USF 25, Illinois 19 POSTGAME

[220Illini]

MJ played well today. Good job by him in his first start.

That being said, if we want to win Big 10 games we need to at least have the threat to throw the ball downfield. MJ either can’t do it or isn’t trusted to do it. Our playcalling the entire game was run or screen. Run or screen. AJ gives us a deep ball threat and he should be the starter if he is healthy.

 

[t7nich]

MJ played well today. Good job by him in his first start.

That being said, if we want to win Big 10 games we need to at least have the threat to throw the ball downfield. MJ either can’t do it or isn’t trusted to do it. Our playcalling the entire game was run or screen. Run or screen. AJ gives us a deep ball threat and he should be the starter if he is healthy.

AJ is the number one guy if healthy.

 

[saukee]

Bend and dont break defense i dont mind that at all, our running game is fun to watch, special teams was amazing, i thought MJ did good for a TRUE freshman. BUT WHAT LOST US THIS GAME WAS THE 4 TIMES OUR RECEIVERS HAD 2 HANDS ON THE BALL AND COULDNT CATCH IT, THAT CANT HAPPEN, THEY WERE ALL CRITICAL POSSESTION DROPS.

 

[John Freim]

Kendrick Green is going to be a really good player - not often you see a 300 pound freshman guard playing for the Illini. Asamoah is a fair comparison. He was at fault for the late sack but otherwise he looked decent as did the rest of the line - probably a middling B10 OL provided nobody gets hurt. With Dorsey back, a good RB crew and a healthy Bush the offense could be the best in CU in recent times. Kicking game is obviously strong. D needs some help everywhere and that's the big challenge - hope the suspended players came come back and contribute.

 

[ktal]

Only watched the game on Gamecast today, did we get any pass rush at all?

I've had to do that for the last several years...it's terrible isn't it? I've been able to stream the last couple, and am really enjoying it. But to answer your question, yes, we did get some pressure on their QB. He had to make a number of scrambles and throws under pressure. Unfortunately, he's pretty good at both.

I was really mad at the end of the game, but am now quite optimistic. We had a chance to win on the final play of the game. (Look at the predictions thread and see how few people even gave us a chance. We blew most of those predictions out of the water, not that the negative Nancy's are going to take any positives away.)) The reason for both, (the hurt and the optimism), is that I was still full of hope in the 4th quarter. It has been a long time since I've had that feeling in a game with a decent opponent. And given what happened across our division today, we may well be middle of the pack once our suspended players return, (which I'm guessing will be next week.)

 

[ILL_INI]

A good throw by Rivers on the last play and the Illini win. It was that close of a game.

Give the guys some credit for their best performance against a team that is now 2-0 against Power 5 teams. How many teams have even played two Power 5 opponents this early in the season, let alone won them both? I don't think SFU is a top 25 team, but a solid performance by the Illini nonetheless.

 

[redwingillini11]

Was there. Extremely disappointing as always, but I choose to walk away with hope that with more experience, better health, and the suspensions over this team will be a competitive group. USF isn't unstoppable but they are far from a bad team. After today, I am pretty sure we *can* beat Rutgers, Purdue, Maryland, Minnesota, and Northwestern. Give me three victories out of there and I will be pretty content.

 

[TheFlyingIllini1317]

Still very disappointed with the result, obviously losing is never fun and this winning would be huge given how bad the B1G is playing today. But, still optimistic for the B1G season we just have to learn from it and move on. I-L-L!

 

[TheFlyingIllini1317]

Was there. Extremely disappointing as always, but I choose to walk away with hope that with more experience, better health, and the suspensions over this team will be a competitive group. USF isn't unstoppable but they are far from a bad team. After today, I am pretty sure we *can* beat Rutgers, Purdue, Maryland, Minnesota, and Northwestern. Give me three victories out of there and I will be pretty content.

Totally agree and I would also add Nebraska to this group. I would also take three from that group and I think it is why this one stings so much. A win could have put us in a position to get to NW with 5 wins and that's more than I could have asked for at the start of the season.

 

[BRucks]

The only really embarrassing thing today was the crowd size. Holy ****, that was pathetic. Thank God this thing was on BTN overflow, because how embarrassing to see Illinois playing at Soldier Field in front of what looked to be about 10,000-15,000 fans and about 50,000 empty seats.

We seriously need to stop with the Soldier Field nonsense.

Not going to happen. Whitman wants big dollars rolling in from Chicago to fund his building projects. Box score says 21k+.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Today will not be the last time this season that opportunity knocks on our door.

 

[SycIllini]

Went to the game and would echo several of the comments already made:
- crowd size is disappointing but, $60 for a ticket, $50 to park, fight traffic to get there... it’s a hard sell without a winning team imo.
- disappointed with the loss but, encouraged by the play. Told my IU fan friend in the first half that it was surprising to me but, we kind of looked like we knew what we were doing.
- thought O Line played well. Running game looked good. All 3 backs had good runs.
- I thought Rivers played well. Would be nice to pass the ball further down the field sometimes but, I didn’t see a bunch of missed open receivers
- defense played well enough to win except for one blown coverage play that ultimately cost us the game. Gave up a lot of passing yards but, got stops when they needed several times. Good to see 2 interceptions. A 3rd one late probably wins the game for us.
- biggest issue I saw was lack of pass rush. They had way too much time to wait for receivers to get open and pass the ball. Would have liked to have seen us take a few more chances with a blitz to get some more pressure.

Overall I was encouraged. This would have been a nice win for Lovie to get but, gotta keep moving forward.

 

[Deleted member 4333]

$50 to park???!!!

 

[ktal]

We're going to have opportunities this year.

Purdue, Maryland, NW, UNL, Rutgers and Wisky all lost today, to teams that are comparable or worse than USF. So if we improve a bit when the suspended players return, we could get 3 or more from that group. And I still think Minny is beatable, too.

I'm starting to feel the return of hope. Maybe this year I won't get punished for it as badly as in the past.

 

[sbillini]

That's a tough loss. A really tough one. It seems like USF adjusted in the 2nd half and gashed our defensive secondary. It's our weakness, and they exploited it well. I also think we were a bit too conservative with MJ Rivers. They completely sold out on the run/short pass over and over again. The O-line played better than I thought they would on the run, but pass protection wasn't great. I know 1st start for freshman, but you gotta go downfield a little bit to keep them honest and the Oline needs to provide opportunities. I think AJ Bush would be able to manage that better.

Nonetheless, they played better than I thought they would. AJ Bush comes back (and finds a rhythm with the receivers), and players on suspension come back, and we have a legit shot against Rutgers, Purdue, and likely Maryland and Minnesota. I still think there's 5 games to be won this year if we can keep improving. I get that USF tried to give us the win and we couldn't take it, but they also have more talent than several of the teams we'll be playing this year.

 

[BillyBob1]

$50 to park???!!!

It is Chicago.

 

[SycIllini]

$50 to park???!!!

Yep. There were surely better options somewhere but, I wasn’t willing to drive around looking for them. Should have found something online before going but, didn’t decide to go until this morning.

 

[Neidermeyer]

Honestly - one poor play in the secondary - otherwise we win this game. Encouraging!

 

[LHIllinis]

I was encouraged with fight our guys showed. MJ played fine for a freshman, but I wish they would have put Robinson out there some in the second half. Maybe he could have given a spark to our passing game. Obviously hindsight is 20 20.

Rod Smiths offense is predicated on having a qb with good running ability. A stat that hurt us in this game was MJ with negative rushing yards.

He has stated he adjusts his offense to the QB.

 

[Peoria Pipeline]

That’s what playing not to lose gets you, every time

Felt very similar to the Bears game from Sunday. Both Illini and Bears played ultra conservative.

 

[breadman]

Nothing would give me more satisfaction than to successfully take our frustrations out on the nittanies this next week. Come on, they put 63 on our friends from Kent State.

And I hope Robert @Alioneye is preparing to ask his guy, HIS GUY, Jartavious, just one question: Why? Just Why? Deep into the 4th quarter.

 

[Spanky]

The official attendance was 21,725. There's simply no benefit to playing in Chicago if the crowds are going to be that small. It has to be losing the university money to rent out Soldier Field for that small of crowd.

See the last 3 Soldier Field games:

9/14/13 Washington 47,312
11/28/15 Northwestern 33,514
9/15/18 South Florida 21,725

 

[TDCumm16]

That was heartbreaking but really glad I decided to make the trek down to Soldier Field - it was fun to have a full game keep you on edge of seat

A few thoughts I had....

-USF was the better team. We were hanging by a thread the entire time. Giving yourself a chance rather than folding shows improvement. USF easily could have had 40+ with a few breaks their way (600+ yards of O?!?!)
-Our kicking game was dominate theirs was awful. That + a few timely turnovers + us avoiding the big mistake allowed us to hang
-our d line needs to find a way to get more pressure on QB and pushback in run d
-MJ was solid but still has a ways to go. I think our most impressive QB play was still AJ in second half of KSU. A bit to jittery at times and we did not take any shots downfield yesterday (maybe game plan?) despite a lot of press cover 1 on outside

Would have loved to sneak that out since we gave ourselves a chance. Overall encouraged that we stayed competitive despite being outmatched

 

[JoeJ]

Obviously disappointed with the final score, so much like the Bears Packers game. Did keep it on until the final play and was interested. Especially given the pregame predictions. Thought MJ was good for a FR, but the receivers dropped many of the ok passes downfield. Certainly some catchable ones were dropped. No INTs from us and a couple for us. Special teams looked very good, aside from penalties. Offense far superior to last year.

At least there is sufficient grounds for hope!

GO ILLINI!

 

[ILL_INI]

-USF was the better team. We were hanging by a thread the entire time. Giving yourself a chance rather than folding shows improvement. USF easily could have had 40+ with a few breaks their way (600+ yards of O?!?!)

Thanks for attending, but I'm not ready to concede this point. They have the better offense, no doubt, but I'm not so sure about the better team. A few breaks the Illini way (potential interceptions caught, flag for holding not picked up(!), just slightly better thrown balls or catchable balls caught, starters back from suspension(?)) and the Illini could have won handily. If committing penalties at inopportune times absolves a team of deficiencies, well, the Illini might be a top 20 team the last few years!

I also want to comment on a roughing the passer penalty committed by USF. J Leman and Dave Revsine seemed to think the Illini caught a break, but they seem to be ignorant of a rule that is now four years old. I was not aware of this rule, either, until soupy17 brought it to our attention in the WIU game thread. Basically, no hits at or below the knee when the qb is in a passing posture. Based on this rule, it was an obvious penalty. Here's the link soupy17 shared:
NCAA approves new rule to protect QBs against hits below knee