In the summer preseason, it was very easy to be high on the Illinois Fighting Illini offensive line. After all, they returned all five starters, with four of those five players being seniors. Left tackle J.C. Davis entered the season as most likely a day two prospect while left guard Josh Gesky was looking like a late round sleeper.

Center Josh Kreutz is the son of the legendary Olin Kreutz, so he’ll no doubt get some NFL looks. Brandon Henderson and Melvin Priestly have some potential on the right side as well.

However, this unit has not looked good, honestly not even “decent” or “ok, not that bad” through the first four games of the season. Last night at #19 Indiana was absolutely atrocious though. Any time you lose 63-10, as the Illini actually did, there is plenty of blame to go around to all position groups.

And no position group played well for the Illini, but the o-line was the absolute worst of the lot. They allowed 11 tackles for a loss, as quarterback Luke Altmyer was sacked seven times. If you watched the game, it felt like those numbers are actually undercounting the carnage.

The non-existent pass protection was supplemented with a lack of push in the ground game, as the Illini gained a net total of just two rushing yards, on a 0.1 yards per carry average. This wasn’t an isolated incident, as Illinois had negative rush yards at halftime of the win over Duke.

No Bret Bielema coached team should be this terrible on the OL. Even more puzzling is the fact that the OL started slow last season too. They didn’t seem to figure it out until midseason, and while they did get it together, there really is no excuse for them to be this bad.

Altmyer has been sacked more than grocery items this season and the team is very lucky that he’s still fully healthy right now. Illinois Offensive Line Coach Bart Miller has to be on the hot seat right now; deservedly so. Illinois entered the game with the highest ranking the program has seen in a quarter-century, but that, as well as the College Football Playoff aspirations, are all by the wayside now.

This team can’t do anything on offense until they get it figured out up front.