the exact same game, but against a better defense simply seems to reinforce what we saw in St. Louis.

Up next is of course Penn State, a team that does not exactly have "get well game" written all over it. Going into this game, the Illini have exactly the same requirements in front of them as last week. Play competitively, and show that this offense can hold its own.  As much as we are worried about the defense holding up, they have basically stuck exactly to their preseason expectations, weak deep and on the sides, strong up front. At this point many of us would be happy to see a 35 to 27 loss next week, it would at least show us that there is life, that there is some semblance of success on offense that we can build upon. Because right now the facts are this: this Illini have already lost two games, and Michigan and Indiana have proved themselves to be a hell of a lot better than last year. Cincinnatti is a top 10 team, and its looking more and more like the Illini will have at least 6 losses this season.