Seems like a coin flip game to me given both defenses are terrible. I’d probably lean towards Rutgers given extra motivation following last year
Pregame: Illinois vs Rutgers, Saturday, November 1st, 11:00am CT, NBC
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altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
This ^^^
Last season Kaliakmanis and his bros owned our defense and it took a literal miracle for Luke and Pat to pull out a W.
We will win and the defensive management will change off season because in this era it must
I think we will be much better next Saturday.
We have played an extremely tough schedule this far:
@ Duke
@ Indiana
Ohio State
@ Washington
USC
Even Western Michigan has played well after playing us
We will win 38-24.
We have played an extremely tough schedule this far:
@ Duke
@ Indiana
Ohio State
@ Washington
USC
Even Western Michigan has played well after playing us
We will win 38-24.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Doomsayers livin’ in a van down by the Boneyard eatin’ government cheese.
Like a motivational speaker!!!
I gotcha. Don't think we'll have enough respect to finish top 4 in rankings considering our 3 losses are all by 3+ scores, but we'll see how it works out. From a recruiting perspective, I see your point.
You can try spinning it which ever way you want,but this defense doesn’t even pass the eye test….like the old saying goes you can try putting lipstick on a pig……
I'd strongly assume Robert is utilizing end of season metrics on Offensive FPI for 22 so technically those teams were lowered by playing Illinois that season which goes into ranking.
On the flip side, those teams have benefitted from playing Illinois this year as he is pulling stats as of today.
--I can't find weekly Offensive FPI breakdowns or it would certainly be easier to establish where teams were before they played us vice after.
Per Defensive FPI efficiency.
We were #6 in 2022.
We are #66 in 2025.
I have no idea what Robert is trying to point out? The metric is weighted according to who you play. So objectively...it's harder to end up in the top 10 without playing a top offense and shutting them down.
Also...if you play 4 top 10 offenses you don't get dinged as bad because the metric expects them to rack up points, yards, 1st downs etc.
This is why we are only #66 instead of roughly #100 like we are in other categories like PPG, stop rate, etc.
Illiniaaron
- Geneseo, IL
If they lose to Rutgers at home the bottom is gonna fall out of this season.
Why is it only the defense playing a part, and nothing on offense? Logic would say between two "terrible" defenses the better offense would have the advantage. And what makes their coach blowing the game a year ago any more motivation than us coming off two straight losses? Illinois has significantly more to prove and therefore should be the hungrier bunch.
I see this game parallel to the Iowa home game this past year after the Duke game (in Basketball). There were numerous doomsayers in the pregame thread asserting how we will lose out, miss the tourney, Brad gets fired. Instead we rattled off four in a row enroute to a 6 seed.
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All this talk about how tough the 5 games stretch Illinois just went through was, and I agree. I think this game is going to define this season. There are plenty of excuses for why Illinois has looked mediocre to just plain bad against Indiana, Ohio State, and Washington, and some may be valid. We'll know by 3:00 this Saturday whether those excuses were valid.
Win, and things ease up.
Win by a lot, and don't give up 28+ points, even better.
But... if we lose... no matter what the margin (3 points or 1 point) the Rutgers post game thread will be worse than all the others combined.
Just like every week, this upcoming game might be the most important in Bret's time here at Illinois, just not for the reasons we were probably hoping.
Win, and things ease up.
Win by a lot, and don't give up 28+ points, even better.
But... if we lose... no matter what the margin (3 points or 1 point) the Rutgers post game thread will be worse than all the others combined.
Just like every week, this upcoming game might be the most important in Bret's time here at Illinois, just not for the reasons we were probably hoping.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Listen, drama queen: stop with the hyperbole. You know darn well Williams was only able to do one of those activities in the pocket yesterday. Mostly knitting because veganism is big in Seattle, even among the football players, limiting the brisket market.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Spoiler alert: as less-than-enamored as we all are about yesterday, the bottom is extremely unlikely to fall out of the season.
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
It wasn’t the greatest against WASH, but this passing attack deserves some flowers. With Rusk's emergence, it would not shock me if we have five guys go over 250 yards, two go over 600, one go over 1,000.
Protection and Luke's pocket pressence has also improved.
Protection and Luke's pocket pressence has also improved.
Spoiler alert: The bottom already did fall out. Wether they win 5 games or 9, this season is a massive failure either way
I have absolutely no idea how the rest of the season will shake out. One thing I can say for sure is that this team did not improve from last year. You are either getting better or getting worse. Curt Cignetti and Indiana have changed college football. James Franklin fired after going 13-3 last season and one game from the National Championship. Brian Kelly fired today by LSU. Gone are the days of programs paying coaches multi million dollar contracts and having multi million dollar facilities and putting up with mediocrity. Cignetti ended all that. No more excuses for Bret Bielema and Illinois it’s been 5 seasons and We Got 5-7, 8-5,5-7,10-3 5-3 so far. Anything under 9 wins is a bad season in my opinion in the age of Cignetti. Especially after being at a school for 5 years. LSU only gave Kelly 4 Years. No more of being at a school for 6, 7 8 years winning 7-9 games and going to a meaningless bowl game and calling it a successful season. Not when you have a donor putting up 100 million dollars. Get it together Bret the clock is ticking
Rutgers is #131 out 136 D1 teams in defensive efficiency. Illinois at #66.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
The combined projected regular season records for the 3 teams we’ve lost to:
33-3
The combined projected regular season records for our 4 remaining opponents:
20-26
The average KFord team ranking for the 3 teams we’ve lost to:
8.7
The average KFord team ranking for our 4 remaining opponents:
59.25
The average KFord offensive ranking for the 3 teams we’ve lost to:
10.00
The average KFord offensive ranking for our 4 remaining opponents:
78.75
We’ll finish the season strong.
33-3
The combined projected regular season records for our 4 remaining opponents:
20-26
The average KFord team ranking for the 3 teams we’ve lost to:
8.7
The average KFord team ranking for our 4 remaining opponents:
59.25
The average KFord offensive ranking for the 3 teams we’ve lost to:
10.00
The average KFord offensive ranking for our 4 remaining opponents:
78.75
We’ll finish the season strong.
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