“We didn’t do either of those the way we expected to do it”.
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The two wins over Big Ten teams in a season is a first for Western Michigan, which regularly takes on Big Ten foes. “It’s always the guys around me that allow things to happen when we play good football games”.
“We had receivers open today and you have to be able to hit them”, he said.
First-year head coach Lovie Smith said during his weekly press conference that the Fighting Illini don’t plan to use their underdog status against a Mid-American Conference school as motivation.
Bogan ran all over and through the Illini secondary, carving them up for 189 rushing yards and two touchdowns. I know the offense hasn’t been as good as we think it should be. But the total of just three yards rushing annoyed the offensive linemen.
While Western Michigan shoved IL (1-2) down the field, the Illini could barely sustain a drive. IL settled for a field goal, and remained two touchdowns behind at 24-10.
IL tailback Ke’Shawn Vaughn started the season quietly with a 49-yard day against Murray State, but after a strong game against the Tar Heels he’s looking more like the mix of power and speed the IL coaching staff says it wants in its primary back. Western Michigan came in and dominated in all phases. We have what it takes to win.
“We had receivers open, ” Smith said.
The Broncos are just two weeks removed from a 22-21 win at Northwestern, and looking for a rare shot at two wins over Big Ten teams in one season for a non-Power Five school. “There are probably four or five big plays that we left out there that could have changed the game”. They beat Northwestern 22-21 in the opener and followed up with a 70-21 victory against North Carolina Coastal last weekend. Even though he only threw 13 passes he made several huge plays with his arm and his feet that Lunt simply couldn’t match, including a 44-yard bomb to wideout Corey Davis to help set up a scoring drive.
Western Michigan put up 21 unanswered points in less than 10 minutes between the end of the first and start of the second quarter.
He didn’t have any passing touchdowns and only threw for 150 yards but he managed to score a rushing touchdown and finished the game with over 200 all-purpose yards.
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“They never flinched; they weren’t going to be intimidated, ” he said, while trying to play down the significance of beating IL on the road. But Fleck said that after Davis’ 1,408-yard, 15-touchdown season in 2015, he expects every team, IL included, to focus on taking away Davis. He averaged almost 13 yards per reception and was pretty much the only Illini receiver that was consistently getting open and allowing Lunt to hit him in stride for some big plays.
