Indiana 23, Illinois 20 Postgame

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#201      
chiefini
Normally, I read every post of every thread. I haven’t read any of the eight pages of this thread. I'm still so bummed, I have no desire to watch football today whatsoever, either. SO disappointed. I’m an eternal optimist, but this one just hurts. Watching Yellowstone reruns instead...
 
#202      
phats22
pruman91 said:
The dropped pass by IW when he clearly was wide open and had a first down was a killer ................Devito did miss 2-3 passes by a wide margin....the pass to Ford and resultant fumble was poorly thrown and the tipped pass that was an interception in the red zone was also a killer........

He is a big upgrade from Peters and Art , but he has flaws .....I like his running skills also................
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No doubt, was responding more to the generalization of off target and behind receivers on most throws


And trying to highlight how much better 2-3 bad throws/game is c/w previous years (not putting down prior players vs what our current situation has been so far)


Frustrating loss for a program that excels at them but I feel better about this team through 2 weeks than at the same point last year
 
#203      
RML
I take some comfort in my belief that, despite the final score, ours is the better team.

Bummed that Chase Brown ended up a penny short of 200.

To anyone one agonizing that going for it on fourth and one cost us the game, think about whether we would have even been in field goal range on the next drive, had Indiana's intervening drive started from the 25 (if we had gotten a field goal there), rather than at the one.
 
#204      
superfan
The main difference in the game was dropped passes. That’s my view and I’m sticking to it. More than a couple of bad play selections, more than the atrocious officiating blunders. DeVito isn’t the next Joe Montana, but he made plenty of catchable throws. Catch the f-ing ball. “But the ball was just a little bit behind the receiver a few times.” That’s ridiculous. We’re not the QB coach critiquing the timing and mechanics during practice pass drills; this is live game action. The ball hits a receiver’s hands, you catch the ball. Period. And there were plenty of dart strikes that DeVito put perfectly — perfectly — on target that were just outright dropped. This is big time college ball. I know several wildly talented receivers who never got this type of opportunity. Earn it, or step aside and let someone else play ball.

I’m red hot right now. Mostly just venting. I’m sick of watching an Illini football team play not to lose. World-class running game, stout defense, and an exasperating inability to complete a forward f-ing pass. Sound familiar? That slant pattern in the 4Q to IW for a first down brought the faithful to their feet. Why? It’s a pass completion. It shouldn’t be THAT unbelievable, THAT much of a celebration. But we all hold our breath every time Illinois throws the ball, we clap like trained seals if someone happens to catch it, and it’s been that way for decades. You know it, I know it, we all know it. That’s not normal. It’s not the 1920s anymore. Watch football with some friends who follow other programs. Other teams don’t consider the forward pass to be a trick play. The last time I felt like we knew this a guy named Kittner was under center.

If we can’t add that dimension to our offense then I’m destined to see one of two types of seasons I’ve seen all my life. The one where we have a talented RB, a stifling D, and we nurse 1-3 point leads for half a game, ultimately losing winnable games because we can’t put points on the board. And that type of season is the GOOD one. Don’t even ask me about the other type.

/vent
 
#205      
Cook
phats22 said:
respectfully disagree. he completed 60% of his passes, add in the 3-4 balls that literally hit receivers on the hands it goes close to 70%. the majority of his passes were catchable; if you want off target and behind receivers watch last years replays. through 2 games, he's at 67% completion which is almost a standard of deviation better than last years QB play (closer to 50%).

DeVito is clearly the best QB we've had in years- does he need to get better? yes. did he make some bad throws? yes. (and while placement could have been better IW had a really weirdly mistimed jump that led to a bump, set, INT on a silver platter)

its only 2 games but so far i have 0 doubt we are in a better position to win from QB position with him behind center c/w any other recent option (also, he wisely threw the ball away, converted multiple key 1st downs scrambling)
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One, sure he's better than Sitkowski (is/was) and Peters (was), but that's a low bar. Being "the best QB we've had in years" is nothing to brag about. Lol
Two, you can't grade out only looking at stats. Our whole passing game was almost entirely short easy to complete throws, a high % is expected. Devito's placement and touch on the ball weren't good. Several of the completions turned the receiver or took them out of stride leading to easier tackles and killing YAC. Of all the incompletions, Devito shares as much responsibility as the receivers do. My point being the dropped passes trope wasn't all on the receivers.
 
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#207      
BRucks
Illiniaaron said:
In regards to the officiating, I can understand missing calls in live action when you have 50 plus year old officials trying to keep up with the action of 18-22 year old football players. What I don’t get is the replay screw up. It was so obvious to any and all watching the game that it was a TD. How can you have that level of incompetence in the replay booth? Or is something else going on? Bizarre to me.
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It was clearly a catch. Even if the official contends that he later bobbled the ball, the receiver had regained control while still in bounds. The pass was completed twice, if you will.
 
#211      
phats22
1) agreed its a low bar. i was originally going to include that as a caveat in my first response but figured everyone on here would understand that. will be more explicit next time.

also, who are we supposed to compare him to? CJ Stroud? last year is where we are coming from and our first year with BB; i think it's a reasonable point to look at in evaluating anything with this team.

2) appreciate comment on stats, i only used those to support what my eyes saw (both individually and teamwise).

how did you grade it out? out of interest, i rewatched our offensive possessions and stand by my take- overwhelming majority of throws were on time/target, like could not have been thrown better, which included ~3-4 drops (maybe ~25). there were 2-3 a bit behind but easily catchable and then 2-3 bad throws and then a few throw aways.

to me, that's not 'off target and behind receivers on most of his throws' which is what you first stated and what i was responding to

still disagree with and confused by your last sentence

i'm with your frustration, personally i think there are other much lower hanging fruit to correct vs QB play but we all have different takes on it. hopefully everything gets better incrementally through the year

I L L
 
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#212      
GBIllini
Point-Illinois said:
It’s easy to wilt when you aren’t playing the defense you practice 90% of the time.

If there was 25 seconds left and IU had 90 yards to go, sure play prevent.

But taking our players out of their standard play style and letting the other team get momentum and flow with a series of dink and doink passes with over 2 minutes left is ridiculous.

It’s bitten us 3 separate times now that I can recall. STOP IT.
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You are right, Illinois played good defense most of the second half. Stopping the run and getting pressure on the quarterback making him rush his throws. Going to prevent at the end was the wrong call. Should have kept the pressure dialed up. Their quarterback got in a rhythm and picked them apart. Was a slow death for Illinois, sickening to watch.
 
#213      
illinibb76
Everything is about perspective. If that pass to Hightower was ruled a catch and touchdown and we won, then we would be saying we just need to clean up a few things and win next week. Yes, we did a few boneheaded things, but I think we tackle better, for the most part controlled the run and looked more like a BIG 10 team than we have in the past. The majority of the play calling was good, but we didn't always execute well or catch passes. Without Josh McCray we didn't have a power back which I think hurt us. I'm of the opinion that they and the coaches will regroup and play better football as the year progresses!
 
#214      
GBIllini
phats22 said:
No doubt, was responding more to the generalization of off target and behind receivers on most throws


And trying to highlight how much better 2-3 bad throws/game is c/w previous years (not putting down prior players vs what our current situation has been so far)


Frustrating loss for a program that excels at them but I feel better about this team through 2 weeks than at the same point last year
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I will take that level of quarterback play everyday vs what we have had to work with the past few years. He misses some here and there but overall has pretty good accuracy and good pocket awareness. Great to have a quarterback that we can use the whole play book with and expect reasonable results.
 
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#215      
chiefini
illinibb76 said:
Everything is about perspective. If that pass to Hightower was ruled a catch and touchdown and we won, then we would be saying we just need to clean up a few things and win next week. Yes, we did a few boneheaded things, but I think we tackle better, for the most part controlled the run and looked more like a BIG 10 team than we have in the past. The majority of the play calling was good, but we didn't always execute well or catch passes. Without Josh McCray we didn't have a power back which I think hurt us. I'm of the opinion that they and the coaches will regroup and play better football as the year progresses!
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Thanks, bb76. I feel better now after reading all eight pages of this thread, ending with your post. I still am really disappointed because the Illini should have and could have won this game, but I am hopeful again because I’m pretty sure that we have a solidly good team and coaching staff. If they feel as bad about this loss as I think they do, I’m guessing they will work hard on erasing those feelings by fixing those mistakes. I will be at the VA game, wearing my O&B, cheering them on.
:illinois:
 
#216      
Mr. Tibbs
will God , or if he/she chooses to delegate this to the football gods , just let us win 6-7 games this year and let us get firmly on the road to legitimacy again?
 
#217      
pruman91
BB said Hightower was adamant that he caught the ball and never deviated from that fact
I know that's what anyone would expect him to say
I still think it was a touchdown and I don't need further review.

I'm still upset with the prevent defense call.
Playing not to lose almost always ends up in a loss
Jmho
 
#218      
nichi
RML said:
To anyone one agonizing that going for it on fourth and one cost us the game, think about whether we would have even been in field goal range on the next drive, had Indiana's intervening drive started from the 25 (if we had gotten a field goal there), rather than at the one.
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That, and 3 more points is not enough. It was the right decision. The worst that happens is we give them terrible field field position. It was not a good play call.

I hope Whitman & BB raise some kind of stink over the biased incompetent officiating. It makes one wonder if there were something shady going on.
 
#219      
Homecoming 2019
pruman91 said:
BB said Hightower was adamant that he caught the ball and never deviated from that fact
I know that's what anyone would expect him to say
I still think it was a touchdown and I don't need further review.

I'm still upset with the prevent defense call.
Playing not to lose almost always ends up in a loss
Jmho
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The prevent defense call was mind boggling. I'm not sure I'll ever fully trust Walters again.
 
#225      
BillyBob1
jmwillini said:
I am not one to blame the officiating and we had other issues tonight which could have swung the result.. We have had some games, FB/BB where a call or two were cringe worthy. Generally, these offset calls we get. I can't even say for sure there weren't calls that should have gone IU's way, but as to HORRIFICALLY BAD calls, the non-roughing the QB call and the personal flop call were embarrassingly bad. I know that there are post game referee calls in the pros, I wish there were the same now in college football.

Dear BIG10, please try and explain these. I would bet you cant with a straight face, lol.
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There was another roughing call when Chase made the throw. He was hit in the head right after releasing the ball.
 
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