RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
And that penalty was iffy. Since when is the defensive line shifting and causing the offense to move a “delay of game” penalty?
Illinois 42, UAB 23 Postgame
And that penalty was iffy. Since when is the defensive line shifting and causing the offense to move a “delay of game” penalty?
No. it showed he could throw it 60 yards, not a thing that showed clutch....lucky
The positives:
Crowd great. Student Section filled. A+ turnout. Video board looked awesome
Valentine has some juice this year. I liked his quickness thru the hole.
Only 1 penalty all game.
Negatives:
Our athleticism is really poor. I thought UAB had similar athletes so that’s not a good sign. We didn’t control the LOS at all especially defensively. With our scheme I have no idea how we stop the run. We lineup way too wide on the line.
Crowd great. Student Section filled. A+ turnout. Video board looked awesome
Valentine has some juice this year. I liked his quickness thru the hole.
Only 1 penalty all game.
Negatives:
Our athleticism is really poor. I thought UAB had similar athletes so that’s not a good sign. We didn’t control the LOS at all especially defensively. With our scheme I have no idea how we stop the run. We lineup way too wide on the line.
Was at the game, random thoughts as follows:
Video board is bright and loud. Certainly noticable from the previous seasons. Will be interested if brightness and volume are adjusted moving forward.
Full student section 20 minutes prior to kickoff, with probably 2/3rds staying after half. Excellent to see.
As far as the football goes, UAB has an excellent ground game. Would not be surprised to see them make noise in the AAC as they hung tough through the first half, and would have been down just 1 point were it not for a successful Hail Mary to end the half.
Houser was mobile when he needed to be and had several nice throws. Elusive in the pocket.
Valentine had a nice game, but I don't think either of him or Laughery can grind it out late to salt away a win.
The pass defense locked UAB down for the most part. Matthew Bailey was flying around making plays.
The run defense leaves much to be desired. Every UAB run had one or two missed tackles. Scheme had players in the right spot, but execution was lacking.
Special teams were a plus. Made 6 PATs without issues and every kickoff was a touchback. Resetich had a punt return he took back to the opposing 30 and Valentine showed nice burst on a kick return to set up the Hail Mary.
Overall the game seemed to go chalk. A good Illini offense worked over UAB's defense. UAB's run game (the focal point of their offense) took advantage of a weak d-line and linebacking corps, but couldn't pass the ball when they got behind the sticks. Plenty to work on but game ended as it should. 1-0, ILL.
Video board is bright and loud. Certainly noticable from the previous seasons. Will be interested if brightness and volume are adjusted moving forward.
Full student section 20 minutes prior to kickoff, with probably 2/3rds staying after half. Excellent to see.
As far as the football goes, UAB has an excellent ground game. Would not be surprised to see them make noise in the AAC as they hung tough through the first half, and would have been down just 1 point were it not for a successful Hail Mary to end the half.
Houser was mobile when he needed to be and had several nice throws. Elusive in the pocket.
Valentine had a nice game, but I don't think either of him or Laughery can grind it out late to salt away a win.
The pass defense locked UAB down for the most part. Matthew Bailey was flying around making plays.
The run defense leaves much to be desired. Every UAB run had one or two missed tackles. Scheme had players in the right spot, but execution was lacking.
Special teams were a plus. Made 6 PATs without issues and every kickoff was a touchback. Resetich had a punt return he took back to the opposing 30 and Valentine showed nice burst on a kick return to set up the Hail Mary.
Overall the game seemed to go chalk. A good Illini offense worked over UAB's defense. UAB's run game (the focal point of their offense) took advantage of a weak d-line and linebacking corps, but couldn't pass the ball when they got behind the sticks. Plenty to work on but game ended as it should. 1-0, ILL.
Serious Late
- Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
UAB with I believe 8 drives in the game. 1 was 8 plays. The other 7 were 10+ plays. Eek.
Thought Altmey... Houser looked great out there! solid looking receivers and the 1-2 punch of Valentine/Laughery is where we want it. O-Line play next week will be interesting as we step up competition.
If not for 2 luck-based plays (Hail Mary + Kante Pick 6), this is a 1 score game. Not suggesting we wash away every fortunate thing that happens, but all of their points were earned. 14 of our points came on their blunders.
Not worried, this is what game 1s against these types of G6 schools often look like, and frequently mean little in the grand scheme. Unless you get completely spanked by arguably the worst projected team in FBS pre-season. Get in, get out, see what needs worked on. For us, we need to see how this defense rebounds. For Rutgers... their fans need to see a rebound everywhere.
That Rutgers loss is like chicken soup for the Illini fan's soul. It makes whining about how we eeked out a 19 point win feel frivolous.
Thought Altmey... Houser looked great out there! solid looking receivers and the 1-2 punch of Valentine/Laughery is where we want it. O-Line play next week will be interesting as we step up competition.
If not for 2 luck-based plays (Hail Mary + Kante Pick 6), this is a 1 score game. Not suggesting we wash away every fortunate thing that happens, but all of their points were earned. 14 of our points came on their blunders.
Not worried, this is what game 1s against these types of G6 schools often look like, and frequently mean little in the grand scheme. Unless you get completely spanked by arguably the worst projected team in FBS pre-season. Get in, get out, see what needs worked on. For us, we need to see how this defense rebounds. For Rutgers... their fans need to see a rebound everywhere.
That Rutgers loss is like chicken soup for the Illini fan's soul. It makes whining about how we eeked out a 19 point win feel frivolous.
Agree with the other comment. The defense constantly put our guys in the right spot to make a play. They just couldn't make the tackle if their lives depended on it. In the 1st half, it felt like for every tackle we made, we missed 3. 2nd half was slightly better, but still not great. Otherwise, I think the defense was solid. 1st half pass coverage was pretty good, and outside of when we only rushed 3, the pass rush was good too. I worry how we'll fare against a mobile QB, but I have to imagine we scheme differently in that scenario.
That tackling tho. OMG it was bad, and I can't express that enough. I think even a minor improvement to below-average tackling is the difference between what we saw and a real blowout. With how well the scheme seemed to have our guys positioned, I feel like good tackling would make this team a legit contender. Probably an exaggeration, but that's just how bad the tackling felt in spite of how well we were positioned.
I've got nothing on the offense. Didn't even have the issues I've had the last 2 years (last year especially tho) where Lunney would call something stupid and Luke's heroics made a play out of it. Maybe that has to do with how short our drives were, but it still gave me hope he's grown past it. I don't think we saw Feagan at all tho. Not sure if he's hurt and I missed it, if I missed his snaps, or if he just didn't get any snaps. I was interested in seeing him at TE.
That tackling tho. OMG it was bad, and I can't express that enough. I think even a minor improvement to below-average tackling is the difference between what we saw and a real blowout. With how well the scheme seemed to have our guys positioned, I feel like good tackling would make this team a legit contender. Probably an exaggeration, but that's just how bad the tackling felt in spite of how well we were positioned.
I've got nothing on the offense. Didn't even have the issues I've had the last 2 years (last year especially tho) where Lunney would call something stupid and Luke's heroics made a play out of it. Maybe that has to do with how short our drives were, but it still gave me hope he's grown past it. I don't think we saw Feagan at all tho. Not sure if he's hurt and I missed it, if I missed his snaps, or if he just didn't get any snaps. I was interested in seeing him at TE.
He was on the field a lot. Not one touch?
It was more we were giving up multiple 4th and 1 in which we gave up more then the yard needed to multiple 5 yard gains on 4th very frustrating to get ran over by uab like that has me not looking forward to the Ohio state and Iowa games add Oregon in there as well
You's be surprised how many D1 QB's couldnt even reach the end zone from where Houser released it.
Spending my Saturdays and Sundays this fall realizing the Illini and Bears have to lean on their offense to win
Steelyunk
- Tobacco Road
Well they didn’t do much tackling tonight so maybe we need to mansplain how regular season games work to them.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
We’ll go as far as our defense. Not a big surprise there. If our D improves, could do some really good things.
Watch Rutgers earlier, feel blessed about our QB and team. Was hoping Rutgers was on our schedule
I didn't have sky high hopes for the defense, especially in game 1.
That said, would a single 3 and out have been too much to ask for against a team picked to finish second to last in the AAC?
I'm really, really, hoping we were being as vanilla as possible with the calls but something tells me that poor tackling and RBs being multiple yards down field before being touched isn't a scheme fix.
That said, would a single 3 and out have been too much to ask for against a team picked to finish second to last in the AAC?
I'm really, really, hoping we were being as vanilla as possible with the calls but something tells me that poor tackling and RBs being multiple yards down field before being touched isn't a scheme fix.
Illini4Chief
- TENNESSEE
Disappointed in DEFENSE, expected a better show.....guess we have to put up 44+ points per game for win?
I've chirped about the student support so I'll call it out here, that is absolutely insane to see the NEZ that full for Week 1 against UAB. Awesome work by the youngbloods.
I don't know much about defensive schemes, but Bailey and the 3-3-5 seem like a good fit...but, Baily is a great player and would probably fit into any defensive scheme if given the chance. I was relieved to see X healthy enough to play a few more snaps in the second half after I got punched in the gut watching him stay down in the first half. Beerman, God bless him, looks awfully slender to be playing linebacker in the B1G.
Always hard to extrapolate too much from week one, but especially with the amount of turnover we’ve had. Although we tackled poorly, we only had one penalty so a clean game overall. And it looks like QB is going to be a strength again this year which should keep us in a lot of games.
That said, frustrating that despite a new offensive line and a completely new defense we still seem plagued by the same problems as last year.
For the defense in fairness, UAB does have a good RB and it seemed like they had a good scheme to attack our defense. Most teams won’t have that much time to prepare. Mortenson looks to be a good coach and I think they will exceed expectations in the American. But 10-19 on third down and 3-4 on fourth are Aaron Henry stats. At least tonight we still couldn’t get off the field.
And on offense we still can’t run the ball consistently. Stuffed on 4th and 1. Giving up a short field because we get pinned at the one and can’t generate enough push to pick up a first down. And just too many drives starting behind the sticks because we pick up 0 or 1 yards on first down. I know it’s a new group, but with our size we ought to be able to move a team like UAB and get 3-4 yards at will. Why can’t we consistently get a push up front? If we could Feagin might still be a RB.
All that said, not awful for the first game in a rebuilding year with a brand new defense. The tackling should improve, and hopefully we saved our TO luck for conference games.
That said, frustrating that despite a new offensive line and a completely new defense we still seem plagued by the same problems as last year.
For the defense in fairness, UAB does have a good RB and it seemed like they had a good scheme to attack our defense. Most teams won’t have that much time to prepare. Mortenson looks to be a good coach and I think they will exceed expectations in the American. But 10-19 on third down and 3-4 on fourth are Aaron Henry stats. At least tonight we still couldn’t get off the field.
And on offense we still can’t run the ball consistently. Stuffed on 4th and 1. Giving up a short field because we get pinned at the one and can’t generate enough push to pick up a first down. And just too many drives starting behind the sticks because we pick up 0 or 1 yards on first down. I know it’s a new group, but with our size we ought to be able to move a team like UAB and get 3-4 yards at will. Why can’t we consistently get a push up front? If we could Feagin might still be a RB.
All that said, not awful for the first game in a rebuilding year with a brand new defense. The tackling should improve, and hopefully we saved our TO luck for conference games.