Pregame: Illinois at Oregon, Saturday, October 26th, 2:30pm CT, CBS

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#76      
Second place is 1st loser
There's absolutely no pressure on any of the coordinators in this one. We don't have an advantage at ANY position on the field. Not one. From a personnel standpoint, we will be completely outclassed, thus the 21.5 point spread. To close this gap will require significantly better recruiting and that's on BB.

If anything, Lunney has to figure out a way to slow the game down, which means run the ball, which falls on the offensive line and the defense has to find a way to mitigate the enormous speed and athleticism gap.

He'll have to dial up 5 or more touchdowns? C'mon. I hope sarcasm is built into this.
 
#78      
gary?
GoDucks349 said:
I see the spread is at 21.5, personally I think that's way too high. Illinois is 6-1 with a tough loss to a good Penn St team on the road and with wins over ranked Nebraska, Michigan and Kansas. I don't think you're getting the respect you deserve and have earned. Looking forward to seeing you guys in Autzen this coming Saturday. Plus you have a very good coach
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only thing giving me hope is that against a common opponent that we played in consecutive weeks, purdue, we had very similar first half results.
i don’t think anyone really knows what happened in the second half of our game against them, but i see it’s marked as a win.
 
#79      
JFGsCoffeeMug
It's going to feel a little weird when we drop Oregon from the rankings.

Joking April Fools GIF by Katelyn Tarver
 
#89      
New Creation
Paying Oregon is going to be like Purdue in the 2nd half times 100.

I said this during the Michigan game but the best thing in hindsight that could have happen to this D was that second half against Purdue. Why? It show’d what happens if this team isn’t lasers focused. Also, Oregon runs a lot of what Purdue was doing in the second half.
 
#90      
RabidDawgClassic
New Creation said:
Paying Oregon is going to be like Purdue in the 2nd half times 100.

I said this during the Michigan game but the best thing in hindsight that could have happen to this D was that second half against Purdue. Why? It show’d what happens if this team isn’t lasers focused. Also, Oregon runs a lot of what Purdue was doing in the second half.
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I can’t help but buy into some of the claims that Purdue, in the second half, was reading Illinois’ signs. That half was such an anomaly to what we’ve otherwise seen out of our defense this year that it wouldn’t be a stretch to think the Boilers were dialed in on what we were doing. Add to this the familiarity between the staffs, Reggie Love spotted wearing headsets and Michigan (of all teams) having accused Walters of stealing their signs and it’s certainly a reasonable hypothesis.
 
#93      
Illinijoe
One Man Fast Break said:
Illinois is 45th in SP+.

65th offense, 32nd defense, 8th special teams

Oregon is 5th in SP+.

2nd offense, 20th defense, 27th special teams

Going to be a BIG underdog in Eugene. Can't foresee a win, but hopefully they can keep it competitive.
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Who saw a win in 2007 against 10-0 OSU!? Of course stat wise no one has this as a win. Then again who had vandy over Alabama?
 
#97      
illini.watcher
I swear, the bookies refuse to give the Illini any respect! 21 points? That's what they're calling for Oregon? I could see the 3- to 4-point call from this past weekend as a repeat, even a 7-point call, but bookmakers think the Ducks will outscore Bielema, Altmyer and company by THREE FREAKIN' TD'S?? C'mon, guys...
 
#98      
CogDog
I live and work in Eugene. The majority of my clients are Ducks fans and know that I am a massive Illinois fan. At the beginning of the season, I had clients promise me they’d sell me their Ducks tickets to the Illinois game. Now that we are ranked and a potential threat, they’ve rescinded their promise and are going to the game; leaving me pissed and ticketless*! Needless to say, I hope we stun Eugene and the Ducks this upcoming weekend.

*Don’t worry. I bought basketball tickets.

Feel free to reach out if you need suggestions for restaurants and other things to do in the area.
 
#99      
SeattleSlim
CogDog said:
I live and work in Eugene. The majority of my clients are Ducks fans and know that I am a massive Illinois fan. At the beginning of the season, I had clients promise me they’d sell me their Ducks tickets to the Illinois game. Now that we are ranked and a potential threat, they’ve rescinded their promise and are going to the game; leaving me pissed and ticketless*! Needless to say, I hope we stun Eugene and the Ducks this upcoming weekend.

*Don’t worry. I bought basketball tickets.

Feel free to reach out if you need suggestions for restaurants and other things to do in the area.
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Never trust a duck.
 
#100      
aaeismacgychel
GoDucks349 said:
I see the spread is at 21.5, personally I think that's way too high. Illinois is 6-1 with a tough loss to a good Penn St team on the road and with wins over ranked Nebraska, Michigan and Kansas. I don't think you're getting the respect you deserve and have earned. Looking forward to seeing you guys in Autzen this coming Saturday. Plus you have a very good coach
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For me, the 21.5pt spread feels about right in this one despite our record. Based on the advanced stats around this team, anything between a 17 to 24 point win for Oregon seems to be the most probable result. Gut feel is there might be a little bit of a betting push to put the spread down to 20.5 but again, I think the spread is pretty fair.

As for the why, while I do think our team is constructed in a manner that can cause certain teams problems, especially those that rely on lower possession games and whose strengths are more geared towards testing the secondary and using slower power backs and having a traditional pocket passer. I see our Achilles heel as teams that can stress our LBs, have speed, and can stretch the field. As such, I just see Oregon as a nightmare matchup for us. Our team is on the slower side on defense in the B10 and has shown issues with both gaps and containment when forced to account for multiple attack options and a mobile quarterback. Soooo it's going to be tough.

I do think we have a very accurate QB with 2 WRs that will be playing Sundays, and I think our OC will have a bounceback game after calling a bizarre one against Michigan (gut feel is once we had the lead, he was told that whatever he calls he better make sure we don't turn the ball over) so I think we can possibly surprise you a bit and put up some points on that side of the ball, but really, I think the only real chance we have in this game is if this is the game your team just comes out sluggish for. I don't think it's likely to happen with a ranked team coming in, but I have seen Oregon have an off game in seasons past. Where they just seem to struggle firing off the snap. If that happens, we'll have our shot but otherwise:

Oregon 45
Illinois 20

Hope I'm wrong as I have been most of this truly magical season
 
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