Illinois 24, Wisconsin 23 POSTGAME

#178      
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!!!!!!!
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.
 
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#179      

mhuml32

Cincinnati, OH
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.
 
#181      
#182      
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 :D
 
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#183      
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 :D

Good data, this was brought up yesterday as well. This Wisconsin offense is a far better match up for the defense we’ve built than teams like Nebraska. We also did a great job of rotating guys yesterday.

Iowa will be much the same.
 
#184      
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 :D
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.
 
#185      
Hell of a win by the program! Hopefully we can build on this and beat Rutgers and Northwestern with a chance at Purdue. That is definite improvement by this team and this staff. Need to convert this signature win into more talent and success and not rest on the accomplishment!
 
#187      
If you have a chance, as has been mentioned previously in this thread, watch the post game interviews w/ the players.

Proud of the older players, Corbin/Hansen/Adams. Great interviews, great people.

They know they need to follow it up next week w/ a good performance. Credit to them/Lovie/coaches for sticking with it.

Seeing yesterday's effort, and knowing what CAN happen changes the calculus a little. Not sure if we can handle Purdue on the road w/ their spread, despite backup QB and no Moore. Same goes for Iowa on the road. I think we beat Rutgers/MSU on the road/NW to get to 6. Not sure anybody had a bowl prediction this year w/ a loss to EMU and a win over Wisc before the year started, ha!
 
#188      
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 :D

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...?
 
#190      
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....
 
#191      
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....

Definitely. We played 40 minutes of defense and still had gas in the tank late in the 4th quarter. Calvin Avery and Kenyon Jackson both got a lot of run yesterday and seemed to play fairly well. Big kudos to Lovie, he called a fantastic game.

Coan is a good kid and I get that Taylor had fumbled the possession prior but there’s no justification for him touching the ball one time on their last drive. If you go down, you go down riding your best horse.
 
#193      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior

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#196      
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!
 
#197      
That goal line stand was huge! No idea how we did that, nobody is supposed to hold Wisconsin at the goal line!
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.
 
#198      
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.
 
#199      
This was actually mentioned several times on the post game thread on Reddit. Wisconsin has now lost despite never trailing.

I up reddit a few months ago because I spent too much time scrolling but maybe I need to get back into just /r/cfb because there is so much good content on there! Thanks for bringing that up, I’ll open up the postgame thread now
 
#200      
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.

It definitely was but the real difference making play there was Witherspoon not giving up, running that ball down and making the shoe string tackle. If he pulls up, they score and we lose. Huge, huge, HUGE hustle play by the freshman.