Hey Zup, did you catch that flea flicker on Sat .? One of your more innovative plays.
Illinois 23, Florida Atlantic 17 Postgame
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Fair enough, but I don't think it's "pie in the sky" or whatever to find positivity in the fact that over 53k people had tickets in their possession in the first place. While the end goal is to get butts in the seats, we have positioned ourselves to accomplish that much better this year than last year, and last year was much better than the year before. The DIA also needs to acknowledge where the attractiveness of the product is at all times and be willing to do everything it reasonably can to improve attendance, and I think having extensive giveaways for a game vs. FAU after a 1-2 start is a no-brainer.
Point is, selling (or giving away) the tickets is an essential part of the battle of getting fans in the stadium. It's a necessary first step. We don't know if a fan with a ticket will show up, but we can be 99% certain that fans without tickets won't (I have no idea what day-of/walkup ticket sales are like, FWIW). While our fans might be kind of disappointed with the 1-2 start and have reverted back to a "wait and see" approach, the "momentum" I spoke to earlier is the much higher floor we seem to have now for attendance. Just starting with 30k season ticketholders vs. 20k is a hugely important improvement, for example.
I do think if we can get a win in West Lafayette, you will see a nice crowd for Nebraska, even though it is a Friday (GOD, I hate Friday night home games!).
I'm pretty sure that I've never seen a punter getting an unnecessary roughness penalty before Saturday.
@BZuppke
Totally feel where you are coming from in reference to mindset. Remember some of those 4th down punts in BB’s first year? Felt way too conservative.
And believe me, I WANTED that TD on Saturday. Both for KF as well as a better looking victory.
But in this specific instance, the only way to guarantee the win (and thus playing for the win) is to not score.
In BB’s other “too conservative” decisions, he punted and gave the ball back to the opponent. In this case, he kept it from them.
Unless you consider a botched Victory formation snap where the opponent gets the ball and wins (has that ever happened?), literally the ONLY way to lose that game was to give FAU the ball back.
And that’s without considering injuries.
So while it was frustrating to KF (wanting that score) and me (wanting a bigger lead) it was the smartest play on the field.
And I want my team football-smart as well as aggressive.
Totally feel where you are coming from in reference to mindset. Remember some of those 4th down punts in BB’s first year? Felt way too conservative.
And believe me, I WANTED that TD on Saturday. Both for KF as well as a better looking victory.
But in this specific instance, the only way to guarantee the win (and thus playing for the win) is to not score.
In BB’s other “too conservative” decisions, he punted and gave the ball back to the opponent. In this case, he kept it from them.
Unless you consider a botched Victory formation snap where the opponent gets the ball and wins (has that ever happened?), literally the ONLY way to lose that game was to give FAU the ball back.
And that’s without considering injuries.
So while it was frustrating to KF (wanting that score) and me (wanting a bigger lead) it was the smartest play on the field.
And I want my team football-smart as well as aggressive.
blackdog
- Champaign
Adding on what about going for it on 4th down on the first drive instead of taking the field goal? Doesn't exactly scream conservative to me.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
There was only the final scoring drive by FAU where marched it down and looked effective. Effective is a stretch though, as they completed several tough third-downs. They couldn't run the ball. They refused to push the ball down the field because they were terrified of Illinois' defensive line. Their water bug WR was awesome though, guy will get NFL looks just for his shifty-ness.
BZuppke
- Plainfield
Well we can go back and forth but the going conservative part usually comes at the end of games not early on. Build a small lead and shut down the offense. It frequently blows up on you.
Needless to say there’s nothing wrong with playing it the way he did with Feagan but we’ve all seen instances from Bret and other B1G coaches where the let off the gas too early.
Regardless, let’s beat Purdue.
Needless to say there’s nothing wrong with playing it the way he did with Feagan but we’ve all seen instances from Bret and other B1G coaches where the let off the gas too early.
Regardless, let’s beat Purdue.
BZuppke
- Plainfield
‘Some perspective: From Week 9 of 2002 (the week after the Browns' collapse against the Bears) to Week 1 of the current season, teams had lost 2,229 consecutive games when trailing by at least 13 points in the final two minutes.’
I am with you. A larger scoring margin matters to the players and fans. The ever-so-slight probability of the other team scoring (twice) means less to me than a larger margin of victory. 30-17 sounds a lot better than 23-17. The fans and players still have PTSD from years of mediocrity--expect to win, expect to score, expect your defense to stop the other team.
The ones with (free) tickets who stayed home for FAU were not the same people as those who bought tickets for Penn State.
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I took a friend to Toledo because my wife doesn’t like the after-midnight return home to Peoria. One was enoigh for me. Our goal with season tickets is to have our two seats filled for each game, but they can be filled with someone else’s butts on a Friday night!
We‘re giving our Nebraska seats to friends, a couple who wanted to see another game. We’ll enjoy a nice dinner out before settling in at home for the game on FS1. We will drive down for the last three home games though.
I'm the opposite. I enjoy Friday games because I have to work fall Saturday's. It's a real !!!!! getting off or sneaking out of work to attend Saturday day games. Evening games, any night, work for me despite getting up at 4:30 am Saturday to get to work.
Priorities.
True, just different priorities after retirement. Every day is a Saturday now!
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I kind of like Friday night games in that it's something different, I don't have to wait an extra day and (at least theoretically) we get more of a "spotlight" (I saw that our game against Kansas was one of the best rated games ever on ESPN2, for example). However, I do then feel kind of bummed on Saturday when everyone else is playing, and our week is just done. Additionally, I will take a Friday away game WAY before I will take one at Memorial Stadium, as I do believe it probably drives down attendance, and we need to keep increasing our fan presence at games if we are to progress as a program.
I'm envious. 4 more years for us
Hoping Illinois has it rolling then and we'll be going to a lot of away games. Hope to make it to a few SEC games as well.
Another positive is Friday night TV coverage, with fewer games competing for the better networks. Timing is perfect for a “dinner then football” evening, enhanced by DVR time-shifting. If we’re going to give our tickets to friends, Friday is our preferred day.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
So there are at least two documented NFL cases where a team blew a 13 point lead in last two minutes in last 20 years, and the most recent (last season) coming on a near identical situation that Illini could have been in on Saturday. I am sure there are other college football scenarios where this has happened, but I see no use in researching it.
Has there ever been a case of a team losing with under two minutes when they can kneel the clock out? If not, then case closed, it is right move to do what Feagin did. I can't believe anyone would question the IQ of laying down and running the clock out for guaranteed win. Just mind boggling to me, all to get the joy of one more meaningless score.
I'm sorry I asked.
Agree with this^^ 30-17 does look better, but I watched the game and honestly expected more before it.
There has not been although there is a single occurrence within the history of the NFL and NCAA of a botched victory formation snap leading to a fumble and a turnover, however Oklahoma State still wound up winning that game after Troy fumbled it back the very next possession.
Basically, rule of thumb is if you can run out the clock in victory formation in a 1 or 2 possession game, you do it. It pretty much prevents all possibility of a loss. And it's why FAU's coach clearly told his D if they run the ball, let them score so we can get the ball back. Yes scoring 2 touchdowns in a minute is highly unlikely, but teams have done it. Why take the risk of that when you have a sure victory? Just win and move on.
And as for playing not to lose? Illinois clearly didn't do that on the final drive. They mixed up run and pass, and also mixed up their runs which were going for big gains. This was not Lunney calling 3 runs straight up the middle losing a yd each time, which is half what I expected him to call which likely would've lost us the game. We played to win and both teams made the right decision on that final run ending in a kneel down.
I get why everyone is saying it was a smart play, but let’s be honest, how likely is it that FAU goes down the field and scores, recovers an onside kick and does it again in that amount of time?
Yeah I agree with this. Football is a game of momentum, and we had been waiting for the team to win some on the ground... something to hang their hats on.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Probably about 0.05%, but even so, why force the defense or special teams to have to take more snaps than necessary? Only bad things can happen in that scenario (injuries, fluke loss, etc.). Given our injury issues alone, why put any unnecessary strain on the team? Real no brainer, and I am glad Coach B is coaching the players well.
In the end it’s quite simple.
FAU players were seen barely even trying to stop Feagin. They knew we were icing the game away and the only chance they had was to let us score and get the ball in their possession with some ticks left on the clock.
Good rule of thumb, if your opponent wants something to happen, don’t oblige them.
FAU players were seen barely even trying to stop Feagin. They knew we were icing the game away and the only chance they had was to let us score and get the ball in their possession with some ticks left on the clock.
Good rule of thumb, if your opponent wants something to happen, don’t oblige them.
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