Illinois 9, Iowa 6 Postgame

#251      
While Im estatic for the win, to me this cements why we must pound the portal for the QB for 2023. Art just makes too many bad decisions, even if he is a great person, he has peaked out as a BIG qb. I have no confidence in him ,unless we run 300 yard plus in a game to manage the field.
Let's see how he does against Minny with a full week of practice with the ones before we give up on him. Nearly everybody wants a great QB from the portal
 
#254      
BLJ needs to adapt his playbook when Art is in the game. Art is NOT Tommy. Art is a limited QB. I believe TDV playing the entire game turns this game into a 20-3 game. I agree with you, Lex, dont do this again, Barry LOL
IA was in his face every single pass play I can remember, really limits the playbook. You can't run the ball every down against a D like IA's
 
#255      

illini80

Forgottonia
I don't know but I'm thinking if Sitkowski gets more snaps in practice this week he'll be better against Minny. Not saying he was terrible yesterday, just wasn't Devito. I trust our coaching staff to design a game plan that plays more to his strengths.
I wouldn’t say he was terrible, and we did win the game with him at the helm, but his qb rating was 28.3. That’s not good.
 
#256      
I don't know but I'm thinking if Sitkowski gets more snaps in practice this week he'll be better against Minny. Not saying he was terrible yesterday, just wasn't Devito. I trust our coaching staff to design a game plan that plays more to his strengths.
BB said the 1s get 80% of the practice snaps, so IMO with a full weeks of practice Art will be better prepared for Minn, this also puts them having to game plan on who is actually gonna start.
 
#257      

altgeld88

Arlington, Virginia
What a photo from that Twitter post. Gives me goose bumps. Wish I could have been there.

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#258      
Sidney Brown plays with so much positive emotion, but on the punt and penalty leading to that series he was super pissed about the mistake on the fair-catch roughing, and I though oh oh, we might be losing some composure here this could be a tough drive and back breaker if they score a touchdown. We really dodged a bullet there and it even helped us. Waiting for the review scared the crap out of Brown, the leader of our D, and the rest of the D, and they really refocused, got the good news when it wasn't targeting (also saving our leader for the next game), caught their breath, brought back the positive emotion, and then snuffed out the drive.

That was huge, seems like we usually lose those breaks and don't "weather the storm" or "put out the fire" as Bielema likes to say.
Yep and the IA coach got an unsportsmanlike penalty to try to fire his team up, IIRC, but instead the play seemed to fire us up or at least keep us at a very high level on D.

Not losing 15 yards on what was clearly a late hit was one of the few breaks we got in this game
 
#259      
I don't want a specific number. I don't want a single pass play when it's 1st and goal and onward against Iowa. You don't want to feed Chase after 30 carries? FIne. Put in Love III and let him carry it. I don't care who runs it assuming we've coached up how critical ball security is, but do NOT pass into those Iowa linebackers. That's gawdammitz insanity with the ball inside the nine, a few minutes left and Iowa can't score. You just don't HELP Iowa win the game. Is that difficult to grasp? Iowa can't score on offense so if you want to win... just don't put Iowa's D in a position to succeed. She's really not rocket surgery.
Who was that OSU HC who liked to say, "Everyone wants to gamble with MY money"?
 
#260      
Art Sitkowksi should serve the whole team ELBOW pasta with a Hawkeye meat sauce today. Do any of the local grocery stores sell ground Hawkeye?
 
#261      
Who was that OSU HC who liked to say, "Everyone wants to gamble with MY money"?
I don't understand why that's relevant. It wasn't a normal football game. It wasn't a normal football moment. We did not play to our strengths, we played to our weakness, we played into their strength, and maximized the likelihood of something catastrophic happening. I prefer not seeing us doing this again.
 
#264      
I like Gritty - great poster. I don’t think he’s TRYING to rain on any parades, and I’m sure he’s pumped we won. Probably just how he is. ;)

He’s not like the truly worst type of message board poster there is - the guy who needs to “calm us all down” and temper the optimism of us simple homers. The “only rational one,” if you will. These people get their kicks on talking down to excited fans, and they’re the worst. That ain’t Gritty, IMO.
It's one thing to be rational and another to be of the glass is half empty thinking. Gritty is definitely more the latter along with looking for the worst in everything.
 
#265      
Taz, concussion worries me, sideline reporter said he was throwing up on the bench.
If that's the case, that's worrisome. While all concussions are different and affect people differently, as someone who has experienced concussions playing sports, throwing up is not a good sign as that is at least a moderate concussion. If true, even if he were to pass concussion protocol, he should probably be held out next game to give him 3 full weeks to get back to health, as the risks associated with a second concussion in a short period of time on long term health are just too high. It's a shame as we could really use him against Minnesota, but if he's trying to recover from a moderate concussion, it's just not worth risking his future health.
 
#266      
It's one thing to be rational and another to be of the glass is half empty thinking. Gritty is definitely more the latter along with looking for the worst in everything.
Well, fair. I guess I just appreciate his effort and how informative he can be … but yes, there’s too much positivity to take in right now to not unsuspiciously find the negatives.
 
#269      
For all of our expert analysts, who have pointed out all of the flaws in our backup quarterback who has only gotten 20% of the reps in a brand new offence and has just fully recovered from surgery. And how "ugly" the win was and how are offensive coordinator could have called better plays! I almost thought I mistakenly got on the Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State message board where they are so used to winning that they have the luxury of complaining about how pretty a win looks. How about just enjoying the moment and be thankful. The one thing that stuck out to me is the fact that 90% of the fans were still in their seats after the third quarter ended and stayed until the game ended. Looking forward to Homecoming and beating Minny! I L L
 
#271      

DeonThomas

South Carolina
The best 2nd string QB is going to be like a Year 2 on-campus recruit, which we obviously just don't have. When you bring in DeVito, you aren't going to also bring in a different Transfer to sit on the bench. So it is what it is for this year.
I saw a pre-season ranking of backup QB’s across all of D1 football. Artur was ranked somewhere between #15 and #20.
 
#274      
That was possibly the strangest, most gut wrenching, most high blood pressure inducing, most asthma attack and heart attack inducing Illini football games I have ever seen. After the game I don't know if I was happy, relieved, exhausted, or all of the above. Obviously the defense won the game for us, but I loved the attitude of players on both sides of the ball. They kept fighting until the end, even when seemingly everything was going against us (The Iowa OL holding on almost every play, fumbles, injuries to important players, mind boggling play calls). The energy of the fans was contagious and I loved the camera views late in the 4th quarter that kept showing the student section, with everyone standing, yelling, and waving their orange towels.
I am sure BB is already thinking of people who might become our DC next season. The word is out about Ryan Walters and he is going to get a lot of interest for head coaching positions.
People keep bad mouthing Art and somewhat justifyingly so. We all hope Tommy is back next week, but what other options at QB do we have? Do we put IW back at QB? Is Donavan Leary ready? Is Ryan Johnson more accurate than Art? I'm not enough of an insider to know the answer.
I noticed Josh McCray didn't get any carries, which was a surprise. Maybe the coaching staff wanted to give him one more week of rest. I thought Reggie Love looked pretty good, but we still need a 2nd string RB to really step up. We have to find a way to get Chase Brown less carries.
Fabrizio Pinton is a stud. How he was that calm, cool and collected is beyond me. In my opinion he should be handling the kicking duties from now on.
GO ILLINI.
 
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