Fighting Illini need to contain dual threat Robinson

CHAMPAIGN – Standing in the corner of a small brick room inside Penn State’s stadium, Illinois’ defensive coordinator Vic Koenning became impassioned about his defense while summarizing the team’s latest defeat.

“If anybody in this room has seen a defense play harder, I’ll kiss their butt and give them 10 minutes to draw a crowd,” said Koenning, an Oklahoman who has more colloquial expressions than Dr. Phil. “Our guys played as hard as they could possibly play. They have been relentless.”

The Illini defense arguably has played well enough to win in the last three games, but efforts were derailed by the slow-starting offense and problem-prone special teams units. Against Michigan on Saturday, the Illini must play as relentless and as determined as it has all season to contain explosive scrambling quarterback Denard Robinson, who ranks fifth in the Big Ten with 97.8 rushing yards per game.

“With an athlete like that, the only thing you can do is contain him,” said Illinois linebacker Jonathan Brown, who has at least 11 tackles in each of his last four games. “If you contain him, he can’t get the big play, the big run that he likes to get.”

In last season’s 67-65 triple-overtime victory against Illinois, Robinson rushed for 62 yards but threw for 305 yards. The Illini said they won’t only consider the quarterback a running threat.

“Last year we kind of thought he wasn’t going to be able to throw to beat us and that’s what he did,” cornerback Tavon Wilson said.

In the 10-7 loss to Penn State, the Illini gave up just one touchdown drive, limited the Nittany Lions to just 209 total yards and held them scoreless through three quarters. In the 21-14 loss at Purdue on Oct. 22, Illinois prevented the Boilermakers from scoring after halftime.

The Illini rushing defense is tops in the Big Ten with just 102.9 yards per game produced by their opponent. They rank fourth in pass defense by giving up 177.2 yards through the air. They are fifth in scoring defense in the conference by allowing only 17.2 points per game.