Wisconsin 27, Illinois 10 Postgame

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#176      
Yes, the defense has been disappointing. But the Oline play is the most baffling and disappointing. This was considered to be a strength this year.
It was absolutely painful to watch today. They were all a step slow and often not assignment sound. The tackles both stunk as WI DE's were in the backfield before Luke could set his feet to throw.

I don't know what happened, maybe they all went out Friday night and got blitzed? (Pun intended)

I'll agree with whoever called S&C into question as well. I don't see nearly enough development out of guys on this iteration of IL football. Recipe for disaster when paired with the lack of technique being taught in key areas.
 
#177      
Henry, Discher and Miller need to be finding new jobs this offseason … Period … End of story …

Absolutely pathetic …

And to say we should be happy with this ? GMAFB … Top 15 FB team … That’s the expectations this year … The expectations the PEOPLE IN THE PROGRAM set …

FAILURE …

And a LOT of people are investing their hard earned money into this and when the ROI isn’t there … They’re allowed to call it out …

These aren’t kids anymore … Stop protecting them … They want to cash these checks and put out crap effort and not care in return ??? Not how it works …

Changes need to be made … Bret knows this … He’ll get it done …

But holy cow is this freaking frustrating and just flat out UNACCEPTABLE !!!!!!!!

What’s interesting is we originally hired David Gibbs to coach db’s with Henry. He was a guy with experience calling a defense. He leaves for health reason and we pivot to Corey Parker
 
#178      
Can't speak on his relationships with the athletes, and it's hard to give him full credit for the kicking as Olano is one of the best in the nation, but I would argue that our coverage on special teams has been quite good under him and we're getting decent blocking on kick and punt returns. Prior to this game, Illinois was considered Top 5 in the B10 for most aspects of special teams. Not saying we can't find better, but I really think most of struggles on special teams that we've had this year can be boiled down to the long snapper, which is odd as Hansen has a ton of games under him. Could we get better than Discher? Possibly, but I don't think he's been bad coaching up special teams.

As for the Tight End production situation, I think there's a lot of blame to go around on that one. I don't think we as a whole have figured out we can use tight ends as receivers yet, though the last few games have been better on that front. Honestly, Lunney needs to consider leaking out TEs as a safety valve more often in next season's offense
They have to keep the TE's into block, to have any shot at throwing downfield. And honestly, our TE blocking is...not good. Much like the RB blocking on pass plays.

What I saw today was a team who came in thinking Luke would have time to throw. He did not. More alarming though is that we never did anything to adjust.
 
#181      
They had 92 yards passing and 209 rushing of which 84 was on one play. Why is everyone so down on the D? Now special teams and the O line I get as both were horrendous
 
#185      
It was absolutely painful to watch today. They were all a step slow and often not assignment sound. The tackles both stunk as WI DE's were in the backfield before Luke could set his feet to throw.

I don't know what happened, maybe they all went out Friday night and got blitzed? (Pun intended)

I'll agree with whoever called S&C into question as well. I don't see nearly enough development out of guys on this iteration of IL football. Recipe for disaster when paired with the lack of technique being taught in key areas.

The oline looks fat and slow
 
#188      
While last night wasn't good, I am just glad that we are at a point where 7-4 is a dissapointing season. I have gone years without seeing this. Usually we are celebrating this record. Brett has raised the standard for Illinois football. I feel good that whatever changes that NEED to be made will and over-reactions won't set us back.
 
#189      
Following Illini football for almost 50 years I feel like I’m consistently in a movie similar to Groundhog Day. No matter how hard you want to wake up to a different narrative it ends up being the same. It still may happen, but man it is so frustrating.
 
#190      
Think we need to admit we don’t have the level of talent and athleticism we need to take the next step.
Luke has really played well but is often limited due to poor line play and no other real stars to line up with.
Love Hank but honestly other BIG coaches don’t have to scheme for him. He’s not an imposing speed guy and doesn’t have the size to be a 50/50 guy. The other WR’s - decent but not threatening.
Valentines is our best back in terms of being a real threat in my opinion. Even at his size he seems to get more tough yards than anyone else due to low pad and serious leg drive and he has the burst to run away. His limitation is the same as Luke - O-Line.
Defense? Just nothing good to say unfortunately. Jacas hasn’t had a great year and no one else seems to stand out. We don’t tackle well at all and have a noticeable lack of team speed.
I too get frustrated with our offensive play calling and defensive scheme and assume Coach will do what he feels best in the off season, but we won’t take a step forward from 7-8 wins without the right Jimmy’s and Joe’s. I wouldn’t have complained about that a few years ago but we’ve gotten a taste of what it feels like and I want to be greedy!

I was already going to comment separately but it what world has Jacas not had a good year? He came into the game 3rd in the conference in sacks and was out there trying to be a one man wrecking crew last night. He had two sacks, a forced fumble, and had at least two plays where he stuffed the run right at the line by himself.
 
#191      
Had a bad feeling going into this game and it played out even worse than I could have imagined. This was Wisconsin’s Super Bowl based on the history, and they played like it.

Offense: F
Defense: F
Special Teams: F-

There’s your recipe for a horrible loss.

Beat NW and 8-4 is still a good season but that game is no gimme either. We’ll see which team shows up.
 
#192      
While last night wasn't good, I am just glad that we are at a point where 7-4 is a dissapointing season. I have gone years without seeing this. Usually we are celebrating this record. Brett has raised the standard for Illinois football. I feel good that whatever changes that NEED to be made will and over-reactions won't set us back.

What’s disappointing to me is how bad we have looked against Indiana, Washington and Wisconsin.
 
#193      
I was already going to comment separately but it what world has Jacas not had a good year? He came into the game 3rd in the conference in sacks and was out there trying to be a one man wrecking crew last night. He had two sacks, a forced fumble, and had at least two plays where he stuffed the run right at the line by himself.

I like that Gabe has become the scapegoat. He has 8 sacks and teams are game planning for him. He’s also being asked to drop into coverage
 
#194      
No, it’s time for Josh to make decisions and they are not tough. This is Arkansas redo with Bret. Build to a point and it all craters after that. His slow developing ball control offense is old school. We need a dynamic HC who will play aggressive just like IU has. I do not know if Bret will change to be that aggressive. It’s not his style. I am not sure we regressed this year or three wins last year which could have been loses is the reality. Michigan beat themselves, we were a failed 2 point conversion from losing the Purdue game and the Rutgers game was complete luck. We were 10-3 with a 7-6 team. We just haven’t had the luck we had last year and reality has not only hit the fans but the players as well. I do not see anyway we beat NW next week. They threw 38 points up against Minny yesterday and they shut Michigans offense down and almost won that game. They will come hungry to beat us and I do not see how we respond after this disaster last night.
 
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#195      
Think we need to admit we don’t have the level of talent and athleticism we need to take the next step.
Luke has really played well but is often limited due to poor line play and no other real stars to line up with.
Love Hank but honestly other BIG coaches don’t have to scheme for him. He’s not an imposing speed guy and doesn’t have the size to be a 50/50 guy. The other WR’s - decent but not threatening.
Valentines is our best back in terms of being a real threat in my opinion. Even at his size he seems to get more tough yards than anyone else due to low pad and serious leg drive and he has the burst to run away. His limitation is the same as Luke - O-Line.
Defense? Just nothing good to say unfortunately. Jacas hasn’t had a great year and no one else seems to stand out. We don’t tackle well at all and have a noticeable lack of team speed.
I too get frustrated with our offensive play calling and defensive scheme and assume Coach will do what he feels best in the off season, but we won’t take a step forward from 7-8 wins without the right Jimmy’s and Joe’s. I wouldn’t have complained about that a few years ago but we’ve gotten a taste of what it feels like and I want to be greedy!

We have a good wr room but we don’t have a stud that can take over a game like Pat could.
 
#196      
Think we need to admit we don’t have the level of talent and athleticism we need to take the next step.
Luke has really played well but is often limited due to poor line play and no other real stars to line up with.
Love Hank but honestly other BIG coaches don’t have to scheme for him. He’s not an imposing speed guy and doesn’t have the size to be a 50/50 guy. The other WR’s - decent but not threatening.
Valentines is our best back in terms of being a real threat in my opinion. Even at his size he seems to get more tough yards than anyone else due to low pad and serious leg drive and he has the burst to run away. His limitation is the same as Luke - O-Line.
Defense? Just nothing good to say unfortunately. Jacas hasn’t had a great year and no one else seems to stand out. We don’t tackle well at all and have a noticeable lack of team speed.
I too get frustrated with our offensive play calling and defensive scheme and assume Coach will do what he feels best in the off season, but we won’t take a step forward from 7-8 wins without the right Jimmy’s and Joe’s. I wouldn’t have complained about that a few years ago but we’ve gotten a taste of what it feels like and I want to be greedy!
Jacas is double-teamed and triple-teamed every play. How can he be effective? It’s up to the coordinator to put him in positions to be successful. That’s not happening.
 
#197      
I’d forgotten what it feels like to lose convincingly from the opening bell to the end to a team not as good as your own

it’s not good
I'm sorry, but what bothers me most is that we lost to a better team. That coaching staff can coach and get the most out of the players they have. Our coaches seem to get the least out of the players they have.
 
#198      
Henry, Discher and Miller need to be finding new jobs this offseason … Period … End of story …

Absolutely pathetic …

And to say we should be happy with this ? GMAFB … Top 15 FB team … That’s the expectations this year … The expectations the PEOPLE IN THE PROGRAM set …

FAILURE …

And a LOT of people are investing their hard earned money into this and when the ROI isn’t there … They’re allowed to call it out …

These aren’t kids anymore … Stop protecting them … They want to cash these checks and put out crap effort and not care in return ??? Not how it works …

Changes need to be made … Bret knows this … He’ll get it done …

But holy cow is this freaking frustrating and just flat out UNACCEPTABLE !!!!!!!!
Feel the worst for Luke.

He was loyal to the program and turned down more $ for the staff to put a mediocre OL & no D around him.
 
#199      
They had 92 yards passing and 209 rushing of which 84 was on one play. Why is everyone so down on the D? Now special teams and the O line I get as both were horrendous
Because I think they only averaged 115 rushing all year. But yes all three phases were bad.
 
#200      
No, it’s time for Josh to make decisions and they are not tough. This is Arkansas redo with Bret. Build to a point and it all craters after that. His slow developing ball control offense is old school. We need a dynamic HC who will play aggressive just like IU has. I do not know if Bret will change to be that aggressive. It’s not his style. I am not sure we regressed this year or three wins last year which could have been loses is the reality. Michigan beat themselves, we were a failed 2 point conversion from losing the Purdue game and the Rutgers game was complete luck. We were 10-3 with a 7-6 team. We just haven’t had the luck we had last year and reality has not only hit the fans but the players as well. I do not see anyway we beat NW next week. They threw 38 points up against Minny yesterday and they shut Michigans offense down and almost won that game. They will come hungry to beat us and I do not see how we respond after this disaster last night.
I'm upset, disappointed, frustrated, dejected - all the adjectives - about last night. That said, even if northwestern were to beat us by 20+ at home, we are not making a HC change. This take (not you - so not a personal attack) is bananas. We all remember what IL football history has been over the last 20 years, right? BB continues to be the guy to lead us into the future. He's not perfect but he's well above average, and we couldn't get anyone nearly as good as him at this point in time if Josh were to fire him. Some may say, well - yeah, but Josh is the best AD in the country and people want to work for/with him. I agree with that, but one of the reasons he's the best AD in the country is that he's not going to fire BB.

There are other parts of your post that I disagree with as well
-slow developing ball control offense is not what I've seen this year.
-wins are wins rather lucky or not. Sometimes a team benefits from that and other times not. Most of us tend to think that we get the short end of the stick on calls/replays/etc, but even if that's just homer-bias we're certainly not consistently getting the benefit so much that we are winning games we shouldn't due to outside factors.. You can't argue both ways.

I also think we all probably envisioned this team being something beyond what it is/was capable of being. We were always a team with a 6 win floor and 9 win ceiling and had no legitimate business being in any CFP discussion. I'd say the same was true last year. If that is actually true, then last year we very much outperformed (maybe due to some lucky bounces), and this year we are tracking with about where we should be.

The good news is BB is still an above average coach, and we have increased talent coming in that we haven't seen the likes of since the Zook days. I'd like to see some changes in the support staff, but firing BB is just beyond the pale and should not even be part of the discussion because it's just not going to happen.
 
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