It's November 1st, not April 1st
Illinois 35, Rutgers 13 Postgame
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I believe I blacked out for awhile after that.
The handshake obviously was covered by the same camera man who totally missed 2 plays live....or maybe the director who preferred showing a guy in a corn costume instead of the handshake.
Exactly. I have seen Illinois come into games like these over the many years I have been a fan and lay an egg.
The wide receiver room continues to consistently catch the football.
Great bounce back game. Should be in the drivers seat for 8-4 and 9-3 is very realistic. We’ve come a long, long way.
Night and day on the defensive effort. They just played with 100% more aggression and emotion. Felt like we mixed things up a lot more and a lot better too to hold a top 30 offense under 14 points. And a top 30 offense who’s strength all year (passing) has been our weakness (defensive backfield).
Frustrating because although I don’t think we are one of the 12 best teams I feel like we have played our 3 worst games in our 3 toughest games? I don’t know if this or the USC effort beats Ohio State or Indiana, but if we played last week like we played today I think we would have beaten Washington.
I wonder if Henry just coaches a little scared in these bigger games, maybe gives the other QB too much respect? And I feel like that coaching scared mindset has to trickle down to the players too. I’ve heard it said offense is all about execution and defense is all about emotion. Seems like we remembered that today.
Good reminder that he’s still young and learning. Not saying we shouldn’t try and upgrade if we get the chance but people do learn and get better.
Anyways, great win today. Heal up in the bye week and get to 9 wins would be the best 2 year stretch of Illini football in 100 years. Go Illini!
Night and day on the defensive effort. They just played with 100% more aggression and emotion. Felt like we mixed things up a lot more and a lot better too to hold a top 30 offense under 14 points. And a top 30 offense who’s strength all year (passing) has been our weakness (defensive backfield).
Frustrating because although I don’t think we are one of the 12 best teams I feel like we have played our 3 worst games in our 3 toughest games? I don’t know if this or the USC effort beats Ohio State or Indiana, but if we played last week like we played today I think we would have beaten Washington.
I wonder if Henry just coaches a little scared in these bigger games, maybe gives the other QB too much respect? And I feel like that coaching scared mindset has to trickle down to the players too. I’ve heard it said offense is all about execution and defense is all about emotion. Seems like we remembered that today.
Good reminder that he’s still young and learning. Not saying we shouldn’t try and upgrade if we get the chance but people do learn and get better.
Anyways, great win today. Heal up in the bye week and get to 9 wins would be the best 2 year stretch of Illini football in 100 years. Go Illini!
I'm pretty sure many in the fanbase did too.
Great team win. Now 9-3 is attainable....and 8-4 seems worse case scenario to me if we have a hiccup. That is a success for this program. We all wanted more, but to go 9-3 last year and still have that potential this year is a huge feat. Hoping we can get the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa Dec 31 at 11am, and beat some SEC team's a$$......
blackdog
- Champaign
Defense looked completely different from the last couple. They went back to almost entirely man to man and what do you know, it worked! Strong and Duff made some really tough contested catches but I don't think there were any wide open plays until the last drive when they went back to zone with the 2nd/3rd string guys.
I said in the game thread that attendance was embarrassing but it did fill up a lot more. Still was a lot less energy/noise compared to the early season games.
I said in the game thread that attendance was embarrassing but it did fill up a lot more. Still was a lot less energy/noise compared to the early season games.
Was it roughly a decade? Same thing happened to me
Great job players and coaches. Focus 1 week at a time and go for that back to back 10 win seasons, for fist time in our history. Get some rest, heal up, educated, and continued improvement. Wow, happy for Clement.
We have size at corner. Rooks is 6’4, Patterson is 6’1, Clarke is 6’1. The problem with big corners is they usually have stiff hips and have trouble with speed wr. A game like this is a good match up for Clarke but other games he’s almost unplayable because of speed
Absolutely outstanding game. That's how you respond to a rough loss. Luke was absolutely incredible and our D line was much improved. Let's finish out strong. We play each game like this one and we'll have a solid shot at a 10 win season.
And I know people don't want to hear it, but our first 8 games were one of the absolute toughest schedules in the nation. There's a whole lot of other B10 and SEC teams with 1 or 2 losses that would be a similar 6-3 or worse had they played our schedule. Just how the cookie crumbles.
And I know people don't want to hear it, but our first 8 games were one of the absolute toughest schedules in the nation. There's a whole lot of other B10 and SEC teams with 1 or 2 losses that would be a similar 6-3 or worse had they played our schedule. Just how the cookie crumbles.
Felt the same way...Rutgers makes mistakes and can't capitalize unlike Indy, OSt, and Washington. Big talent gap....hoping next 3 games play out in a similar way.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Or the handshake was skipped so that NBC could show Aaron Henry for the 86th time today. I was listening to Brian all day while viewing the game on NBC, and Henry was on the screen more than Luke. (I can't imagine what they were saying about him.)
Truly remarkable the separation between the bottom, the middle, and the top in this conference. Fun game and definitely needed this.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
Game Notes!
1. That game was heavy doses of Altmyer, Beatty, and schemed-up calls from Lunney. Bad turnover luck? Offensive line not playing well? Didn't matter.
2. Kaliakmanis was not efficient today. He had a couple good deep throws where his WRs didn't haul in, but overall the defensive approach from Henry took away his first read. Even that second drive from them that netted a FG required AK to thread a couple slant route throws in perfectly to move the chains. He was great in '24 against Illinois, good to see Henry and the defense get revenge from last year.
3. Awesome performance from the Illini defense. Rutgers is 35th in offense SP+. They didn't score a TD until the game was effectively over. They had ~130 yards of offense until garbage time. Great turnaround.
4. Illinois has had running backs run for more than 70 yards twice in the past nine B1G games. Valentine against Purdue's putrid Purdue defense and Laughery's performance at Wrigley Field. That's it. Please remember this next year when folks are predicting Illinois to break the 1k rushing yards drought.
5. Wasn't impressed with the offensive line. Rutgers d-line is not known for creating pressure and they caused a good amount of disruption. I give Lunney credit for scheming up some of the big runs.
6. Altmyer had his most complete game. The running. The passing. The decision making. The pocket presence.
7. Olano missed a FG, he's human!
8. Looked like a bunch of backups got snaps this game. Good to give the backups some looks to help down the stretch run.
9. It's been a staple for Bielema at Illinois but I can't stand the choices made in the final ~5 minutes of games where Illinois is up comfortably. Why only run that final possession, especially after you picked up a first down? It's extremely known that Schiano isn't going to give up. Why not keep running your gameplan for an extra 4-6 plays to save your defense playing 15 extra snaps? If you are wanting to quit on offense, then why leave in all the starters? The choices do not match up.
10. Feels like my tone is overly negative here, so I want to say it was such a complete and comfortable win. Great job by the team and staff.
1. That game was heavy doses of Altmyer, Beatty, and schemed-up calls from Lunney. Bad turnover luck? Offensive line not playing well? Didn't matter.
2. Kaliakmanis was not efficient today. He had a couple good deep throws where his WRs didn't haul in, but overall the defensive approach from Henry took away his first read. Even that second drive from them that netted a FG required AK to thread a couple slant route throws in perfectly to move the chains. He was great in '24 against Illinois, good to see Henry and the defense get revenge from last year.
3. Awesome performance from the Illini defense. Rutgers is 35th in offense SP+. They didn't score a TD until the game was effectively over. They had ~130 yards of offense until garbage time. Great turnaround.
4. Illinois has had running backs run for more than 70 yards twice in the past nine B1G games. Valentine against Purdue's putrid Purdue defense and Laughery's performance at Wrigley Field. That's it. Please remember this next year when folks are predicting Illinois to break the 1k rushing yards drought.
5. Wasn't impressed with the offensive line. Rutgers d-line is not known for creating pressure and they caused a good amount of disruption. I give Lunney credit for scheming up some of the big runs.
6. Altmyer had his most complete game. The running. The passing. The decision making. The pocket presence.
7. Olano missed a FG, he's human!
8. Looked like a bunch of backups got snaps this game. Good to give the backups some looks to help down the stretch run.
9. It's been a staple for Bielema at Illinois but I can't stand the choices made in the final ~5 minutes of games where Illinois is up comfortably. Why only run that final possession, especially after you picked up a first down? It's extremely known that Schiano isn't going to give up. Why not keep running your gameplan for an extra 4-6 plays to save your defense playing 15 extra snaps? If you are wanting to quit on offense, then why leave in all the starters? The choices do not match up.
10. Feels like my tone is overly negative here, so I want to say it was such a complete and comfortable win. Great job by the team and staff.
MustangWally
- Mayfield
Don’t know about that, but I was right at the entrance to the visitor’s locker room and the expression on Schiano’s face was SALTY.
Pretty meh, tbh.
The crowd was good besides the 2/3 empty student section, but yeah, the intensity was not close to what it was for USC and OSU.
Did he expect us to just concede a TD on the last play? His team was soundly beat in about every phase. Hopefully he was salty at them.
Completely different ceiling for the Beloved if we can maintain the defensive energy for the remaining 4 games of the season, which obviously includes another bowl game.
Clearly BB forced change this week which was what needed to occur.
Handle business for the final three games, like we did today, and we aren’t just bowling, we are playing in another big time bowl game.
I might not be hanging out at my beach house in SW FL on New Years Eve and New Years Day after all.
Clearly BB forced change this week which was what needed to occur.
Handle business for the final three games, like we did today, and we aren’t just bowling, we are playing in another big time bowl game.
I might not be hanging out at my beach house in SW FL on New Years Eve and New Years Day after all.
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