Earlier this week, the Men beat D3 Millikin 91-52. It was hard to tell much, though Bradley deliberately tried to play fast.
Today, the women beat D2 Illinois Springfield 74-62; the game was 54-26 in the 3’rd before Bradley appeared to go into coast mode; giving up 40 points in 1.5 quarters is concerning to me..at least a bit.
But teams often need a preseason game to get the kinks out.
Ok, this was 10-10 game at the half, and it was only 17-10 midway through the 3’rd quarter. Yes, I was a bit nervous.
But then Rutgers fumbled and the ball went straight to an Illini linebacker who ran it in for a touchdown, and the rout was on. Next series: drive, fumble, then the Illini hit a long TD pass to blow it open.
in the 4’th quarter, the Illini got an interception return for a touchdown to make it 38-10, at which point coach Lovie Smith flooded the field with substitutes (4 quarterbacks took snaps) and even allowed the clock to run out with the ball on the Rutgers 2 yard line.
Yes, this was Rutgers being Rutgers ..scrimmage line play wasn’t that bad, but the mistakes piled up on them.
Total yards were only 324 to 271 but that was deceptive. The Illini had 12x yards in the first quarter, and Rutgers could not guard the Illini receivers one on one. But with the lead, the Illini elected to burn clock by keeping things on the ground rather than pad their stats. The game really was as one sided as the score would indicate…at least in the second half. The first half was “toe to toe”, good old fashioned Big Ten football.
The players now enter the field from their new football center this way. You get to see just how…well, compact they are. A 240 lb. linebacker looks downright svelte as they pack a lot of muscle into a small volume.
They do this after home wins.
The sun set just before the drive home.
Will the Illini make a bowl? My guess is “yes” but winning at Michigan State (3 losses in a row to Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State) and at Iowa will be tough. Best bet is to beat Northwestern at home.
Workout notes: 5 mile walk yesterday (prior to going to an Illinois game)
Today: 1 mile warm up; 10 K “run” in 1:05:21; I started out with the wind at my back (18:25 for 2 miles) and then really gave into it when I faced a hard blowing headwind for about 2.5 miles. It was all I could to to not walk; my guess is that my lack of running conditioning AND my recent squat work took its toll.
But I decided to do the 10K in order to GET that conditioning. Note: I had some posture issues; back hurt a bit.
And …sigh…..I just can’t stay with the mainstream pack anymore.
But I think that my putrid performance is the result of many things. For one, I am very cautious with my workouts; I tend to error on the side of caution as I am careful not to push myself past the point of injury. I do with with weight training as well; I often do NOT push for that one extra rep.
And there is something else going on.
Yes, I know that my distance running and walking hurts my lifting and my lifting hurts my distance running and walking. But I am afraid to stop. Reason: I see those who are my age..and if I think that I am slow and weak, OMG…I do not want to be one of those who needs help to lift even the lightest object or one of those who can barely move up the steps or ramps.
So, for perhaps the fist time in my life, I am finding a “health” reason for at least some of it.
Life of an old goat 