Illinois 21, Michigan 7 Postgame
Warms the heart knowing scUM fans got a taste of bitter defeatThe State Of Our Open Threads: After Illinois | mgoblog
In the confines of my suburban Detroit living room yesterday, I watched with increasing unease as a defending national champion played football in Champaign, Illinois, at the rededication of a field on which, a century before, Red Grange had led the Illini to a win over, well, Michigan. At 7 PM...mgoblog.com
Hilarious. @Fighter of the Nightman you've been called to the mat...
Just living in 1924 was a lot (repeat: A LOT) tougher... Life expectancy was barely over 50 in those days...
X 1000
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Right on my DC brother. Apologies if others have said it: that CBS intro and the job that Nessler and Danielson did yesterday, as well as the complete halftime verbal carpet bombing of Michigan's yakkety sax-like offensive performance in the 1H that the studio panel lit up, amounted to a 3-1/2 hour free infomercial for our program. It was an absolute gift and, for the CBS team, clearly a labor of love.
That intro was unlike anything I've seen in watching 50 years of college ball. A lot of football fans around the country learned something about our glorious monument to wartime sacrifice, RG's historic performance torching an entitled Michigan team (some things never change), and how fun our team is to watch as it took down the winningest program in college football history. During the game thread others noted how awesome it was to see those aerial shots of a full MemStad painted orange on an immaculate fall day. It was indeed. And those unis. Chills. Good chills
A personal, note: 41 seasons ago on two October Saturdays in 1983 I listened to and then watched, successively, the Illini top OSU and then Michigan in Champaign for the first time since the '60s. The Saturday afternoon of the Michigan game I'd just received my admission offer to UIUC and knew, after my September campus visit when I fell in love with the campus and the Big Sky of EC Illinois, that's where I was going.
Both games were on spectacular bluebird fall days in the lower Midwest. Yesterday was an identical day. I'd spent the week in an AirBnB four blocks from the house in Columbus where I watched that Michigan game in '83 as a high school senior. At the end of the game, I walked over to the nearby park that rolls down to the Olentangy River and savored the sunset, the win, and memories of the wonderful community I grew up in, which I now revisit every fall, though my mom moved away 20 years ago. I catch up with childhood friends (more each year, as their kids are now grown as mine is, and we had our 40th HS reunion in July), some old neighbors still around, and the odd friends of my parents still here and alive. The visit and my roots here restore me like nothing else.
I started watching college ball (and hoops) with my older brother and dad at 5 years old around 1971 and have never stopped loving it. I've always felt that one reason why we love the games is the cyclical nature of the sporting seasons, the rejuvenation every year, and the ritual, which is so central to humans. And the ties to the university, of course. Roots.
Last evening I stood watching the waning embers of the sunset, smelling the sweet grass (there's a section of restored prairie in one of the small meadows that reminds me of one that a prof of mine masterminded at Kickapoo State Park back in the '80s), the cool, still air of a perfect fall day on my face. And I looked west across the huge meadow at the bottom of the peak by the river, just as I did in 1983, looking west toward Champaign, trembling with anticipation. Now looking back 40 years. And ahead to what life will offer as long as I'm fortunate to enjoy it. I fell asleep with the windows slightly open, the cool air, faint wood smoke, and the comforting horn of a distant train approaching the old grade crossing that went out of use in the mid-'70s when the underpass was built. Just like so many evenings of my youth many decades gone.
Cycles and roots. That's really why we're all here on Loyalty, I believe. Cycles, roots, ritual, hope, gratitude. Never felt it more about our university and our My Funny Valentine football program than I did last evening. We love no other, brothers and sisters.
Thank you Josh, thank you Coach B for taking us on this ride.
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
I've been enjoying the football takes from the Sleepers guys, too. Linking if anyone's interested.
purcy51
- Nappanee, IN
Speaking of tearing up....what you just wrote is a masterpiece!Right on my DC brother. Apologies if others have said it: that CBS intro and the job that Nessler and Danielson did yesterday, as well as the complete halftime verbal carpet bombing of Michigan's yakkety sax-like offensive performance in the 1H that the studio panel lit up, amounted to a 3-1/2 hour free infomercial for our program. It was an absolute gift and, for the CBS team, clearly a labor of love.
That intro was unlike anything I've seen in watching 50 years of college ball. A lot of football fans around the country learned something about our glorious monument to wartime sacrifice, RG's historic performance torching an entitled Michigan team (some things never change), and how fun our team is to watch as it took down the winningest program in college football history. During the game thread others noted how awesome it was to see those aerial shots of a full MemStad painted orange on an immaculate fall day. It was indeed. And those unis. Chills. Good chills
A personal, note: 41 seasons ago on two October Saturdays in 1983 I listened to and then watched, successively, the Illini top OSU and then Michigan in Champaign for the first time since the '60s. The Saturday afternoon of the Michigan game I'd just received my admission offer to UIUC and knew, after my September campus visit when I fell in love with the campus and the Big Sky of EC Illinois, that's where I was going.
Both games were on spectacular bluebird fall days in the lower Midwest. Yesterday was an identical day. I'd spent the week in an AirBnB four blocks from the house in Columbus where I watched that Michigan game in '83 as a high school senior. At the end of the game, I walked over to the nearby park that rolls down to the Olentangy River and savored the sunset, the win, and memories of the wonderful community I grew up in, which I now revisit every fall, though my mom moved away 20 years ago. I catch up with childhood friends (more each year, as their kids are now grown as mine is, and we had our 40th HS reunion in July), some old neighbors still around, and the odd friends of my parents still here and alive. The visit and my roots here restore me like nothing else.
I started watching college ball (and hoops) with my older brother and dad at 5 years old around 1971 and have never stopped loving it. I've always felt that one reason why we love the games is the cyclical nature of the sporting seasons, the rejuvenation every year, and the ritual, which is so central to humans. And the ties to the university, of course. Roots.
Last evening I stood watching the waning embers of the sunset, smelling the sweet grass (there's a section of restored prairie in one of the small meadows that reminds me of one that a prof of mine masterminded at Kickapoo State Park back in the '80s), the cool, still air of a perfect fall day on my face. And I looked west across the huge meadow at the bottom of the peak by the river, just as I did in 1983, looking west toward Champaign, trembling with anticipation. Now looking back 40 years. And ahead to what life will offer as long as I'm fortunate to enjoy it. I fell asleep with the windows slightly open, the cool air, faint wood smoke, and the comforting horn of a distant train approaching the old grade crossing that went out of use in the mid-'70s when the underpass was built. Just like so many evenings of my youth many decades gone.
Cycles and roots. That's really why we're all here on Loyalty, I believe. Cycles, roots, ritual, hope, gratitude. Never felt it more about our university and our My Funny Valentine football program than I did last evening. We love no other, brothers and sisters.
Thank you Josh, thank you Coach B for taking us on this ride.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Dad strength was his secret.
Beautifully written.Right on my DC brother. Apologies if others have said it: that CBS intro and the job that Nessler and Danielson did yesterday, as well as the complete halftime verbal carpet bombing of Michigan's yakkety sax-like offensive performance in the 1H that the studio panel lit up, amounted to a 3-1/2 hour free infomercial for our program. It was an absolute gift and, for the CBS team, clearly a labor of love.
That intro was unlike anything I've seen in watching 50 years of college ball. A lot of football fans around the country learned something about our glorious monument to wartime sacrifice, RG's historic performance torching an entitled Michigan team (some things never change), and how fun our team is to watch as it took down the winningest program in college football history. During the game thread others noted how awesome it was to see those aerial shots of a full MemStad painted orange on an immaculate fall day. It was indeed. And those unis. Chills. Good chills
A personal, note: 41 seasons ago on two October Saturdays in 1983 I listened to and then watched, successively, the Illini top OSU and then Michigan in Champaign for the first time since the '60s. The Saturday afternoon of the Michigan game I'd just received my admission offer to UIUC and knew, after my September campus visit when I fell in love with the campus and the Big Sky of EC Illinois, that's where I was going.
Both games were on spectacular bluebird fall days in the lower Midwest. Yesterday was an identical day. I'd spent the week in an AirBnB four blocks from the house in Columbus where I watched that Michigan game in '83 as a high school senior. At the end of the game, I walked over to the nearby park that rolls down to the Olentangy River and savored the sunset, the win, and memories of the wonderful community I grew up in, which I now revisit every fall, though my mom moved away 20 years ago. I catch up with childhood friends (more each year, as their kids are now grown as mine is, and we had our 40th HS reunion in July), some old neighbors still around, and the odd friends of my parents still here and alive. The visit and my roots here restore me like nothing else.
I started watching college ball (and hoops) with my older brother and dad at 5 years old around 1971 and have never stopped loving it. I've always felt that one reason why we love the games is the cyclical nature of the sporting seasons, the rejuvenation every year, and the ritual, which is so central to humans. And the ties to the university, of course. Roots.
Last evening I stood watching the waning embers of the sunset, smelling the sweet grass (there's a section of restored prairie in one of the small meadows that reminds me of one that a prof of mine masterminded at Kickapoo State Park back in the '80s), the cool, still air of a perfect fall day on my face. And I looked west across the huge meadow at the bottom of the peak by the river, just as I did in 1983, looking west toward Champaign, trembling with anticipation. Now looking back 40 years. And ahead to what life will offer as long as I'm fortunate to enjoy it. I fell asleep with the windows slightly open, the cool air, faint wood smoke, and the comforting horn of a distant train approaching the old grade crossing that went out of use in the mid-'70s when the underpass was built. Just like so many evenings of my youth many decades gone.
Cycles and roots. That's really why we're all here on Loyalty, I believe. Cycles, roots, ritual, hope, gratitude. Never felt it more about our university and our My Funny Valentine football program than I did last evening. We love no other, brothers and sisters.
Thank you Josh, thank you Coach B for taking us on this ride.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Game Notes!
1. It wasn't a pretty game, offensively. Plus, Henry and the defense deserve some assists for putting the offense in a fortunate position.
2. That said, I want to defend the offense for a few points:
- Connelly predicted 21 Illinois points, they hit the number.
- Worst passing game in a while, especially damning with Will Johnson out most of the game, but the strategy started to tilt late in the second quarter. Bielema and staff realized that Michigan was going to struggle to score and that ball control was going to be the most important. Part of that is inferred in Altmyer making quicker decisions to scramble.
- the PFF run blocking grades are poor and that's unfair. Here are the team running stats for each Michigan game this season:
Fresno State - 22 rushing attempts for 9 yards (0.9 yards/game)
Arkansas State - 25 rushing attempts for 58 yards (2.3)
Texas - 32 attempts for 143 yards (4.5)
USC - 21 attempts for 96 yards (4.6)
Minnesota - 25 attempts for 38 yards (1.5)
Washington - 35 attempts for 114 yards (3.3)
Illinois - 38 attempts for 187 yards (4.9)
3. Season stat - Illinois is second in B1G for explosive play rate (20+ yard plays) behind Indiana. For a team that's had excellent special teams + excellent explosive play rate, it's a great combo.
4. I'm happy for Laughery having a strong game, plus a strong finish from McCray. The passing blocking rates are saying McCray is the only option that isn't a complete zero. Josh, please stay healthy.
5. Last offensive season stat - Third down conversion rates for Illinois offense since 2016:
2016 - 28.3%
2017 - 33.5%
2018 - 34.5%
2019 - 35.4%
2020 - 38.0%
2021 - 38.2%
2022 - 38.2%
2023 - 36.0%
2024 - 43.4%
6. Gabe Jacas had been living too much off of his reputation earlier this year but he has had a big breakout the past two games - Eight hurries over the past two games. Back-to-back career highs. Him and TeRah provided a great tandem on Saturday.
7. I'm happiest for Zeke Holmes. He's been at Illinois since 2018. Multiple season-ending injuries. So many months of rehab over the years. Six years after starting at Illinois, with his team having their biggest home game in years, possibly decades, he sets a career high in snaps and gives his best career performance.
8. After being harshly criticized after his Penn State performance, Rosiek has been great the past two games. Games like Purdue and Michigan are better fitting for his strengths. Oregon....is not. Let's hope the recent improvement shows a step forward.
9. Ryan Meed might be unplayable and the staff is starting to throttle down his snaps. Question is whether there is a reasonable replacement? Kreutz has been up-and-down and the club hand is restricting his performance. Hood played for the first time since EIU but only one snap. The answer might be moving Bailey further into the box and rolling with him and Rosiek. Yesterday was a first success that having one LB and moving a safety down can still keep the team successful against the run (smashing success). If this is sustainable, it's going provide more options to give snaps to the secondary depth than the LB corp.
10. 120th (out of 133) in turnover margin in 2023! 2024? 34th!
11. Not sure how better to say this beyond the simple, what a team performance. The defense answered the bell after the doubts from the Purdue game by allowing the least amount of points scored by Michigan in 10 seasons. The offense, with doubts about running the ball all year and facing the best defensive line they'll face all season, put up the best rushing performance against UM all year.
1. It wasn't a pretty game, offensively. Plus, Henry and the defense deserve some assists for putting the offense in a fortunate position.
2. That said, I want to defend the offense for a few points:
- Connelly predicted 21 Illinois points, they hit the number.
- Worst passing game in a while, especially damning with Will Johnson out most of the game, but the strategy started to tilt late in the second quarter. Bielema and staff realized that Michigan was going to struggle to score and that ball control was going to be the most important. Part of that is inferred in Altmyer making quicker decisions to scramble.
- the PFF run blocking grades are poor and that's unfair. Here are the team running stats for each Michigan game this season:
Fresno State - 22 rushing attempts for 9 yards (0.9 yards/game)
Arkansas State - 25 rushing attempts for 58 yards (2.3)
Texas - 32 attempts for 143 yards (4.5)
USC - 21 attempts for 96 yards (4.6)
Minnesota - 25 attempts for 38 yards (1.5)
Washington - 35 attempts for 114 yards (3.3)
Illinois - 38 attempts for 187 yards (4.9)
3. Season stat - Illinois is second in B1G for explosive play rate (20+ yard plays) behind Indiana. For a team that's had excellent special teams + excellent explosive play rate, it's a great combo.
4. I'm happy for Laughery having a strong game, plus a strong finish from McCray. The passing blocking rates are saying McCray is the only option that isn't a complete zero. Josh, please stay healthy.
5. Last offensive season stat - Third down conversion rates for Illinois offense since 2016:
2016 - 28.3%
2017 - 33.5%
2018 - 34.5%
2019 - 35.4%
2020 - 38.0%
2021 - 38.2%
2022 - 38.2%
2023 - 36.0%
2024 - 43.4%
6. Gabe Jacas had been living too much off of his reputation earlier this year but he has had a big breakout the past two games - Eight hurries over the past two games. Back-to-back career highs. Him and TeRah provided a great tandem on Saturday.
7. I'm happiest for Zeke Holmes. He's been at Illinois since 2018. Multiple season-ending injuries. So many months of rehab over the years. Six years after starting at Illinois, with his team having their biggest home game in years, possibly decades, he sets a career high in snaps and gives his best career performance.
8. After being harshly criticized after his Penn State performance, Rosiek has been great the past two games. Games like Purdue and Michigan are better fitting for his strengths. Oregon....is not. Let's hope the recent improvement shows a step forward.
9. Ryan Meed might be unplayable and the staff is starting to throttle down his snaps. Question is whether there is a reasonable replacement? Kreutz has been up-and-down and the club hand is restricting his performance. Hood played for the first time since EIU but only one snap. The answer might be moving Bailey further into the box and rolling with him and Rosiek. Yesterday was a first success that having one LB and moving a safety down can still keep the team successful against the run (smashing success). If this is sustainable, it's going provide more options to give snaps to the secondary depth than the LB corp.
10. 120th (out of 133) in turnover margin in 2023! 2024? 34th!
11. Not sure how better to say this beyond the simple, what a team performance. The defense answered the bell after the doubts from the Purdue game by allowing the least amount of points scored by Michigan in 10 seasons. The offense, with doubts about running the ball all year and facing the best defensive line they'll face all season, put up the best rushing performance against UM all year.
A “like” does not do your post justice.Right on my DC brother. Apologies if others have said it: that CBS intro and the job that Nessler and Danielson did yesterday, as well as the complete halftime verbal carpet bombing of Michigan's yakkety sax-like offensive performance in the 1H that the studio panel lit up, amounted to a 3-1/2 hour free infomercial for our program. It was an absolute gift and, for the CBS team, clearly a labor of love.
That intro was unlike anything I've seen in watching 50 years of college ball. A lot of football fans around the country learned something about our glorious monument to wartime sacrifice, RG's historic performance torching an entitled Michigan team (some things never change), and how fun our team is to watch as it took down the winningest program in college football history. During the game thread others noted how awesome it was to see those aerial shots of a full MemStad painted orange on an immaculate fall day. It was indeed. And those unis. Chills. Good chills
A personal, note: 41 seasons ago on two October Saturdays in 1983 I listened to and then watched, successively, the Illini top OSU and then Michigan in Champaign for the first time since the '60s. The Saturday afternoon of the Michigan game I'd just received my admission offer to UIUC and knew, after my September campus visit when I fell in love with the campus and the Big Sky of EC Illinois, that's where I was going.
Both games were on spectacular bluebird fall days in the lower Midwest. Yesterday was an identical day. I'd spent the week in an AirBnB four blocks from the house in Columbus where I watched that Michigan game in '83 as a high school senior. At the end of the game, I walked over to the nearby park that rolls down to the Olentangy River and savored the sunset, the win, and memories of the wonderful community I grew up in, which I now revisit every fall, though my mom moved away 20 years ago. I catch up with childhood friends (more each year, as their kids are now grown as mine is, and we had our 40th HS reunion in July), some old neighbors still around, and the odd friends of my parents still here and alive. The visit and my roots here restore me like nothing else.
I started watching college ball (and hoops) with my older brother and dad at 5 years old around 1971 and have never stopped loving it. I've always felt that one reason why we love the games is the cyclical nature of the sporting seasons, the rejuvenation every year, and the ritual, which is so central to humans. And the ties to the university, of course. Roots.
Last evening I stood watching the waning embers of the sunset, smelling the sweet grass (there's a section of restored prairie in one of the small meadows that reminds me of one that a prof of mine masterminded at Kickapoo State Park back in the '80s), the cool, still air of a perfect fall day on my face. And I looked west across the huge meadow at the bottom of the peak by the river, just as I did in 1983, looking west toward Champaign, trembling with anticipation. Now looking back 40 years. And ahead to what life will offer as long as I'm fortunate to enjoy it. I fell asleep with the windows slightly open, the cool air, faint wood smoke, and the comforting horn of a distant train approaching the old grade crossing that went out of use in the mid-'70s when the underpass was built. Just like so many evenings of my youth many decades gone.
Cycles and roots. That's really why we're all here on Loyalty, I believe. Cycles, roots, ritual, hope, gratitude. Never felt it more about our university and our My Funny Valentine football program than I did last evening. We love no other, brothers and sisters.
Thank you Josh, thank you Coach B for taking us on this ride.
blackdog
- Champaign
To your point #9 it looked like there were times they went with Bailey actually playing as a LB with Miles Scott moving closer to the box and Resetich playing in the deep spot. Don't know if that's a good long term solution for Bailey but might be the best alternative they have for now.
Also for point #2 Luke has officially 59 carries for 138 yards on the season (sacks are brutal). The last two games 20 carries for 108. I commented earlier in the year his hesitation to run or pass when pressured was killing him at times and it's been a huge improvement the last two games.
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altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
You gotta admire a college sports site that has devotees treating this topic with such analytical rigor. I look forward to the day when they're as good as they were in '22 and we beat them anyway. In Ann Arbor.
Oh, wait. We did. In '22.
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
Didn't feel like it watching the game tbh... was shocked to see just 80 yards. I guess the way the game was played was a factor - the PIs, our "tilt" in strategy like you said...
Thought Luke played fine, especially scrambling... maybe not great passing in this one but was more than just enough.
With a strong secondary, there is some flexibility to try different things and support run defense. Been waiting to see how they could do this throughout the season and maybe this is it. Seemed to work well.
I don’t know what exactly goes into PFF run blocking grades, if the grades were poor and, if so, whether warranted using their criteria, but the rushing numbers you use are skewed. RBs had 26 rushes for 104 yards (still pretty good in my book) for a 4.0 avg. Throw in Bryant’s one carry for -1 and it is slightly lower. Luke’s rushing, some of which were not planned so overall might negatively impact PFF grades, and the fake point were the reasons for the much gaudier ypc average you note. Michigan also had 8 TFL. Given they only had 1 sack, I’d guess more than a few of those came on rushing plays. So PFF grades aren’t likely as “unfair” as you make them out to be.
I agree with your positive callout for Laughery. Ever since his dropped pass that likely would have been easy TD, people on here have been down on him with some (many) calling for Valentine to take his carries. Problem is unless you want to emphatically signal a play will be a run, Valentine can’t take his carries without also taking his blocks. That makes him virtually unplayable against a team like Michigan. Laughery isn’t exactly a great or even particularly good blocker, but he is light years ahead of Valentine at this point. And that 4.0 rushing average by RBs was accomplished because of his 9 rushes for 54 yards. In fact, Josh’s 17 rushes for 50 yards probably include plenty of plays that help account for the poor run blocking grades.
Wish Feagin wasn’t hurt, but Josh and Aidan showed they’re capable of helping team win. Think they’ll need to be at least a little better to help us beat Oregon.
It's so hard to not think that way. So many times over the years the program has been on the cusp of a big moment only to have it taken away either of our own doing or by the hands of the officials. Just seems "something always happens". Honestly the Purdue game kind of felt like that crap away a good season with a bad home loss but the team managed to pull it out. Maybe it exorcised some demons.
Text from my wife at home with a minute left in the game: "Congrats on the win."
Me: "Thanks, but there's still a minute left."
Her: "I don't know much about football, but I know MI can't score that much in a minute."
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
My husband and I had that exact conversation with 3 minutes left in the game. He was ready to celebrate a win and I had to tell him I knew the odds of us winning were good, but I wouldn't be comfortable until the clock read 0:00
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Based on how the game was played, of course Michigan couldn't score twice in that timeframe, but the week before was still fresh in my brain, so I was not comfortable until about a minute left.
band camp
- STL City
A million likes for this, also cannot be said enough about Mcray staying healthy.
Also, huge Zeke shootout. Very nice.