Saturday, you are likely to see play calls by each team you may not have expected. And both teams will run these plays for entirely different reasons.
Illinois will attempt to exploit the aggressiveness of the Buckeye defense with counters, reverses or any other tricks they may have up their sleeves. Without some semblance of a running game, the Illini don’t have much of a chance.
In their last two Big Ten Losses, to Wisconsin and Penn State, Illinois has been held to 55 yards or less rushing in each game and have only scored a total of 13 points.