Thoughts on Illinois win

I had hoped to post this sooner, but with the holiday weekend, life has been crazy.  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend.

Go to any college sports website and one of the first three stories will be about Notre Dame and/or Brian Kelly.  It's crazy right now.  I'll have more thoughts on that in a future post.

Notes on the Bearcats 49-36 win over the Fighting Illini:

• On a cold, clear day, Nippert was full and at times very loud.  It was a good crowd.
• When they make upgrades to Nippert, I hope they consider better hot pretzel technology.  It seems like they either run out or serve them cold and mushy.
• Tony Pike looked great.  He has a great arm and nice touch.  His 59-yd touchdown pass to TE Ben Guidugli was made while running to his left and throwing across his body.  It was at least 40 yards in the air.  On another long pass to Mardy Gilyard, the WR had only about a half-step on the cornerback, but Pike hit him perfectly in stride. 
• Apparently all the TEs in the Big Ten do is run-block or at least it seemed that way.  Illinois had no clue how to cover Ben Guidugli in the first half when he had 6 catches for 144 yards and two scores.  Pike often found him wide-open.
• Mardy Gilyard passed Dominick Goodman for the all-time TD leader in UC history.  He showed great vision and the ability to break some tackles on his 90-yd kickoff return TD.
• How's this for spreading the ball around:  Tony Pike completed passes to 8 different targets, with Gilyard, Guidulgi, Armon Binns, & DJ Woods each catching 7 passes.
• I was surprised UC didn't run the ball more.  Before the bye week Brian Kelly said they planned to work on the running game, but Illinois has a weak pass defense and Kelly is the master of taking what the defense gives him.  It was nice to see senior John Goebel, who been hurt most of the year, get in the game and get a few carries.
• The defense is becoming a concern.  They gave up 36 points on 476 yards of offense and will need to tighten up versus Pitt.  This is despite forcing 7 Illini punts.  The problem is that the offense scores so often and so quickly that the defense is on the field a lot, giving the opposing offense many scoring opportunities.