everyone is talking about the spot on the goal line, but if you get a chance to rewatch the game watch and see how many times the ref marks the ball the as he walks in he moves twords the first down marker We were talking about it early in the game and knew it was going to kill us at some point. Lovie and the staff should be hot and so should the team. all that said we still made to many dumb mistakes but im happy looks like we are at least going in the right direction. I will agree other then Wisconsin and Michigan if we play like Sat we have a chance
Nebraska 31, Illinois 16 POSTGAME
Minny is in a different category. Not sure we'll be favored in that one, but we at least won't be significant underdogs at home.
I was at the game with another Illini fan from Kansas City.
Obviously we were surrounded by Husker fans. Couple of observations.
1) The drive already mentioned several times was absolutely ridiculous. Even if we admit that the horse collar call was legit (which it was even though I missed it live) PI call was bang-bang at best. Receiver was falling forward and would've been 4th and long instead of 1st and 10 in the red zone.
2) when that drive went into the 4th quarter we were in the corner at the end-son of the ball-spotting incident on 4th down. As the play ended and the line referee ran in to mark the spot, even all the Husker fans around us gasped and said 'Damn we didn't get the first!! WTF we can't even get a yard?!' It was clear he didn't make that first down and instead of the game going to 17-16 Nebraska it would have continued as 16-10 Illini with us having the ball and completely changed the result.
Just thought I'd offer my perspective as a 'live on-site witness' to the controversy!
That being said, it is always fun going to Lincoln for a game. Highly recommend everybody who can go for our next game there.
Shotty Spot
I went back and watched the tape of the ball spot and I have 2 pictures that pretty much show indisputable evidence that the officials got the call wrong. The first one shows Bain grabbing for the ball at the 3 1/2 but the second one which is the better one shows Newby's knee and elbow down well short of the 3. Unbelievable they couldn't or didn't want to find enough evidence to overturn the call
I went back and watched the tape of the ball spot and I have 2 pictures that pretty much show indisputable evidence that the officials got the call wrong. The first one shows Bain grabbing for the ball at the 3 1/2 but the second one which is the better one shows Newby's knee and elbow down well short of the 3. Unbelievable they couldn't or didn't want to find enough evidence to overturn the call
Attachments
Having the line to gain exactly at the 3 as it was makes it easier than most spot calls. The ball never got close to the 3. Angle after angle after angle. It never got to the 3. Should have been obvious live, should have been obvious for the replay official.
They don't like changing spots via review, and there are reasons for that that make sense, but if you're not going to reverse calls like that, you shouldn't be reviewing spots at all.
This might not be the right place for this comment, but I've thought that Nebraska has been really looking to establish a 'great rivalry' in the B1G ever since they were admitted, and can't seem to settle on one... Some say Wisky, some Iowa, some Minny.... But I think we could fit that bill for them nicely, if we can keep Lovie and staff long-term and really build a tough winning program in the west div....
I agree with your statements. The all 22 view clearly shows that the elbow was down well short of the line that should have been good enough to overturn it.
Great pics to show he was short, especially the second pic. The ref had it right as he was running down the line and he migrated over to the 3 and the very end. He reached over to grab the ball around the 3.5 yard mark and it placed it on the 3. Cowardly call.
The second picture actually shows the ball is closer to the 4 than the 3. :tsk:
Definitely some positives, but I'm surprised no one's discussing Lovie's decision to punt on 3rd and 1 with three minutes left in the game. The way the previous two series had gone, I thought the likelihood of a three-and-out stop was virtually zero. Going for it seemed like a no-brainer to me.
It's not quite AS bad as Jeremy Werner made it seem on twitter, but definitely on balance I think going for it would have been the higher percentage play.
But Lovie wasn't kidding when he said he's always going to punt there. That's just the kind of coach he is and he's not going to change. The whole coaching profession, frankly, has an irrational aversion to going for it on 4th down. It's not unlike the way the baseball industry was stuck in its ways regarding the value of walks 10-15 years ago.
Save your complaints for if and when he gets one clearly wrong as opposed to arguably wrong.
Yeah, it wasnt close. It looks even worse for the officials when the ESPN announcers were saying the entire time that was going to be overturned and ruled short. Then it wasnt and didnt hear a word about it again. They knew right then we got hosed.
icengineer
- Southern Illinois
It was arguably wrong the moment he made the decision. I told my buddy, with whom I was watching the game, it was wrong because our defense was spent after the last series. He agreed with me because the Nebraska O had all the momentum at that point. I felt that both our 3rd and 1, and 4th and 1, plays should have been running plays. Punting the ball turned out to be clearly the wrong call. Don't give the old hindsight argument either. Our D had just given up a TD on a 10+ minute drive so they were obviously tired. At that point in time, and under those circumstances, I'd put a lot more faith in my offense being able to gain 1 yard in 2 tries than I would in hoping my D could manage a 3 and out.
FYI, I'm as pro-Lovie as it gets. That was just the wrong call. This was one instance where making the 'NFL' decision was the wrong one. I believe the announcers even commented on that at the time.
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On another note, how in the world was there enough visual evidence to overturn the MSU TD towards the end of regulation against Indiana? I'm thinking to myself "How in the world can we have two extremely wrong calls regarding spot and replay in one day?" The MSU overturn didn't matter as much as they still scored, but it just shows how inconsistent officiating and reviewing plays really are.
The downside of our good fight against Nebraska is that the B10 West continues to look weak. Oregon and LSU (2 B10W signature wins) continue to downgrade. Results in cross-divisions were bad on Saturday - the Big Ten East was 3-0 against the West. We actually kind of need Nebraska and Wisconsin to give our division some legitimacy for our winning it in 2020 to matter.
We also kind of need Michigan to be good again, for the Big Ten to matter.
After all that logic, my new team to hate is Michigan State. I generally have liked Michigan State - good unis, good mascot, always the more agreeable team in Michigan for both sports. But they steal tons of talent from Illinois and are no longer necessary for our conference to matter. So now they need to die. A string of 2 win MSU years will help us on our road to recovery. (That actually used to happen, I think I recall Zook's first Big Ten win being against a lackluster MSU team.)
Agreed. If I had anything to complain about on that drive, it would be the 3rd and 1 play call. Before that play I was thinking "2 plays to get 1 yard? We've got this".