I actually rank it with Michigan 1983 for program impacting moments. That Rose Bowl clinching win confirmed “the 80s belong to the Illini”. Hopefully this game foreshadows a similar theme for “the 20s”. Celebrated that one with BFF Bob Auler. Wish he’d still been with us to enjoy this moment.I just want to say that this was the best day as an Illini fan since AT LEAST the Illini win over Indiana in 2013 in basketball. Post-National Championship game it goes in no order:
2007 FB win over OSU
2013 BB win over IU
2019 FB win over UW
I dont have a strong opinion between those 3, but all 3 are much better than beating Colorado in the NCAA Tourney, minor bowl wins or early season BB tourney wins.
This might be the best day as an Illini fan in 14 years... THANKS LOVIE!!!!!!!
Was out of town and didn't watch the game. But weird stat line. Illinois had 19 minutes TOP, Wisky had 41. Illinois never had the ball in the red zone. One more weird stat line mentioned in the BIG post game. But we all will take the win. Kids never gave up.
I'm to the point where I'm convinced the defense has been on the field for 40-45 minutes a game for the past month so they are now the most conditioned defensive unit in the history of football.
Here’s the thing about the TOP today: I actually think it helped us. Wisconsin’s offense is very methodical in the way it runs. Taking a LOT of time before snapping the ball, time developing plays, lining up, etc... Their time of possession was huge, but they only ran 75 plays.
For comparison, here are the number of plays Illinois’ opponents ran in the first six games:
Akron ran 66 plays in 31:37 averaging 28.74 seconds per play
UConn ran 60 plays in 30:45 averaging 30.75 seconds per play
EMU ran 76 plays in 31:47 averaging 25.09 seconds per play
Nebraska ran 98(!!!!) plays in 37:04 averaging 22.69 seconds per play
Minnesota ran 69 plays in 35:44 averaging 31.07 seconds per play (in my opinion, this game is the worst the team looked all year)
Michigan ran 70 plays in 29:47 averaging 25.53 seconds per play
Wisconsin ran 75 plays in 40:49 averaging 32.65 seconds per play
While I have argued numerous times that TOP is killing our defense, HOW that time of possession is developed is another factor that I think can't be overlooked. Our defense does much better when the game is slower (Minnesota excluded). Wisconsin held on to the ball a LONG time, but it wasn't the "tiring the defense out" long time. That benefitted us tremendously. The offense scored when it mattered, and they had a couple penalties that negated other scores. This helped too. But to me, Wisconsin's offense is the best match up to our defense we have or will face all season.
But I'm a numbers/stats guy. I am by no means a football expert.
I'm the sabermetrics guy that old school baseball people hate
That's some really good analysis! It makes a lot of sense. Sure we were on the field as a D for a long time but there was plenty of time to catch their breath unlike some games. I'm still not sold our defense is built to take on a true spread team, but with time and more depth and talent we can probably get there.Here’s the thing about the TOP today: I actually think it helped us. Wisconsin’s offense is very methodical in the way it runs. Taking a LOT of time before snapping the ball, time developing plays, lining up, etc... Their time of possession was huge, but they only ran 75 plays.
For comparison, here are the number of plays Illinois’ opponents ran in the first six games:
Akron ran 66 plays in 31:37 averaging 28.74 seconds per play
UConn ran 60 plays in 30:45 averaging 30.75 seconds per play
EMU ran 76 plays in 31:47 averaging 25.09 seconds per play
Nebraska ran 98(!!!!) plays in 37:04 averaging 22.69 seconds per play
Minnesota ran 69 plays in 35:44 averaging 31.07 seconds per play (in my opinion, this game is the worst the team looked all year)
Michigan ran 70 plays in 29:47 averaging 25.53 seconds per play
Wisconsin ran 75 plays in 40:49 averaging 32.65 seconds per play
While I have argued numerous times that TOP is killing our defense, HOW that time of possession is developed is another factor that I think can't be overlooked. Our defense does much better when the game is slower (Minnesota excluded). Wisconsin held on to the ball a LONG time, but it wasn't the "tiring the defense out" long time. That benefitted us tremendously. The offense scored when it mattered, and they had a couple penalties that negated other scores. This helped too. But to me, Wisconsin's offense is the best match up to our defense we have or will face all season.
But I'm a numbers/stats guy. I am by no means a football expert.
I'm the sabermetrics guy that old school baseball people hate
There was someone dressed up as a "chief" today?Rocky was at the game today. So too, the Chief.
Here’s the thing about the TOP today: I actually think it helped us. Wisconsin’s offense is very methodical in the way it runs. Taking a LOT of time before snapping the ball, time developing plays, lining up, etc... Their time of possession was huge, but they only ran 75 plays.
For comparison, here are the number of plays Illinois’ opponents ran in the first six games:
Akron ran 66 plays in 31:37 averaging 28.74 seconds per play
UConn ran 60 plays in 30:45 averaging 30.75 seconds per play
EMU ran 76 plays in 31:47 averaging 25.09 seconds per play
Nebraska ran 98(!!!!) plays in 37:04 averaging 22.69 seconds per play
Minnesota ran 69 plays in 35:44 averaging 31.07 seconds per play (in my opinion, this game is the worst the team looked all year)
Michigan ran 70 plays in 29:47 averaging 25.53 seconds per play
Wisconsin ran 75 plays in 40:49 averaging 32.65 seconds per play
While I have argued numerous times that TOP is killing our defense, HOW that time of possession is developed is another factor that I think can't be overlooked. Our defense does much better when the game is slower (Minnesota excluded). Wisconsin held on to the ball a LONG time, but it wasn't the "tiring the defense out" long time. That benefitted us tremendously. The offense scored when it mattered, and they had a couple penalties that negated other scores. This helped too. But to me, Wisconsin's offense is the best match up to our defense we have or will face all season.
But I'm a numbers/stats guy. I am by no means a football expert.
I'm the sabermetrics guy that old school baseball people hate
The actual offense itself helped us quite a bit as well. One of our big Achilles heel’s has been the defense of the RPO. Taylor Martinez ate us alive on these plays, as did Minnesota. That’s really not Wisconsin’s thing, they want to line up and run over you. With Lovie going to a lot of heavy sets and rotating our DL in and out, we are capable of beating that type of offense. The game plan defensively yesterday was picture perfect.
It also helped that some Wisconsin idiocy went our way. Jonathan Taylor touched the ball one time on their last possession. One. How does Paul Cryst allow that to happen...?
I don’t think the defensive player rotation is getting enough love. I mean, it’s probably normal game planning, but it seemed like we really had a good idea of how we wanted to work defensive personnel in.
You’re right, I will never understand the Wisconsin play calling the last 5ish minutes of the game....
Who's surprised.Milwaukee press paints it as Wisconsin playing poorly: https://www.jsonline.com/story/spor...23-no-6-badgers-suffer-first-loss/4001877002/
Maybe this is somewhere else in the 9 pages here, but I completely agree with this. That goal-line stand was the game changer. If Wisconsin scores a touchdown there its pretty much out of reach. Obviously, then, the two turn-overs were huge, as well. Not sure why Wisconsin was passing on that last drive of theirs in that situation, but I will certainly take it. It was nice to see some breaks go OUR way yesterday.That goal line stand was huge! No idea how we did that, nobody is supposed to hold Wisconsin at the goal line!
Another interesting note from the game — as was mentioned on the TV broadcast, Wisconsin had never trailed the whole year. I’d have to rewatch the final kick, but if it went in after the time expired, Wisconsin’s time spent trailing would still be 00:00!
This was actually mentioned several times on the post game thread on Reddit. Wisconsin has now lost despite never trailing.
Maybe this is somewhere else in the 9 pages here, but I completely agree with this. That goal-line stand was the game changer. If Wisconsin scores a touchdown there its pretty much out of reach. Obviously, then, the two turn-overs were huge, as well. Not sure why Wisconsin was passing on that last drive of theirs in that situation, but I will certainly take it. It was nice to see some breaks go OUR way yesterday.