Northwestern 24, Illinois 16 POSTGAME

[Dan]

 

[Deleted member 526137]

Fitzgerald must want the Illini to retain Lovie as coach.

 

[pvaughn8]

Just pretend you didn't watch the game: Illinois only lost by 8 pts to the number 19 ranked team to finish the season

 

[ChiefGritty]

Fitzgerald must want the Illini to retain Lovie as coach.

I've never seen a college football team pack it in like that. Bizarre.

 

[Spoon House]

Do the commentators know something we don't? They said "Fitzgerald and Smith shake hands for the last time." Hmmmm, slip of the to guess, perhaps

oh lawd please no

 

[BZuppke]

Well it’s hard to beat both the other team and the refs.

 

[Hiyakids]

Critical penalties, dropped balls, touchdown before the half, key turnover, and a personal foul to seal the deal. How illinois. Hard to stomach.

 

[SuperMetroid]

At least we didn’t eclipse the ‘81 Mildcats for the worst Big Ten defense of all time. So there’s that.

 

[Illinifan1989]

Did anybody catch what Fitzgerald said after the game? Something along the lines of We planned to win the game while limiting our offensive exposure.

 

[Hiyakids]

In other words we beat them with hand tied behind our back

 

[Deleted member 173571]

Did anybody catch what Fitzgerald said after the game? Something along the lines of We planned to win the game while limiting our offensive exposure.

Yep. Basically said that he limited their scheme and play calling to avoid putting certain guys in situations that increase the risk of injury. It felt like a "we would have beaten them by a lot more if we had tried" kind of moment

 

[Illin1]

It is so poetic that a senior, Del'Shawn Phillips, is the one to get an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that wraps up the season.

 

[Hiyakids]

We need to retain Rod Smith and hire a good college DC. Can't wait to hear Whitman's view of the season

 

[MoCoMdIllini]

It is so poetic that a senior, Del'Shawn Phillips, is the one to get an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that wraps up the season.

What did he do?

 

[Deleted member 569417]

Losing by 8 to a team that quit with 25 minutes left in the game is almost as bad as losing 63-0. Almost.

 

[MoCoMdIllini]

Besides the ridiculous catch by Smalling to get the game within a TD+2, the thing that surprised me most was that Fitzee didn't try to run up the score in the second half.

 

[willwewin]

What did he do?

I second this question. No one had any commentary about this penalty during the game.

 

[MoCoMdIllini]

I second this question. No one had any commentary about this penalty during the game.

I think the commentators missed it, too. It had to have been off-camera, and maybe off of everyone's camera.

 

[SKane]

I hope that no one was injured.

At least the final score was respectable.

 

[OrangeSoda]

So this is the part where people who predicted us to give up 45 pts. and lose by 30 complain about us only losing by 8. Right?

If so then boooo arg ugh fire Lovie meh blah!

 

[BananaShampoo]

Just think, if we had played a little bit smarter this season and didn't spend so much time shooting ourselves in the foot this could have easily been a six win team. A bowl team. Hard to fathom.

 

[TownieMatt]

Post-mortem: Weird season. At times, it felt like were were making progress: USF, Rutgers, Minnesota. Others times it felt like we regressed from the Beckman era: Purdue, Maryland, Iowa.

Where does that leave us? I think there's enough young talent on this roster to make a bowl game next year, especially if one of the QBs steps up. But how much attrition will there be? Can we hold on to some of our best recruits? How will Lovie on the hot-seat next year effect recruiting?

More questions than answers right now.

 

[FT35]

Sigh.

What a tough year. I expected 4 wins this year but the path we traveled to get to 4-8 was among the most painful and drama filled I've encountered as an Illinois fan. There's just little to no hope for this team/program at the moment.

There better be a couple of dynamite defensive coaching hires this off season.

Adding graduate transfers/JUCOs who can catch the ball would be nice as well in addition to some guys who can have an impact on the Defensive side of the ball.

The fact that this OL held together for the entire season is quite amazing since things get really dicey after our starting 5. I'm really going to miss Allegretti.

 

[FT35]

Post-mortem: Weird season. At times, it felt like were were making progress: USF, Rutgers, Minnesota. Others times it felt like we regressed from the Beckman era: Purdue, Maryland, Iowa.

Where does that leave us? I think there's enough young talent on this roster to make a bowl game next year, especially if one of the QBs steps up. But how much attrition will there be? Can we hold on to some of our best recruits? How will Lovie on the hot-seat next year effect recruiting?

More questions than answers right now.

2020 recruiting is going to be a disaster. Most classes are close to filled up before the season starts so a lot of recruits are judging us based on what they saw this year.

It's projected to be a small class but it may be a lost cause (see Kansas) even if Lovie is fired during the season.

 

[Deleted member 11196]

At least we didn’t eclipse the ‘81 Mildcats for the worst Big Ten defense of all time. So there’s that.

Failure to get touchdowns once in the red zone isn't the fault of the defense....