Illinois State at Eastern Illinois Gameday Thread

[JMU Duke Dog]

Anyone listening to this game?

Eastern Illinois 13
Southern Illinois 10

3:00 left in the 4th (according to ESPN)

[crunifan]

Illinois State 17
Eastern Illinois 13

About a minute to go, EIU ball...

HOLD ON REDBIRDS!

[BestOfBreed]

Illinois State with an interception return for a touchdown.

ISU 24
E Ill 13

59 seconds to go

[Witter19]

24-13 ISU, game over.

[crunifan]

YES!

Illinois State intercepts and returns for touchdown

Illinois State 24
Eastern Illinois 13

WAY TO GO REDBIRDS!

[PantherRob82]

Way to go Redbirds. At least one Gateway team pulled it out. :hurray:

[dbackjon]

Tough break for EIU.

Looks like the Gateway is not so superior over the OVC afterall.....

[crunifan]

You mean because the 4th place Gateway team is struggling against the 1st play OVC team

And the 2nd place Gateway team just beat the 2nd place OVC away from home?

Nice analysis!:rolleyes:

[dbackjon]

You were one of the ones that were crowing the superiority of the Gateway, and how badly the Big Sky and OVC SUCKED..... Guess the Gateway is not so superior as you claimed, eh?

[crunifan]

You were one of the ones that were crowing the superiority of the Gateway, and how badly the Big Sky and OVC SUCKED..... Guess the Gateway is not so superior as you claimed, eh?

I'd like you to go back and find where "I" said that.

And I stand by the statement the Gateway is a tougher conference than the OVC. Sure, they have two good teams. But after that it is a complete and utter suck fest.

[EIU86]

Good luck to ISU next week as I always root for other Illinois teams. Good effort by the EIU defense today, pathetic effort by the offense although I give ISU some credit for the poor offensive showing.

Drone will certainly need to play better next week than he did today for ISU to have a chance as I assume they will be playing a team that has a competent offense.

Not a bad season for EIU since the whole season was played without our head coach. I hope a decision is made soon as to whether Coach Spoo is healthy enough to remain as head coach of if a new coach will be hired.

[SpreadtheRed]

Drone looked like CRAP today. Rembert got most of his rushing yards on the last two drives. EIU really impressed me today, even more so than when you guys played us during the season at Hancock stadium. This game could have gone differently if you guys actually had fans in the stands though...Im pretty sure we outnumbered you.

[Chucktown]

you can't win football games when your offense doesn't produce. Our defense played well enough to win today. Our offense didn't come to play. congrats to ISU. good luck

[Chi Panther]

Congrats Redbirds!!!!!:hurray:

[redbirdtim]

First of all, congrats to EIU on a good season. You gave us everything we could handle today and played a tremendous game.

EIU had a bigger crowd than I expected, it was pretty much a push there. Credit to the ISU students who came back early from break and travelled to EIU for the game. ISU's defense was huge. I would have put Brockway in for a series to see how Drone would respond. Four interceptions is unacceptable. Rembert may have had most of his yards in the last two carries, but he was getting 3, 4, 5 yard chunks that kept us moving before we'd throw an interception. In the last 5 games, he has played pretty bad vs YSU, UNI, and EIU, the best of the 5 teams. If we are to win next week, he needs to get his head on straight and make smarter throws. Also, EIU has a very good kicker; I hope ours take note.

[EIUsuperfan]

Drone looked like CRAP today. Rembert got most of his rushing yards on the last two drives. EIU really impressed me today, even more so than when you guys played us during the season at Hancock stadium. This game could have gone differently if you guys actually had fans in the stands though...Im pretty sure we outnumbered you.

Yes Drone looked like dog crap. And so did our offense. Worst I've seen all year. Really thought we should have tried at least more than one pass to our WR who is 6'6''. I'm pretty sure you didn't outnumber us. There was a lot of red. Very few EIU students, but a lot of EIU not in a lot of blue, close but I think we may have got you by 300-500. But good luck to ISU.

[ISUMatt]

Mr Rucker had 0 catches...very big for ISU!!! EIU was completely worn down on the last ISU scoring drive and Rembert and the O-Line made them pay!!! Drone was bad, I disagree about Brockway, he has had very limited snaps this yr and a road playoff game is no place for him to shake off the rust! As good as EIU's D was, ISU's was better...2 TDs, 1 total yard for Rucker, and Webb was held in check all day!!! I actually counted, EIU had 9 students in their student section and ISU Nation had completely taken over your parking lots for tailgate!!

[ISUMatt]

ILLINOIS ST-FG, K Mazur 30 YD 7:25 1st Qtr
EASTRN ILLINOIS-FG, Z Yates 47 YD 5:06 2nd Qtr
ILLINOIS ST-TD, J Tate 41 YD INTERCEPTION RETURN (K Mazur
KICK) 9:25 2nd Qtr
EASTRN ILLINOIS-FG, Z Yates 39 YD 14:20 2nd Qtr
EASTRN ILLINOIS-TD, T Sanders 87 YD INTERCEPTION RETURN (Z Yates
KICK) 4:12 4th Qtr
ILLINOIS ST-TD, P Rembert 18 YD RUN (K Mazur KICK) 12:53 4th
Qtr
ILLINOIS ST-TD, J Caesar 45 YD INTERCEPTION RETURN (K Mazur
KICK) 14:00 4th Qtr


ILLINOIS ST EASTRN ILLINOIS
First downs 18 7
Rushed-yards 38-162 22-59
Passing yards 177 79
Sacked-yards lost 2-15 1-7
Return yards 111 119
Passes 16-33-4 15-30-3
Punts 3-42.3 7-39.4
Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 3-30 6-35
Time of possession 33:38 26:22


Individual Statistics

RUSHING: ILLINOIS ST-Pierre Rembert 27-122, Luke Drone 7-21, Rafael
Rice 4-19. EASTRN ILLINOIS-Vincent Webb 14-54, Ademola Adeniji 2-9,
Norris Smith 3-5, Micah Rucker 1-0, Justin Duhai 1-MINUS 2, Cole
Stinson 1-MINUS 7.

PASSING: ILLINOIS ST-Luke Drone 16-33-177- 4. EASTRN ILLINOIS-Cole
Stinson 15-30-79- 3.

RECEIVING: ILLINOIS ST-Laurent Robinson 5-55, Jason Horton 3-42,
Rafael Rice 1-24, Dan Passarelli 2-17, Dave Mordis 2-15, Jake Rourke
1-9, Pierre Rembert 1-8, Pierre Jackson 1-7. EASTRN ILLINOIS-Jordan
Campanella 7-32, Jermaine Mobley 2-20, Vincent Webb 4-13, Ademola
Adeniji 1-11, Justin Duhai 1-3.


Att: 4,400

[skinny_uncle]

Congrats on your win, Matt.

[ISUMatt]

Thanks Skinny...Ugly offensively but we'll take...rumor has it even if JMU wins tonight, we are on the road again...our AD must not understand the playoff process when it comes to home games

[ISUMatt]

If the ISU defense that played today shows up for next week, we will be good to go...you can take it to the bank that Drone will not repeat his 0 TD/4 INT game!!

[JaxSinfonian]

And I stand by the statement the Gateway is a tougher conference than the OVC. Sure, they have two good teams. But after that it is a complete and utter suck fest.
I hear people say this every year. Funny how the two good teams seem to keep changing every year, though.

I wonder how many OVC teams you can name without looking it up.

Congrats to ISU. Looks like they played a good game today. EIU's defense kept them in it, but nothing but FG's from the offense won't win a game

[shakdaddy3]

OVC should rename itself the OOP... Out Of Playoffs... or they can be OPP... and we all know what OPP is :)

[redbirdtim]

EIU, EKU, JSU, Murray St., UT-Martin, SEMO, Samford, Tenn Tech, Tenn St....there, all without looking it up. I just happen to respect the OVC and love Championship football. We have also played many OVC schools in all sports the past few years. Have a few EIU, and EKU friends too, so I always hear about their games.

Also, with a former-OVC coach, he has contacts to schedule OVC teams. I'm glad he does, you can get some games against good competition and not have to play a Div. II school.

Quick note to the OVC though...try and get Central Arkansas to join. UCA is definitely going to be an up and coming team.

[JaxSinfonian]

EIU, EKU, JSU, Murray St., UT-Martin, SEMO, Samford, Tenn Tech, Tenn St....there, all without looking it up.
Not bad, but you're not crunifan.


Quick note to the OVC though...try and get Central Arkansas to join. UCA is definitely going to be an up and coming team.
UCA already is joining the Southland. The OVC is becoming a fine home for former D-II Gulf South Conference teams, though: UT-Martin and Jax State. What we need to do is talk North Alabama into moving up. They're a great geographic fit for the OVC and have one helluva football tradition. They're ranked #3 in D-II and moved into the third round of the D-II playoffs yesterday with a victory over Newberry. This season is their eighth GSC title (finally closing in on Jax State's all-time record of nine titles - which we still hold 14 years after leaving the conference).