IlliniGuys 2025 Week 2 Film Review: Lunney & Altmyer On the Clock Defusing the Bomb of Duke’s Pass Rush
IlliniGuys.com discusses specific details of the 45-19 win at Duke this past Saturday.
By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst
September 8, 2025
(Cover photo courtesy ESPN)
DURHAM, N.C. — The difference in the first and second half for Illinois’ offensive game plan becomes easier to understand if you envision the Illini’s key components being on a time crunch.
The proper analogy to describe what Illinois offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. and his third-year starting quarterback Luke Altmyer were able to accomplish after getting 30 minutes to look at a Duke defensive front was that they realized it wasn’t so much about what play they called but instead needed to focus on how long Altmyer had the football after the snap.
The bomb that needed to be defused on Saturday was Duke’s defensive line, specifically Vincent Anthony Jr. - who was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Lineman of the Week on Monday following a 3.0-sack performance this weekend in the first 16 minutes of action. Anthony Jr.’s speed rushing logged a career-high three sacks where of the first 10 offensive plays that Lunney Jr. called.
To counter the blitzes, and specifically middle blitzes of Duke, Lunney Jr. clearly decided that the play-action and RPO action he had in the first 15-play script was just not being honored by the Blue Devils defense - and when you evaluate the below average performance of the Illini run game, why would Duke pause at the RPO fake?
“I think the key for us moving forward isn’t to ditch (the RPO or play-action fakes) but just make our runs look like passes and our passes look more like runs pre-snap,” Lunney said. “And that’s going to take more reps as we go along here in the season. I want it clear that there’s no magic pill that we took at halftime to have more success. That’s not how this works. The adjustments that people talk about are more about figuring out what’s working and getting matchups we liked in the first half more times in the second half.”