I totally agree defensively we going to have to make some changes. Dial up more blitzes
Penn State 63, Illinois 24 POSTGAME
I totally agree defensively we going to have to make some changes. Dial up more blitzes
t7nich
- Central IL
Just finished watching the game.
1. Refs were absolutely piss poor on multiple occasions, not that it really would have mattered in the end. But they should be embarrassed by some of those calls.
2. Great effort by our players and coaches through 3 quarters.
3. Cant wait for I. Williams!
1. Refs were absolutely piss poor on multiple occasions, not that it really would have mattered in the end. But they should be embarrassed by some of those calls.
2. Great effort by our players and coaches through 3 quarters.
3. Cant wait for I. Williams!
Perhaps the best 40 point loss in the history of college football.
I think the lack of depth really showed - from the WRs we are forced to use due to injury to the defensive line (where you rotate players in and out) getting pushed around.
I am not sure I hand RIvers the starting QB spot now. If Bush gives us a better chance of winning games, I say play him. I like what I have seen from Rivers, but it is not enough that I am convinced he'll be our starter next year with Williams coming in and the other guys we have. I say play for the wins this year.
Comparing us vs. App State is silly, if you want to compare last night to a week 1 game compare it to Illinois v. Kent State. For 3 quarters we looked a lot better than we did at any point in that game.
This is progress. 4th quarter was ugly, but the first 3 were even with a top 10 team.
I think the lack of depth really showed - from the WRs we are forced to use due to injury to the defensive line (where you rotate players in and out) getting pushed around.
I am not sure I hand RIvers the starting QB spot now. If Bush gives us a better chance of winning games, I say play him. I like what I have seen from Rivers, but it is not enough that I am convinced he'll be our starter next year with Williams coming in and the other guys we have. I say play for the wins this year.
Comparing us vs. App State is silly, if you want to compare last night to a week 1 game compare it to Illinois v. Kent State. For 3 quarters we looked a lot better than we did at any point in that game.
This is progress. 4th quarter was ugly, but the first 3 were even with a top 10 team.
Well, our terrible D kept them at 3 touchdowns through the middle of the 3rd, so there's that. But our lack of competent depth was glaringly obvious after. Our guys looked exhausted, just don't have the able bodies to rotate in, plus all those freshmen, and sophs even, just lack the physical maturity to bang for four quarters with a big physical team like PSU.
On the plus side, we now have 2 competent quarterbacks. They may not be world beaters, but they're a huge improvement over last year. And I think MJ's future is bright. He can really sling it, and you can see the wheels starting to turn on his decision making, which improved even from last week to this week.
On the plus side, we now have 2 competent quarterbacks. They may not be world beaters, but they're a huge improvement over last year. And I think MJ's future is bright. He can really sling it, and you can see the wheels starting to turn on his decision making, which improved even from last week to this week.
Went to game..stayed until 49-24. Most of my observations have been posted but I will indulge myself with a few,
1. Carmoni Green has potential. One bad play when he tried to do too much but looked like he could make plays.
2. Special teams are consistently good. Limited their returns. Our returns are not good, preventing an A grade here.
3. Rivers has played about as well as you could hope for as a true frosh. Gets the plays off, pretty good arm, fair runner..holds the ball too long.
4. Defense was awful. It was awful vs So Fla also. Can't just blame Nickerson. Defense is Lovies expertise. I thought Lovie was a good hire and am supportive of him but if he thinks he can line up in a vanilla defense with mediocre talent and be competitive, he won't be around long. College offenses are too sophisticated and too good.
1. Carmoni Green has potential. One bad play when he tried to do too much but looked like he could make plays.
2. Special teams are consistently good. Limited their returns. Our returns are not good, preventing an A grade here.
3. Rivers has played about as well as you could hope for as a true frosh. Gets the plays off, pretty good arm, fair runner..holds the ball too long.
4. Defense was awful. It was awful vs So Fla also. Can't just blame Nickerson. Defense is Lovies expertise. I thought Lovie was a good hire and am supportive of him but if he thinks he can line up in a vanilla defense with mediocre talent and be competitive, he won't be around long. College offenses are too sophisticated and too good.
I'm not sure if our ST will win us a game, but I am very confident they won't lose any. Our kickers are completely taking away other team's return games. Definitely could be more dynamic on our own returns.
But at this point, having a whole unit we can trust is a huge step forward.
This season's team is clearly an improvement over what we've seen in recent years. The athletes are more talented and some (not all) of the coaching is better. Yet, they all need to keep working hard. There are still too many mental errors, poor fundamentals, and occasionally a lack of focus. The wins will come if progress can be made in these areas.
The piece that's missing in a lot of this analysis is that Penn State played very, very poorly.
They were not a top 10 quality team in that game.
They were not a top 10 quality team in that game.
Not sure how you can say that. If you say they played poorly on defense, maybe so. On offense, they seemed to get 10 yards or more on 75% of the plays. So are you saying they should have beat us 63 to 7?
I’d have to agree to disagree after watching Georgia, Alabama, Notre Dame, and West Virginia play today . . .
McSorley didn't throw the ball very well at all. We could have given up even more. We were completely helpless throughout on D.
Not to say that we didn't have encouraging moments, but unlike some comments here I think the final score is an accurate reflection of the game that was played.
We will need to improve on defense to win another game this year. We can and should do that.
Deleted member 29907
D
Guest
He had a 63% completion rate - his highest of the season and above his career average - not sure what you're pointing to - but according to stats he threw pretty well. According to his normal, he had a stellar day. He missed open people because, he misses open people at times.
I'm seeing the foundation being built, need to continue to improve over this year and next. We have non-RS fresh/soph going against upperclassmen.
Lovie and staff are ID great 3 star talent, too many of those players playing well above their ranking imho.
Will some of the athletic/lean DEs be converted to LBs as we build our depth next year?
Lovie and staff are ID great 3 star talent, too many of those players playing well above their ranking imho.
Will some of the athletic/lean DEs be converted to LBs as we build our depth next year?
Sanders is a horse too - the Illini won't see many RB of his skill the rest of the season.
This hardly warrants an exclamation point. Too bad there isn't punctuation for a yawn.
Allow me to fill your half empty cup to half full. Except for the near misses to close last season (38 and 35 point defeats), a 39 point loss (or greater) has been an annual event since 2012, so while the points given up is exceptional, the loss is not. (And in case you forgot, Illinois went to a bowl game in 2014.) Additionally, this was the third game this season where Illinois has scored 24 points or more, something the Illini could only do twice all of last season, and only four times each during the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Most of the Chicago people couldn't be down for the 230 PM game in Chicago either, so not sure that's relevant to a Friday night game in Champaign....
illini80
- Forgottonia
I didn't see the 4th quarter so maybe that's why I'm not as negative as some others. We don't have the horses to stay with a team like Penn State so the fact that we wore down and collapsed in the 4th quarter is not really surprising. Alabama does that every week to teams. Wear them down and then bury them. I was really encouraged by a lot of things I saw that gave me hope for the future. Not right now, but the future. I predicted 5 wins and that was and is a stretch, but until we lose to teams we should beat I'm staying optimistic.
illini80
- Forgottonia
Interesting, but seems unlikely. AJ would have to be able to take every snap except for mop up time. Hard to imagine they would use a 3rd QB in a crunch situation just to preserve a red shirt.
I’d like to see AJ back just because I feel he gives us the best chance to win now. We need winning momentum in the program to push recruiting forward.
If I’m a coach I don’t put a ton of stock in the redshirt game count. If the player is good enough to contribute for 4 games, let him play out when it helps the team. If that is more injury fill in time for Bush, splitting snaps, or taking over if AJ is playi bad so be it. In this era of grad transfers it is a coin flip if we even keep the player in our program for year #5. Especially at QB where generally just 1 sees the field you can’t count on anything that far in the future
This is without question true, but I'd like to gently reply that some of that had to do with how our defense was performing in the first half. "Forced turnovers" are forced. By the defense, by definition. Like the fumble caused by the hit on the reciever. That was not a luck thing - that is plainly a method of tackling designed to pop the ball out.
But yes, once McSwirly and Sanders put the team on their backs and willed the team to play like the #10 team that they are, we were once again who we thought we were.
Illiniaaron
- Geneseo, IL
This really doesn't make me feel any better...:noidea:
I wonder if the defensive plan is to keep it vanilla...maybe for most of the year??? Since the team is young, maybe just trying to teach base scheme and get everyone in the right place, learn to read and react to different situations? Once that is in place, then can play off of base def. limited amount of time to teach def, compared to nfl, so maybe it is taking a few years to teach the base package with youth of last year and this year.
I understand the idea, but this is the 3rd year in the system and 2nd or 3rd year for the starters. Also, the defense was markedly better last year. The step back is obvious and very concerning.