I'd also like to say what works of art those white jerseys are (not a fan of the all whites, but those tops are amazing).
A very very young secondary as well. This team is gonna be solid in another year or 2.Okay question...isn’t this sort of what Lovie’s D does? I always thought that was the underlying theme of the bend don’t break D. So for example Indiana had 100+ more yards than Rutgers and won by 7. We nearly tied and won by 21 by forcing more turnovers among other things. Am I wrong in this thought? I truly don’t know.
Rutgers is currently ranked #141. So they aren’t in the same world as our upcoming oponents.
An oddly unsatisfying 20 point Conference road win.
Agreed with this. Illinois lost to Rutgers last year in Champaign. Yes Illinois was sloppy at times today, they are a very young team. But winning by 3 td today is the progress we needed to see.A little surprised at the negativity in here and the game thread. I get it, we could have looked better and there are some things that still look like they need to be addressed. But I fail to see how a 21 point win, on the road, in the Big Ten (yes against Rutgers, but still) doesn't show progress.
What was this team supposed to do? Win by 40 against a Power 5 opponent? Maybe in a couple of years we can view that as our standard. But this year all we asked for (most of us anyways) was to pick off the teams we should beat (we've done that) and keep it close against the team better than us (outside of one quarter, we've done this as well).
Now you look at the last 7 games and can see a path to 6 (maybe 7) wins. I don't know, maybe I'm too easy but my eyes have seen progress this year and I think there's a chance to really show it the rest of the way.
Oh, c'mon. They beat lowly Rutgers, for heaven's sake: Rutgers is worse than most MAC teams. Let us get real. Still , always, GO ILLINI! And I hope for a bowl, any bowl for Illini. Hate to say it , but I'd put my money on NIU beating Illinois if they played - and this is a down season for NIU! Discuss.
We basically played bend defense on the last drive in the 1st half and at the end of the game - so I'd say at least 50 of that was based on strategy as opposed to just getting beat - thus RU only had 17 points.We only outgained them 419-386. It's nice to get a win, but that's not the performance we were hoping for, the performance they were openly willing to hand us.
Not that I am aware of. Corbin got gang tackled on one play and it forced his leg funny. He trotted off the field limping a bit, but came back during a later series.Did anyone go down with an injury today?
Cannot be overstated.
A bowling Illinois perfomance just utterly outclasses Rutgers. We failed to do that today. We need to improve.
Football rules question for those in the know I thought about today:
If a running back back or receiver is gonna be tackled for a loss near the sideline after a handoff or lateral, is there anything that stops them from throwing the ball out of bounds, but past the line of scrimmage, for no gain as opposed to taking a loss of yards?
As someone answered earlier - if the linemen think its a run, they are likely downfield, and you really don't want an RB pulling the ball out of their pocket at the last second - too risky for fumble.Football rules question for those in the know I thought about today:
If a running back back or receiver is gonna be tackled for a loss near the sideline after a handoff or lateral, is there anything that stops them from throwing the ball out of bounds, but past the line of scrimmage, for no gain as opposed to taking a loss of yards?