Mississippi State 19, Illinois 10 Postgame

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#178      

Bbuck21

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Bbuck21
altgeld88 said:
It's a (quasi) holiday at the beginning of January and I spent the afternoon watching the Illini in contention until the final seconds to win a marquee bowl game. I haven't been able to experience that since January 1, 1989 when we beat Virginia in the Citrus Bowl.

This season was a great gift to Illini fans. Thanks to the players and coaches for giving it to us. Thanks to TDV for choosing us and giving his all this year. Thanks to Ryan Walters and his staff for developing that stonewall D and holding opponents to 12.8 ppg on average. Thanks to Chase, Sydney, Devon and all the guys for their Herculean efforts. I can't recall the last time I was as proud of an Illini football team as I was in Ann Arbor on Nov. 19. It has been many years.

Let's do what we need to do to keep BB, and to continue building on what has been remarkable progress in two years. Compared with what I expected in August to unfold this season, what we enjoyed was spectacular. It's difficult articulately to express the extent of my gratitude to these guys for the thrills, enjoyment, and sense of Illini community they gave us.

:illinois:
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This season of Illini football was truly a wonderful surprise for me. It brought me back from many years of apathy. I wold have liked to see diffeent results (duh!)..... I was at the Iowa game and said to another fan, 'Where did this come from?" I'm happy and more excited about the future than I have been in 40 years.
 
#179      

Bbuck21

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Bbuck21
dbeaverfg said:
Probably poor wording on my part. He doesn't look like he can make the first tackler miss. Run over him, maybe. Chase, and to a lesser extent Love, look more able to get through lesser holes than McCray. (Having said this, I do love McCray being on this roster. Just need to have the right plays called for him).
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I just felt like he wasn't ready for the speed of a game. He was not hitting holes quickly. Looked tentative or searching for gaps too much. Next year, he'll be what we saw last year.
 
#186      

stevej64

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stevej64
Bbuck21 said:
Too many times he stayed in the pocket and did not run through gaps available. Even if he just had positive yardage it would have been better. He did that all year, but not today. It makes the defense make adjustments. Other plays become more successful. I saw it early and there was never an adjustment. Just my opinion.
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He's been doing that last 5 or 6 games. He totally quit scrambling for first downs or long runs.
 
#188      

Dkayak

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Dkayak
Certainly no blowout. We were in it to the end. Imagine “what if” had that foot had landed clearly outside the end zone for example (or had been called incomplete and upheld for lack of clear evidence). That reminds me, I’m also grateful for the excellent officiating, a breath of fresh air after a season of BIG clowns in striped shirts.
 
#189      

NoRival

NoRival
NoRival
Dkayak said:
Certainly no blowout. We were in it to the end. Imagine “what if” had that foot had landed clearly outside the end zone for example (or had been called incomplete and upheld for lack of clear evidence). That reminds me, I’m also grateful for the excellent officiating, a breath of fresh air after a season of BIG clowns in striped shirts.
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These refs were far from excellent
 
#190      

lexwaldez

lexwaldez
lexwaldez
jjniner said:
My 2 cents! SEC depth showed out front and center! It will come for us, but we need to stack 3-4 good recruiting classes. The just flat wore us out. Had no issue with him not blitzing a lot, was trying to protect the freshman DB’s, who I thought played extremely well.
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I can get behind this. That's a good take. I am looking forward to seeing how the new staff and young players shake out. It was a fun year!
 
#191      

Warren Carter Fanclub

Warren Carter Fanclub
Warren Carter Fanclub
Bbuck21 said:
MsSt ONLY scored 13 points!
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We got 0 sacks and it seemed like the QB had all day. Would have been nice to mix in a blitz once in a while. I understand that we were missing 2 important pieces but secondary can't hold coverage indefinitely. Maybe they only score 7. Who knows?
We were sacked 7 times.
 
#193      

illini0440

illini0440
illini0440
Warren Carter Fanclub said:
We got 0 sacks and it seemed like the QB had all day. Would have been nice to mix in a blitz once in a while. I understand that we were missing 2 important pieces but secondary can't hold coverage indefinitely. Maybe they only score 7. Who knows?
We were sacked 7 times.
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We blitzed occasionally. Ball is normally out fairly quickly in the Air Raid so a lot of drop 7 and 8 on coverage
 
#194      

foby

foby
Bonnaroo Land
foby
Redbull said:
You’re a 18-20 year old kid playing in a bowl game on national tv and you’re not going to run with a fumble? Really
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Eh. It's way past it's expiration date, so it is what it is.
 
#195      

Illini John

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Illini John
The game today was a disappointing way to end the season, but overall, this was a terrific season for Illini football given our recent past. These guys made it fun to watch the games again and gave us a bowl game to watch in January for the first time in a long time. I don't think we could ask for anything more of this team and I am grateful for all their efforts this season.

Having said that, the team that played for us today was not the team that got us into this bowl game. We were missing the #4 running back in the entire nation and started three freshmen in the secondary because were missing two absolute studs on defense in Witherspoon and Sydney Brown. When I look at how tight the final score was, how unproductive our offense was and some of the key plays that led to our loss (for example, with Witherspoon and Sydney Brown in, we are probably not even talking about "was his foot in or out?"), I am convinced that we would have come away with a bowl game win if we had our full 2022 Illini roster for the game (and maybe or Defensive Coordinator too?).

The problem is, I can't blame the players for opting out. It makes total sense for them financially to avoid the risk of injury. But this is going to be a real problem for every bowl team and every bowl game from now on. Some teams are going to be going to bowl games without their stars and it is going to lead to less productive offenses, less intimidating defenses and more disappointing results for half the fans in the stands. And if fans start to feel like bowl games aren't as good without the star players and don't mean as much, then attendance and viewership will decline. And that isn't good for NCAA football.

Anyway, congratulations and thank you to Coach Bielema, the staff and the players for a great Illini football season!
 
#197      

aaeismacgychel

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aaeismacgychel
Bbuck21 said:
I just felt like he wasn't ready for the speed of a game. He was not hitting holes quickly. Looked tentative or searching for gaps too much. Next year, he'll be what we saw last year.
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I think that's the main issue I saw with McCray this year. Injury could indeed be a part of it, but when you're set up to be more of a power back, you have to hit the holes harder than he is. He ran with similar patience to Chase (or perhaps tentativeness), but he doesn't have the same nimbleness, agility, or cuts so he had a hard time getting past the line of scrimmage. Hopefully this was due to not trusting his body because of the injury, but if not, then I do think there are some concerns on whether his running style is a productive fit for his body type and team role. Definitely something to keep an eye on for next year as we really do need a short yardage power back to go along with Love's shiftiness.
 
#198      

aaeismacgychel

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aaeismacgychel
Warren Carter Fanclub said:
We got 0 sacks and it seemed like the QB had all day. Would have been nice to mix in a blitz once in a while. I understand that we were missing 2 important pieces but secondary can't hold coverage indefinitely. Maybe they only score 7. Who knows?
We were sacked 7 times.
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Truth is when we blitzed, Rogers was quick and accurate with the ball to his hot route. Just really good accuracy and timing. I don't think blitzing would've helped us all that much in this one. Frankly the drop coverage was fairly effective for a half. Rogers was able to start figuring it out in the 2nd half, but our D was worn down as well by that point. Really we needed more pressure out of a four or five man front, but we did seem pretty hesitant to put our CBs on any sort of island, and understandably so. And again, we held a team that scores over 30ppg to 13, so we honestly came in with a great gameplan and played really well. We needed more offense. And we shot ourselves in the foot on that end one too many times. Simple as that.
 
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