Pregame: Illinois vs Virginia, Saturday, September 10th, 3:00pm CT, ESPNU
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Yeah, but we were able to run against Indiana and still only scored 20 points
TheFlyingIllini1317
- Chicago, IL
Fixing our turnovers, and penalties goes a long way to scoring more than 20 next time.
Right. IU didn't win the game as much as we lost it. If we win this next one, we are on the pace we were hoping for. VA, Neb, NW, and Iowa all looked beatable. (Can't believe I feel that way about Iowa). Everything went about as Indiana's way as they could have hoped for and we still should have won. Not every game is going to be that way. We are a middle of the road team and will loose some we shouldn't then win some we shouldn't. I believe this coaching staff is competent enough to make the adjustments. Just please no more prevent when dominating a team like you were in the second half!
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
BB said in a presser that he is out till after the first bye week , and maybe longer ....But he also said he didn't think it was a season ending injury...........
Not two RBs, leading rusher was QB and he the same QB from last year. He is a crafty veteran that looks like he could be trouble if we aren't disciplined.
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True, but with 6 penalties for 65 yards in game 1 and 8 for 81 in game two, I’m not seeing a trend that screams penalties “gonna be fixed.”
illini80
- Forgottonia
I think we were the least penalized team in the B10 last year. I was hoping that’s going to be a hallmark of BB’s tenure. After 2 games this season it looks like we are moving back to the average. If we are going to make a bowl, it has to happen. As we just saw, we don’t have the margin for error to survive penalties and turnovers.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
That guy dominated us like no other TE I can recall.
Next game vs UVA - more throws to Hightower and Bryant. Those guys are playmakers. Good things happen when we pass them the ball. That will also help to diversify and strengthen our offense with more big plays. Also would like to see a couple more plays to TE Riemann.
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
I wonder why Laughery was mentioned as potentially getting some touches ahead of Jordan Anderson. With McCray out, JA fills that big back profile, unlike the other guys in the room - Love, Hayden, Laughery.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Practice performance dictates playing time.......
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
yup
one wonders if some of the guys down the depth chart have a hard time holding on to the ball with big time contact . it’s all I can think of
A lot of understandable frustration regarding Groce on the board, but “players play players” is one of the truest things he ever said.
This is progress. In a year or two we don't beat ourselves. It's heartbreaking now, but an early season where the refs cheated us and we beat ourselves is something that we should and will fix throughout the year. 5-7 or 6-6 where we don't get blown out is a success for this year.
Next year is the first year not making a bowl game is a complete failure.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Sorry, it's not. It's backsliding. We didn't throw games away like that last year, and won similar stalemate-y grinds against better teams a couple times.
A couple of irrationally conservative coaching calls cost us chances at wins last year, but we didn't beat ourselves with repeated on-field mistakes like that once.
Just in case you didn’t remember, last year was 2021. Take a look at our games last year. We did this exact same thing against Maryland and Purdue, and you could argue that we blew several chances to beat UTSA and Rutgers. We absolutely made a number of mistakes last year, including weak prevent defense at the end of games. I’m not happy that it happened again this year, but your statement is outrageous.
I think it is we were never in a position to beat ourselves least year. Except for maybe 1 or 2 games last year we were the worse team on the field by a decent margin. When you're the underdog you can't beat yourself you just meet expectations. This time we clearly were a better team and beat ourselves. Maybe scheme and mentality wise it isn't a step forward but actually being more talented than another B1G team is a huge step forward IMO. I have faith that we eliminate the turnovers through the year and our defense makes less stupid penalties as the year goes on. Similar to last year Walters is still figuring out what works for this group and will figure out how to get us to the point where we don't mentally beat ourselves of defense.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
2021 Maryland game - Illinois had a 97.2% win expectancy early in the 4th quarter and a 95.1% with less than five minutes remaining.
2021 Purdue game - Illinois had a 68.2% win expectancy early in the 4th quarter.
2021 Rutgers game - Illinois had a 66.5% win expectancy at the start of the 4th quarter.
I can understand the argument that the Purdue and Rutgers games were still very contentious but you cannot explain away the Maryland game. Complete meltdown. All of the talk about UTSA game being the difference for a bowl game when it really was the last five minutes of Maryland.
aiwpfan
- Springfield, Il
That's interesting.
Very interesting. Must be the result of the ol' "It's hard to win your first away game" adage.
Any word on Pearl? He was missed last Friday.
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