"There Are No More Moral Victories"

Coach Hoke you said this after the Nebraska game. A game in which you thoroughly outplayed a BCS opponent. It wasn't supposed to happen again.

Well, it did with a 28-17 loss to a Big Ten school.

The mighty Cardinals traveled to Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois Saturday to take on the Illini of Illinois University. This was a winnable game. Illinois had dropped two in a row and was a team on the fritz with a qb controversy. They are led by QB Isiah "Juice" Williams, who is one of the better dual threat quarterbacks in the game, and RB Rashard Mendenhall. Coach Hoke was quoted as saying he was one of the best running backs he has had to prepare for. The short list also includes Auburn alum Kenny Irons and Michigan's Heisman candidate Mike Hart.

As stated, this game was winnable. BSU forced consecutive 3 'n outs for the Illini to start the game and held them to only 35 total yards in the first quarter. But inconsistency, the football team's best friend, just had to show up in the form of Jake Hogue. In the first quarter he shanks a 35 yard FG that would of been the go-ahead score. Later, in the 3rd quarter, he misses a chip shot 26 yarder. On the year, he is now 11 for 19. That is a 57% conversion rate. Yeah, pretty hard to swallow if you're a Ball St. football fan. Why hasn't Ian McGarvey got a shot? What about lining Chris Miller up? This is a guy who put 3 of 5 punts Saturday behind the opponent's 20 yard line. Statistically, he is the nation's best punter. Something needs to be corrected here.

Another thing that needs to be looked over is the team's play entering halftime. With 15 seconds and 3 timeouts left, the team trots off the field. Now this might seem alright, but they were on their own 49! You have a guy in Nate Davis, who Illini head coach Ron Zook said will be playing in the NFL one day, who can air the ball over to his 6'6 tight end with a 10 foot wing span and pick up 25 yards. Take a timeout and attempt a field goal. Points are points, bottom line. This is just poor coaching decisions. if you are offensive coordinator Stan Parrish, you have to show more confidence in your unit.

In the 3rd quarter, BSU held a 10-7 lead after Mike Dorulla picks off a dropped pass from Mendenhall and scrambles 36 yards for the score. But once again, the walls come crumbling down. After the kickoff, BSU allows Juice Williams to carve the defense and score on a 65 yard, 7 play drive. BSU goes three and out on the next drive and allows Juice and the Illini to score in 3 plays.

To finish the game, Mendenhall has 189 rushing yards and 2 scores. He had 100 by half and surpassed the 1,000 yard rushing mark in the game. Overall, the Cards give up 324 rushing yarss to the Illini. Juice has 99 on 17 carries and 2 rushing touchdowns. Nate Davis goes 16 for 33 with 17 yards and one touchdown toss. He also was the team's rushing leader with 64 yards on 12 carries. Ball St. had 170 net yards rushing, a higher total this season. Darius Hill is the leading receiver with 4 catches for 56 yards and one TD. It is a shame to see no receiver have more than five catches when you have such weapons as Dante Love and Hill.

BSU returns to action Saturday to take on the Indiana Hoosiers at the Rock. Kickoff is at noon. The Cards are looking to recover from last year's one point loss and finally defeat a BCS team. They are 0-40 all time against BCS schools.