Illinois 34, Western Illinois 14 POSTGAME

#2      

MoCoMdIllini

Montgomery County, Maryland
We covered the spread and committed scads of penalties.

Edwin Carter's first two catches were both for TDs. Here's to hoping they are not his only two catches in his career.
 
#8      

Illinir1

Camdenton, MO
A win is a win. MJ Rivers impressed. Opening WIU drive was concerning. 134 yds. in penalties. Definitely going to be a struggle the rest of the schedule.
 
#9      

JDHalfrack

Springfield, IL
Positives: we won

Negatives: we are going to lose every other game this year. Injuries, lack of speed, penalties, constant holes in the defense, etc.... too many mistakes and negatives to name here will result in many, many, losses.

Preseason hype is the same as it always is: overblown.
 
#10      

mhuml32

Cincinnati, OH
Feels like this score was similar to many of the predictions over the past week, but many will be (slightly?) disappointed
 
#12      

JDHalfrack

Springfield, IL
No shock here, but Lovie did just confirm that Edwin has a significant injury. Said others not so bad “but we’ll see”.
 
#13      
Initial thoughts:

Overall: solid game. Feel better than I did 4 hours ago.

Offense: Hamstrung by injured receivers and quarterbacks, they did alright. But in the 4th quarter, they were unable to run the clock when everyone knew they were going to try to run the clock. That could be a real problem late in the game against the B1G, and could be the difference between a W and an L against 3-4 B1G opponents.

Defense: Felt like there were a lot of names/numbers being called that we wouldn't have expected 4 hours ago. Need to go back and look at film, but the depth seems to be building. Really hope we have as many players as possible next week, not knowing what the suspensions were for or what has been communicated to the players.
 
#14      
Positives: we won

Negatives: we are going to lose every other game this year. Injuries, lack of speed, penalties, constant holes in the defense, etc.... too many mistakes and negatives to name here will result in many, many, losses.

Preseason hype is the same as it always is: overblown.

I suppose we could lose the remaining games, but I wouldn't bet on it. Those holes on the D will fill up quickly with 2 starters and 1 contributor returning. Not to mention the guys learning on the job the first 2 weeks will be better prepared going forward. Injuries are definitely a concern at receiver so hopefully Dorsey and Green can return soon and become downfield threats.
 
#15      
Initial thoughts:

Overall: solid game. Feel better than I did 4 hours ago.

Offense: Hamstrung by injured receivers and quarterbacks, they did alright. But in the 4th quarter, they were unable to run the clock when everyone knew they were going to try to run the clock. That could be a real problem late in the game against the B1G, and could be the difference between a W and an L against 3-4 B1G opponents.

Defense: Felt like there were a lot of names/numbers being called that we wouldn't have expected 4 hours ago. Need to go back and look at film, but the depth seems to be building. Really hope we have as many players as possible next week, not knowing what the suspensions were for or what has been communicated to the players.

I agree and I think this will show up the second half of the season in particular
 
#17      
USF is going to be tough but hopefully we can get the suspended guys back next week.

MJ Rivers looks like the real deal even the guys at the BTN were impressed.

Defense can create turnovers but gives up big plays as well.

The building blocks are starting to build up but it’s going to be slow growth
 
#19      
On the penalties, obviously there were some that were boneheaded. But at the same time, while I don't know the details of which crew was from where, I thought the crew against KSU was erring on the side of not calling penalties and this crew was erring on the side of calling every possible penalty. On the one hand, the team needs to adjust. On the other, I can see how a young team could be thrown off by the stark contrast between the officiating crews.

Anyone have the details on these two crews? Or how they compared to what we will likely see in the B1G schedule?
 
#20      
I liked what I saw of Rivers. Performed ok for a freshman in an emergency appearance.

Why isn’t Epstein getting more carries?

Our defense didn’t handle misdirection well. A hallmark of a young defense.

I don’t think we’ll win another one the rest of the year, but I think we’ll be a pretty good team once these sophomores are seniors.
 
#22      
This is an outstanding question. Unless they are just intentionally taking it slow with him to start the season, which, of course, is possible.

I think they are. No reason to overuse your best offensive weapon at this point. We haven't seen him featured at all in the passing game yet, which we know he is very dangerous in. I think Smith has been very vanilla on O in the first 2 games. Probably had to open up a bit too much in Kent St game
 
#24      
Penalties were ugly.

Epstein has earned more of a workload - looked great today. North south running a threat to break it with each touch. I got the sense Lovie was slow playing things today - if this wasn’t WIU, I’d bet Bush would have returned and Epstein more carries

MJ Rivers was okay, but we’ll need Bush back to compete the rest of the way