Illinois 43, Purdue 27 Postgame

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#202      
lstewart53x3
It’s a weird experience to skip checking game threads and x during the game to just enjoy the game. And then be excited about the win afterwards… only to find most of the conversation online (not as much here as other places) be disappointed.

It feels like most fans are missing important context:

Historically, Illinois is not a good program. Before Bret, we had made bowl games just 11 times in the previous 30 years.

And we just beat a conference rival by 16 points on the road in a game we favored by 9 on our way to a 5-1 record with a top 3 QB in an 18 team B1G.

Was it perfect? No. Is there a lot to clean up? Yes. Are we playoff team? Probably not.

But are playoffs fair expectations for a team that’s recruited in the 50s nationally for the past decade?

Texas has (14) 5 stars and (44) 4 stars, Penn St has (4) 5 stars and (58) 4 stars, and Clemson has (7) 5 stars and (40) 4 stars. Their combined records are 8-7.

We have (0) 5 stars and (7) 4 stars and our record is 5-1.

This season is on pace to be a huge over achievement both in terms of historical standards and compared to the talent level on this team.

We might not be quite playoff caliber, but we’re good enough to win another 8-9 games this year, which is good enough to give us another nice recruiting bump and continue to build this program.

Do I want the defense to play better? Yeah. But I’m not going to be disappointed in a game that we win by 16 on the road in the B1G or season that we win “only” 8 or 9 games.

This is an incredible stretch of Illinois football. Enjoy it my friends.
 
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#204      
Brosky
Beatty keeps reminding me how good he is. He's smart, really good hands, intelligent, and he's got a lot more speed than I realized. An NFL player for sure next seson.
 
#206      
IlliniKat91
lstewart53x3 said:
It’s a weird experience to skip checking game threads and x during the game to just enjoy the game. And then be excited about the win afterwards… only to find most of the conversation online (not as much here as other places) be disappointed.

It feels like most fans are missing important context:

Historically, Illinois is not a good program. Before Bret, we had made bowl games just 11 times in the previous 30 years.

And we just beat a conference rival by 16 points on the road in a game we favored by 9 on our way to a 5-1 record with a top 3 QB in an 18 team B1G.

Was it perfect? No. Is there a lot to clean up? Yes. Are we playoff team? Probably not.

But are playoffs fair expectations for a team that’s recruited in the 50s nationally for the past decade?

Texas has (14) 5 stars and (44) 4 stars, Penn St has (4) 5 stars and (58) 4 stars, and Clemson has (7) 5 stars and (40) 4 stars. Their combined records are 8-7.

We have (0) 5 stars and (7) 4 stars and our record is 5-1.

This season is on pace to be a huge over achievement both in terms of historical standards and compared to the talent level on this team.

We might not be quite playoff caliber, but we’re good enough to win another 8-9 games this year, which is good enough to give us another nice recruiting bump and continue to build this program.

Do I want the defense to play better? Yeah. But I’m not going to be disappointed in a game that we win by 16 on the road in the B1G or season that we win “only” 8 or 9 games.

This is an incredible stretch of Illinois football. Enjoy it my friends.
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I'm with you, but the crux of things for me is that what needs to be fixed on defense all comes down to coaching (taking bad angles, going for the tackle too early, or not fully wrapping a guy up). That's stuff that can and should be taken care of before the season and reinforced as the season continues.

Part of why I'm so happy with where we are as a program is because BB has me believing that we can be a program that never finishes below .500. I never thought I'd say that as an Illini fan, but I do truly believe now that we can be the kind of team that sees a bowl game every year. It won't always be the Citrus Bowl, but we'll get those extra practices that are so vital to sustained success.

This staff has found diamonds in the rough. We're getting better recruits than we have recently. That's all great. I don't think it's overly negative to want to see the coaching to go along with it, since that's fully within our control. It's also what this staff has sold us on time and again, so I have no problem saying I want to see them follow through.
 
#208      
band camp
GatorMcKlusky said:
On another note, Olano's leg is starting to get tired. I can tell the way the ball is coming off his foot. It's not the field goal attempts, it's the kickoffs. I wish Bielema would let someone else execute the kickoffs. There's gotta be someone else on the team that can put it 5 yards deep into the end zone. You can find a dozen DII kickers that can do it. There's a reason that kickers refer to kickoffs as "leg killers".
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Can you please explain 'how you can tell' DO's leg is tired?
 
#209      
Illiniguy74
Don't think that is what anyone thinks or wants. As for me, I think it would be wise for Bret to be thumbing through his rolodex and maybe initiating some behind the scenes inquiries.
 
#210      
BWBW
IMHO, we were often in the wrong defensive set for the play Purdue ran or they have options based on the defense they see. Their O often outplayed our D but we did win the game. On to the next.
 
#212      
HensonHall71
aaeismacgychel said:
I think you're jumping to conclusions and really oversimplifying things in several regards in an effort to defend Henry by laying most of the blame on player ability.

First off the whole purpose of the DC is to create a scheme that hides his player's weaknesses as best as he can and play to their strengths. It is not as simple as saying "welp I don't think the players can compete so best I can do is just move everyone 10yds off the line of scrimmage so they don't get a quick score".

You're saying our corners can't play man coverage and they aren't able to press. How exactly do you know that's the case? What evidence exactly do you have of that? I'd say our best downs today for our DBs was when we were pressing. Put another way we seem completely incapable of even stopping 3rd and very long when we drop 7 or 8 in zone coverage.

I think Henry's schemes are made for being able to get consistent major disruptive pressure from the front 4 and instinctive physical corners who can get downhill fast and hammer players when the qb needs to inevitably check down. And while that's the scheme, that's not what is happening. Our front 4 struggles at getting consistent pressure, and we're giving opposing skill players way too much space from the line of scrimmage allowing qbs to just absolutely dissect us as their receivers just run through us.

I have an incredibly tough time just blaming players for that. You can blame them for missed tackles, blame them for poor angles or instincts, but you cannot blame them for putting them in positions to fail and refusing to adjust for the weaknesses. And this drop zone coverage ain't it. I thought Henry's gameplan today absolutely stunk. Maybe you thought it was great and the players were the issue, but I'll be real, what the hell are players supposed to do when the scheme is giving the opposing WRs 10yds from the line of scrimmage to run free? It was utter garbage.

And do you really think the Scotts, Bailey, Clarke, Cox, and Patterson are just completely devoid of talent, high school at best level players? Or maybe just maybe is the scheme possibly letting them down?

You might not like people calling out coaches, but to think this is almost entirely on the players and recruiting, I mean come on.
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I agree with this- after the IU game Henry clearly tried to do something different scheme wise (and how could you blame him) but going from the most man coverage/blitz team in the country to playing heavy zone Isn’t working with this personnel either- Henry needs to find the right balance/ disguised coverage, blitz package to take more risks against teams like OSU- we have nothing to lose

Clarke is a very good man corner, Cox and Patterson and Heckel are decent as well- I think we need to generate more pressure and give up the big play from time to time- we have the offense to get into a shootout with good teams - which is why I don’t understand the “bend but don’t break” strategy. That is usually a strategy when your offense isnt good and you want to shorten games- we shouldn’t be doing that - we want a shootout and the team that turns the ball over fewer times wins- that should be our strategy
 
#213      
Chukwuwumba
BatteredWifeSchwartz said:
Probably the same thing with Kreutz today where it’s better to get them as close to 100% for Ohio State than force it today when you don’t need it.
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It feels the staff has been cautious with injuries, which I like. It’s a long season, get healthy when you can, don’t make it worse. Utilize depth.
 
#214      
band camp
Iamgroot said:
It was in a article a couple weeks after the win against the gamecocks and was mentioned on here for a week or 2 by 1 insider.idk if the other kid wanted to much guaranteed snaps or money or what but ive never seen the name.ill look and see if I can find a reference to it but bret has brought it over the summer a couple of times of said player reaching out while we still had mccray before he packed his bags and left.i think had that happened we could possibly have another playmaker in the back field
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What?
 
#215      
BoiseBaller
Pikeillinifan said:
It’s much more than a talent issue. We have good players, we are not good with open field tackles, we get virtually no pressure on the qb, but nobody can tell me we don’t have high level D1 players. If that’s issue, then isn’t it due because of poor recruiting or talent evaluation?

I love this team, but the issues on deeper on defense than us just saying everyone else has much better talent than us.

Old Dominion only gave up 27 points to Indiana, do they have way better talent than us on defense?
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I agree here. It's both. Yes, we need better talent. But, there are some glaring issues that could be fixed by better coaching too. Our alignments are often not where they need to be. That is coaching. Taking poor angles is another thing that can be addressed by coaching.

It's not one or the other. It's a combination.

The one thing this defense does fairly well is strip the ball. But, that often means giving up a bunch of YAC to try and get that done. Lots of give and take with this group.
 
#216      
jcron13
He plays bend not break all game. He Has #16 cover USC’s best receiver in two straight possessions and he gives up crucial touchdowns. You can be down starters but when you are running guys in an out at the rate we do they are not ready when the ball is snapped. Watch the film instead of making excuses.
 
#217      
GatorMcKlusky
band camp said:
Can you please explain 'how you can tell' DO's leg is tired?
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It's the spin of the ball. A perfect kick means the ball spins end over end very quickly in a straight vertical manner. The ball basically follows the right hip. When you get tired, the ball will spin differently, and start to hook or push it. Check out Olano's FG kicks yesterday. I just remember this stuff cuz my kid kicked/punted in Big Ten and MAC.
 
#219      
Pikeillinifan
BoiseBaller said:
I agree here. It's both. Yes, we need better talent. But, there are some glaring issues that could be fixed by better coaching too. Our alignments are often not where they need to be. That is coaching. Taking poor angles is another thing that can be addressed by coaching.

It's not one or the other. It's a combination.

The one thing this defense does fairly well is strip the ball. But, that often means giving up a bunch of YAC to try and get that done. Lots of give and take with this group.
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I agree here. We saw the risk of giving up a bunch of YAC and not getting turnovers in the Indiana game. The OSU game has the potential to be that, or worse, if we don't make a marked improvement or make major adjustments this week.

Don't get me wrong, complaining about our defense as a 5-1 team coming off a 10-3 season is something special for Illinois football.

Expectations are funny. A couple of years ago, almost everyone here (myself included) would have been happy if we were consistently a 6-8 win team. Now, many of us are going to be a little disappointed if we only get to 8 wins and don't get 9 or 10.
 
#220      
jcron13
Pikeillinifan said:
It’s much more than a talent issue. We have good players, we are not good with open field tackles, we get virtually no pressure on the qb, but nobody can tell me we don’t have high level D1 players. If that’s issue, then isn’t it due because of poor recruiting or talent evaluation?

I love this team, but the issues on deeper on defense than us just saying everyone else has much better talent than us.

Old Dominion only gave up 27 points to Indiana, do they have way better talent than us on defense?
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You are spot on. At this point of the season, guys should know where to be in a zone. It looks to me like our guys are willing to let receivers make the catch and then make the tackle. At some point you need to jump a route and make a play.
 
#223      
GoodePodzMelendez
jcron13 said:
You are spot on. At this point of the season, guys should know where to be in a zone. It looks to me like our guys are willing to let receivers make the catch and then make the tackle. At some point you need to jump a route and make a play.
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I would rather play our corners on the LOS and knock them off their route from the snap of the ball. This 10 yard cushion gives the WR’s an easy 7 to 15 yard advantage which does not give our DL a chance to get to the QB.
 
#224      
TheFlyingIllini1317
purcy51 said:
In all my years watching football, I can't recall watching a quarterback as consistently accurate as Luke Altmeyer this year.
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It was crazy Purdue had good coverage twice against us and Luke threw perfect balls to Dixons and Beatty to negate that. I can only recall two balls that weren't perfectly on the money and they were still both caught.
 
#225      
Todd99
jcron13 said:
You are spot on. At this point of the season, guys should know where to be in a zone. It looks to me like our guys are willing to let receivers make the catch and then make the tackle. At some point you need to jump a route and make a play.
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FWIW, Defense has two interceptions this year. Last year at this time they had seven and finished the season with twelve.
 
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