Illinois 30, Toledo 28 Postgame
illinidarrin
- from parts unknown
I think people had the right to wonder about this team. They looked brutal in the first half. No other way to put it. I had remind myself of what happened last year when Illinois lost to Indiana. They didn't look like a real good team at that point either, but turned it around. We will know a lot more after the Kansas game.
It looked like Josh did a bit of trash talking too. Not sure.
Altmyer looked great. Revamped DB's played better than I thought they would. WR's looked good. Toledo is a quality team, certainly no pushover. DL and OL did not look good, hope to see improvement in both next couple of weeks. Scott and Washington saved our bacon. As others have said we handed Toledo multiple scores with stupid penalties. Clean that up and we will be good enough to go bowling.
Yeah there’s a reason Ohio state is the only BIG team to schedule them since 2010
snarkyness is absurd in this situation, as Toledo is a VERY good program.
And for the snarky people, WE HAVE A QB! We had no idea if we had one coming into the game.
Luke Altmyer is HIM!!!
Yeah, maybe Walters calling the defense was the big difference maker.
I couldn’t tell if it was scheme, play calling or just lack of effort, but for a front 7 that is as talented as any in the big ten, that was not a good showing at all- need to figure out how to spring guys loose much better than that
Positives:
QB Play
Figured out how to win
Negatives
Offensive line
McCray(not sure if this was a byproduct or the line)
Defensive line
Discipline. The penalties led to probably....25 points?
First games can commonly be a challenge. It's what's between the ears that has to be a constant....and by that, I don't mean constantly taking dumb penalties.
QB Play
Figured out how to win
Negatives
Offensive line
McCray(not sure if this was a byproduct or the line)
Defensive line
Discipline. The penalties led to probably....25 points?
First games can commonly be a challenge. It's what's between the ears that has to be a constant....and by that, I don't mean constantly taking dumb penalties.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
Some of you out here posting as if we wouldn’t have lost that game 100 out of 100 times for the last 20 years.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Is there an obvious game I'm missing where we were manhandled like that up front in the Bielema era? I can't think of one, @PSU in 2021 and @Michigan last year we certainly were not.
And that was Toledo. Yikes.
And that was Toledo. Yikes.
I think Calvin Avery left bigger shoes to fill than we thought. It looked like Toledo locked up the middle pretty well and it put some extra pressure on Newton and Randolph.
Down the stretch Daxon and Edwards made some more plays it looked like. Lots to learn from this game.
Agreed and it was upfront on both sides. I was a little critical of McCray last night because he looked like he was stuck in mud. That said, the line was pushed until his lap.
Defensively. Just shocked. There was no pass rush whatsoever and, at best, it was a stalemate when Toledo lined up to run the ball.
cuillini
- San Bernardino, Ca.
Seems like the defense only rushed 3 players for a good part of the game. Therefore, no pressure on the qb. I assume the reason was to try to hold him in the pocket? Anyway, it didn't work. We were way too passive, lack of a pass rush and very few blitzes. I don't know what Henry was thinking, but I hope he ditches that scheme for KU.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
it was very strange we didn’t wear them down and dominate both sides of the line the second half .
Toledo really kicked butt on the line all game .
it’s a major concern for the next two games
that said , our passing game will be much better this year . We will need it if we can’t hold other teams under 25
yup Toledo I think is better than Nebraska, Minnesota, Northwestern and Indiana
I was only catching pieces of the 2nd half, but it seemed like McCray had some better runs in the 2nd half. I still think he has a role in the offense.
I'm not trying to make excuses as the lineplay was pretty subpar on both sides of the ball, but I will attempt to explain what I think may have happened:
Defense:
Coaching staff decided to play Contain, however they overestimated the ability of our linebackers to react fast enough to shoot the running lanes, get through blockers, spy the qb, and get to the edge. As such, you had running plays going for 6-9yds that should be going for 2-4yds if played correctly. So, it's impossible for the dline not to look exposed, but in reality I think our LBs share at least half of the blame for why we looked so helpless out there. I think positioning of our LBs will improve in the weeks to come, and that'll help. But I think our defensive scheming needs to focus more on allowing our D to play aggressive and let our line rush, as that's far more towards our strengths.
Offense:
From what I saw, Kreutz and the rest of the line weren't on the same page when it came to timing as all our players looked slow off the snap. So either something was dodgy with our snap count or our players all got a step slower with regards to reaction time. My best guess is Kreutz was jazzed up and snapping a little early. If that's the case, this could be fixed by next week. Hard to tell much else as Toledo seemed to know our snap count better than we did.
So again, no excuses, but just my best guess at what went wrong
Most of Altmeyer's runs were within an offensiv plan/game calls. He rarely was running for his life. But, he can clearly do that. And man can he throw the ball.
I think the lack of pressure was more ply design than lack of talent or “being manhandled”. I think @illini0440 also stated as much.
I didn’t like it, and I wish they would have tried something different. But there’s a reason I coach from the stands and not on the sidelines.
Basically, I’m not necessarily “concerned” yet. It was game 1 against an extremely talented team (it’s not “just a MAC team” the way we are trying to portray it as), in a game where the real killer was drive extending penalties. Without those penalties, this is possibly a 20-point comfortable win, and we aren’t sitting here dissecting this game with the same emotion.
If we don’t have anymore games with that sort of undisciplined gameplay, we could really be looking at a special season. The biggest question we had coming in to the year was answered with a resounding “yes… he is that good”. The second most pressing question was answered with a “yes… they’ll be just fine without Witherspoon, Martin, and Brown”.
The biggest question that wasn’t answered last night in my opinion is how good will our running game be. I think we got a taste of the real McCray (and it’s not good), and we saw that our OLine isn’t as great as we had hoped (could be troublesome).
But I am not concerned with the DLine… yet. Let’s see how they do when they aren’t put in such passive defensive play calls.
1-0 is always better than 0-1. And this 1-0 isn’t the same as previous 1-0 starts against the likes of Western Illinois or Kent St. (or similar). This one meant more. This one was both momentum saving and momentum building against a solid, bowl bound, likely conference winning team. Not to mention, as others have said, five years ago we lose this game and finish the season 3-9.
This is the new era of Illini football. Let’s bask in its glory.
I didn’t like it, and I wish they would have tried something different. But there’s a reason I coach from the stands and not on the sidelines.
Basically, I’m not necessarily “concerned” yet. It was game 1 against an extremely talented team (it’s not “just a MAC team” the way we are trying to portray it as), in a game where the real killer was drive extending penalties. Without those penalties, this is possibly a 20-point comfortable win, and we aren’t sitting here dissecting this game with the same emotion.
If we don’t have anymore games with that sort of undisciplined gameplay, we could really be looking at a special season. The biggest question we had coming in to the year was answered with a resounding “yes… he is that good”. The second most pressing question was answered with a “yes… they’ll be just fine without Witherspoon, Martin, and Brown”.
The biggest question that wasn’t answered last night in my opinion is how good will our running game be. I think we got a taste of the real McCray (and it’s not good), and we saw that our OLine isn’t as great as we had hoped (could be troublesome).
But I am not concerned with the DLine… yet. Let’s see how they do when they aren’t put in such passive defensive play calls.
1-0 is always better than 0-1. And this 1-0 isn’t the same as previous 1-0 starts against the likes of Western Illinois or Kent St. (or similar). This one meant more. This one was both momentum saving and momentum building against a solid, bowl bound, likely conference winning team. Not to mention, as others have said, five years ago we lose this game and finish the season 3-9.
This is the new era of Illini football. Let’s bask in its glory.
This!
The three man rush plan should have been thrown out after the first quarter. All it did was allow them to double team Newton and Randolph and we got absolutely no pressure on the qb.
I'm thinking of rewatching the game. But, I felt like anytime we brought pressure it worked. Even if it wasn't a sack, the play was usually shutdown. The idea that we had to play "contain" was not working. The pressure was.