Monday Morning Juice

Ugly, ugly end of the season for the Illinois Fighting Illini and official North O Forbes QB Juice Williams, who lost to Northwestern 27-16 Saturday. Despite several close calls against ranked teams, the Illini finished their season with a 2-10 record. Juice had perhaps his worst game of the season againt the Wildcats, completing just 4 of 17 passes for 65 yards with 0 TDs and 0 INTs, while rushing 12 times for 54 yards and score. Juice's play was the fitting cap on a season that saw him go 0-7 after earning his title from North O Forbes. While disappointed about Juice, we're somewhat excited that we may have stumbled across a new way to curse athletes. We just might have to make Carson Palmer the official North O Forbes QB next season. He'd probably blow out his knee in a play-off game against the Steelers or something.

Monday Morning Juice

Another week, another blown second-half lead for official North O Forbes quarterback Juice Williams and his Illinois Fighting Illini, this week falling to Purdue 42-31. The Illini held a 23-14 lead with six minutes to go in the third quarter before the Boilermakers ran off touchdowns on four consecutive possessions to take a 42-23 lead and effectively end the game. Juice continued to struggle with his passing, going 8-for-29 for 95 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT, however, he was a force on the ground, gaining 145 yards on 22 carries and a score.

Next week, Juice gets his last chance for a win as the official North O Forbes QB, as Illinois closes out its season with a 1:00 game at Northwestern.

Monday Morning Juice

Well, I'm not sure what to make of the official North O Forbes QB today. Juice Williams and the Illinois Fighting Illini, heavy underdogs to top-ranked Ohio State, gave the Buckeyes their closest game of the year, losing 17-10. Coming into the afternoon, OSU hadn't won any game by fewer than 17 points, including a 24-7 romp against fourth-ranked and defending national champion Texas. Sadly though, Juice had little to do with the final outcome. On the positive side, the Illini defense that beat up the potent Ohio State offense, holding Buckeyes QB and Heisman favorite Troy Smith to just 138 yards of total offense. Yet with Illinois down 17-0 heading into the fourth quarter, head coach Ron Zook benched the official North O Forbes QB in favor of back-up Tim Brasic. Brasic promptly led the Illini to a pair of scoring drives, that made the end of the game interesting at least. Juice's final stats were 8-of-20 for 77 yards with 0 TDs and 0 INTs with 13 rushing yards on four attempts.

Next Saturday, Juice looks again to get his first North O Forbes QB win when Illinois hosts Purdue at noon.

Monday Morning Juice

Yeah, I know we're a day late with this but blogger was crawling yesterday, and it took us forever to finish up the Roethlisberger piece. Anyway, it is with bitter disapointment that we report that official North O Forbes quarterback Juice Williams and the Illinois Fighting Illini dropped another heartbreaker this weekend, 30-24 at Wisconsin. In what remains a distrubing pattern, the Illini raced out to a 24-10 halftime lead on the 17th ranked and once beaten Badgers, before surrendering 20 unanswered points in a listless final two quarters. Juice was solid if not spectacular in defeat, going 13-of-29 passing for 171 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT, as well as rushing for 53 yards on 19 carries.

Since gaining official North O Forbes QB status, Williams and his teammates have gone 0-4, leading three of those games at the half, and losing the other on a last second field goal. If there's any time to break the streak it's next week, when Illinois hosts undefeated and #1 ranked Ohio State. If Juice and his boys pull this off we'll...we'll...well, we're not sure what we'll we do, but we'll definitely be very excited.

Monday Morning Juice

Despite the finest efforts of official North O Forbes quarterback Juice Williams, the Illinois fighting Illini fell 20-17 to the University of Ohio Bobcats Saturday night. This marks the third consecutive Illini game that's come down to a last second field goal. Once again, you can't hang this loss on Juice as he completed 16 of 34 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran for 96 yards on 17 attempts. Next week, Williams and his teammates travel just four hours North O Forbes for a noon contest at Penn State.

Does anyone else want to be in the room when Joe Paterno finds out the first name of his opponent's starting QB?