Pregame: Illinois at Nebraska, Saturday, October 1st, 2:30pm CT, ESPN2

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#26      
IrishIllini
BWBW said:
I want a double of what GameofThrows is drinking. :)
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Lol, I actually agree with him. I don't expect us to beat Nebraska or even be all that competitive, but it wouldn't surprise me to see anyone but Purdue win it. The only two with a slight advantage IMO are Nebraska and Wisconsin. Illinois, Iowa, Northwestern, and Minnesota are equally awful. Purdue is a dumpster fire and Hazel will be out before December.

:chief::shield:
 
#28      
IrishIllini
FatGreg said:
I still think we'll see improvement as the year goes on. We obviously won't win many games, but I'll bet we win 4 or 5, including at least one surprise.
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I see four games we realistically could win (Purdue, Rutgers, Minnesota, Northwestern) and think if the stars align we can take out one or more of Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Iowa. We're going to get steam rolled by Michigan and MSU.
 
#29      
Second and Chalmers
Here's how I would rank all of our opponents, including us:

1. Michigan
2. Michigan State
3. Nebraska
4. Western Michigan
5. Wisconsin
6. Iowa
7. North Carolina
8. Minnesota
9. Northwestern
10. Illinois
11. Rutgers
12. Purdue
13. Our Scout Team
14. Being Hit By A Car
15. Murray State

(For real though, Murray State is a tire fire and we played terribly in that game in every way you can analyze against an opponent that weak)
 
#30      
WiscIllini
Second and Chalmers said:
Here's how I would rank all of our opponents, including us:

1. Michigan
2. Michigan State
3. Nebraska
4. Western Michigan
5. Wisconsin
6. Iowa
7. North Carolina
8. Minnesota
9. Northwestern
10. Illinois
11. Rutgers
12. Purdue
13. Our Scout Team
14. Being Hit By A Car
15. Murray State

(For real though, Murray State is a tire fire and we played terribly in that game in every way you can analyze against an opponent that weak)
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I appreciate a lot of your posts S&C, but I've seen you post the bolded (I hope it's bolded, first timer here) several times and I'm really curious what you saw in that game that led to that conclusion. Didn't our defense hold Murray State to negative rushing yardage? I only remember one really broken defensive play. I totally understand that they are an awful FCS team, but I'm still curious what makes you think we played poorly.
 
#31      
FatGreg
IrishIllini said:
I see four games we realistically could win (Purdue, Rutgers, Minnesota, Northwestern) and think if the stars align we can take out one or more of Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Iowa. We're going to get steam rolled by Michigan and MSU.
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Sounds right. I'm counting on a win against Purdue. I think we'll win 2 of the Rutgers/Minn/NW set and 1 against Nebraska/Wisconsin/Iowa. I give us no chance against UM or MSU. I'm betting on 4 wins for the year, but hoping maybe we snag a 5th somewhere along the way.
 
#32      
Second and Chalmers
WiscIllini said:
I appreciate a lot of your posts S&C, but I've seen you post the bolded (I hope it's bolded, first timer here) several times and I'm really curious what you saw in that game that led to that conclusion. Didn't our defense hold Murray State to negative rushing yardage? I only remember one really broken defensive play. I totally understand that they are an awful FCS team, but I'm still curious what makes you think we played poorly.
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The biggest thing was the lack of push by our offensive line. Foster just plain outran their D on a couple of plays (and they tackled horribly), but whenever we tried to beat them between the tackles it was a mess. That's a terrible sign for a pro-style team against any FCS team, let alone one of the worst defenses in that division.

We also had a bunch of penalties, didn't rush the passer terribly well, the secondary was mediocre after that first play, the punting was bad (which is an underdiscussed problem), but the biggest red flag was the o-line, for me.

The reason we did so well, other than the huge talent differential of course, was that Lunt was awesome in that game. If he has a clean pocket and his receivers can get separation, he will waltz right through you. Those things are sadly unlikely to be the case going forward.
 
#33      
WesterveltVictoryCigar
Second and Chalmers said:
The biggest thing was the lack of push by our offensive line. Foster just plain outran their D on a couple of plays (and they tackled horribly), but whenever we tried to beat them between the tackles it was a mess. That's a terrible sign for a pro-style team against any FCS team, let alone one of the worst defenses in that division.

We also had a bunch of penalties, didn't rush the passer terribly well, the secondary was mediocre after that first play, the punting was bad (which is an underdiscussed problem), but the biggest red flag was the o-line, for me.

The reason we did so well, other than the huge talent differential of course, was that Lunt was awesome in that game. If he has a clean pocket and his receivers can get separation, he will waltz right through you. Those things are sadly unlikely to be the case going forward.
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You've apparently retroactively projected some of the failures in the 2 losses back into the Murray St game. Not sure on the motivation here, but complaining about the punting and pass rush is simply wrong.

We had 6 sacks, incredibly none by Smoot though he was in the QBs face all day long. Their QB was relentlessly pressured and rarely had time to throw.

Frain punted that day and did very well. Only had to do it 4 times, 43 yd average.

The OL was indeed unimpressive against a lower level DL, but "played terribly in that game in every way you can analyze" makes me wonder what game you watched.
 
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#34      
Second and Chalmers
Hmm. It appears you're right about the punting. Hopefully Frain comes back okay, has anyone heard anything about the car crash incident?

I stand by the other stuff. They were so discombobulated on offense anyway, it was tough to get a read on our front 7. Hardy Nickerson looked like a superstar in that game, much less so since he's had to deal with more traffic in front of him.

The moral of the story is, SIU just took them behind the woodshed as badly as we did, and that's going to keep happening because they've got nothing on defense. The fact that we weren't able to just trap, iso, counter and inside zone our way up and down the field against them bodes very, very ill. And to be frank, from what I've seen it's quite a bit of lack of execution in addition to lack of talent. A new system, but still.
 
#35      
Epsilon
Second and Chalmers said:
Here's how I would rank all of our opponents, including us:

1. Michigan
2. Michigan State
3. Nebraska
4. Western Michigan
5. Wisconsin
6. Iowa
7. North Carolina
8. Minnesota
9. Northwestern
10. Illinois
11. Rutgers
12. Purdue
13. Our Scout Team
14. Being Hit By A Car
15. Murray State

(For real though, Murray State is a tire fire and we played terribly in that game in every way you can analyze against an opponent that weak)
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Unfortunately, 3 and 9 seems like a likely outcome... :(
 
#36      
ILLmatic04
Second and Chalmers said:
The moral of the story is, SIU just took them behind the woodshed as badly as we did, and that's going to keep happening because they've got nothing on defense. The fact that we weren't able to just trap, iso, counter and inside zone our way up and down the field against them bodes very, very ill. And to be frank, from what I've seen it's quite a bit of lack of execution in addition to lack of talent. A new system, but still.
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I keep seeing this in reference to the o-line. I've been under the impression that Megginson and Allegretti are green but very talented, DiLauro and Schmidt are solid if unspectacular, and that if we have a weak link, it's Spencer. I think the new scheme has much more to do with it than the talent level, but if I'm wrong on that, I'd be interested to know how many B1G-caliber offensive linemen you think we have.
 
#37      
ItsFootballTime
14-13 Illini.

That was last year when Josh Ferguson missed most of the game. Vaughn still got 98 yds and Gunslinger Lunt ended up with 251 yds and 2 tds. We had about 100 yds more than Nebraska

key to the game was they had 2 turnovers and we had 0.


We cant be the team that makes mistakes. that team loses.

Bad news for them : They lost 3 offensive line men. They still got a bunch back on offense including Armstrong there QB who played crap against us (100 yds and a pick). They also lost at least half there defensive line.

Bad news for us: We dont have same secondary that made Armstrong look like crap.
 
#38      
WiscIllini
ILLmatic04 said:
I keep seeing this in reference to the o-line. I've been under the impression that Megginson and Allegretti are green but very talented, DiLauro and Schmidt are solid if unspectacular, and that if we have a weak link, it's Spencer. I think the new scheme has much more to do with it than the talent level, but if I'm wrong on that, I'd be interested to know how many B1G-caliber offensive linemen you think we have.
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Spencer is a team captain on offense with the most starts of anyone on the team (I think more than Barton), I don't really think he's a weak link. My opinion is the younger guys who have talent need more experience, and the guys who have experience just aren't as talented or athletic.
 
#39      
BZuppke
At this point, we have to hope that as the year progresses we see the offense and defense improving. If we don't have injuries and the players get more experience with these coaches and schemes, it should happen and it would give us something to build on. A strong finish. I'm not saying we should give up on the next month, but it is likely it will still be a bumpy ride.
 
#40      
Illiniaaron
ItsFootballTime said:
14-13 Illini.
key to the game was they had 2 turnovers and we had 0.


Bad news for us: We dont have same secondary that made Armstrong look like crap.
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The key to the game was Nebraska playing the most brain-dead final minute in college football history. Also Armstrong made himself look like crap, not the Illini secondary.
 
#41      
ItsFootballTime
Illiniaaron said:
The key to the game was Nebraska playing the most brain-dead final minute in college football history. Also Armstrong made himself look like crap, not the Illini secondary.
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Lolz!!!!

That was a " unique " final minute.

They will want revenge and it will be played in there house and Armstrong is a year older and wiser and the Nebraska coaching staff is a year older and wiser. But we did out gain them by almost a hundred yards and all those yards didn't get gained in the last minute.
 
#42      
Greensboro
FatGreg said:
I still think we'll see improvement as the year goes on. We obviously won't win many games, but I'll bet we win 4 or 5, including at least one surprise.
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If we win 4 at this point, I would say automatically there are 3 surprises.;)
 
#43      
FiveStar
I could actually see us having a competitive second half. It looks bleak now and our parts don't seem to fit, but maybe after some time to gel it will get better.

To be honest though, it's easier for me to tell in basketball when things need time to gel vs when things are just wrong and impossible to fix. Not quite as easy in football.
 
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