Illinois 23, Kansas 17 Postgame

#228      
Fly Illini Fly!
Gettin' some love:

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Tomorrow's Top 25 Today: Texas jumps Ohio State as Michigan, Notre Dame tumble in college football rankings

Projecting the new AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 2 of the 2024 season
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"24. Illinois (NR): In 2022, Bret Bielema got Illinois back into the AP Top 25 poll for the first time in 11 years. We're projecting that Saturday's win against Kansas will add another ranking to his tenure as the Illini found a way to win a tough nonconference battle after a sluggish and sloppy start. "

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College football rankings: Projected AP Top 25 after Texas rolls, Notre Dame upset, Oregon survives in Week 2

Just when you think you have a grasp on something in the college football world and what AP Top 25 ranked teams look like, you get something like Saturday in We
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"25. Illinois Fighting Illini​

Last season, Bret Bielema and Illinois were blown out by Kansas. So as they welcomed the Jayhawks to Champaign this week, there had to be some revenge on their minds. But the truth is, Illinois is just a better team than they were a year ago. Luke Altmyer has progressed, the defense is no longer a saloon door and they put the clamps on Jalon Daniels in this matchup to vault into the Top 25 with a big win"

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College football rankings: Predicting the AP top 25 poll for Week 3

As we survey the damage from the latest games on Saturday, let's look ahead to the AP top 25 college football rankings heading into Week 3 Who's moving up? Who'
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"25. Illinois. Beating a ranked Kansas team in a key non-conference game could benefit Bret Bielema's team."

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College Football Rankings: Predicting AP Poll Top 25 after Week 2

What was billed as a Show Me Week 2 turned into a Survival Saturday, as a bulk of Top 25 teams (the comeback kids of the Big 12, plus Oregon, Penn State, Alabama, Oklahoma and LSU) held on to overcome sloppy performances. And yet, some teams weren’t so fortunate to avoid the chaos of carnage […]
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"24. Illinois (Last week: Unranked)​

What a return to the Top 25 for Bret Bielema and the Fighting Illini. Illinois upset No. 19 Kansas 23-17, beating a ranked non-conference opponent for the first time since 2011. Despite being out-gained through the air and on the ground, the Illini frustrated Jalon Daniels into three interceptions and benefitted from some miscues by the Jayhawks (touchdown wiped out by a penalty). Illinois scored the go-ahed touchdown early in the fourth quarter and never looked back. "
 
#229      
IlliniKat91
SoCal Illini said:
Kansas fans are saying that this loss will look bad in few weeks b/c Illinois will finish 3-9. Glad we pissed on their parade.
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Same energy from the Wisconsin fan sitting in front of me in 2019. She got mad we rushed the field after that one and felt the need to tell us we wouldn't be going to a bowl game anyway.

She didn't like it when I told her that was okay, it wasn't like they'd be going to the national championship that year.
 
#230      
logjam
Saturdaze said:
Great win. Lunney is not a P2 coordinator. We have more talent on both sides of the ball than we’ve had in the past. A Henry defense seems to be good at developing players but bad at play calling.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more confused about the seasons prospects after a win than I am now.
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Name checks out...
 
#231      
Illiniguy74
Thaillini22 said:
I gotta say, I was as frustrated as everyone else with the stagnant offense throughout much of the game, but I definitely don't agree with post-game commentary that we should have been doing things differently starting with our third possession or whatever (passing on first down, opening things up, being less conservative, etc.)... I mean, we won the game doing what we did for four quarters.

There's no guarantee that had we "opened things up" earlier that we would have won.

Point being, if we go 7-5 by winning ugly with an unsexy offense, I'm all for it!

This was a huge win in terms of bowl prospects, recruiting, buzz, potentially national attention... I'm psyched.
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And how many fans have been saying for months that our game plan should be to "pound the rock" with Feagin?
 
#233      
EyeoftheIllini
Thaillini22 said:
I gotta say, I was as frustrated as everyone else with the stagnant offense throughout much of the game, but I definitely don't agree with post-game commentary that we should have been doing things differently starting with our third possession or whatever (passing on first down, opening things up, being less conservative, etc.)... I mean, we won the game doing what we did for four quarters.

There's no guarantee that had we "opened things up" earlier that we would have won.

Point being, if we go 7-5 by winning ugly with an unsexy offense, I'm all for it!

This was a huge win in terms of bowl prospects, recruiting, buzz, potentially national attention... I'm psyched.
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Agree. Fans after these games tend to look at play calling on an individual basis for each play rather than as a continuum that builds upon itself (if that makes sense). “We should have thrown down field more earlier like we did in 4th quarter. Look how successful that was.” Or maybe it wasn’t there earlier and the running/play calling early set up the downfield passes later.

Same thing on the running backs. One poster and all the people who liked his posts lamented the fact that Feagin and McCray are way to slow getting started (unfortunately agree on McCray; not sure if we’ll ever see him back to pre-injury level). Valentine only averaged 3.1 ypc. But after the Kansas DL/D had been battered for 3 quarters, the change of pace back with fresh legs got the job done. Who is to say he would have had same success in first quarter or same success in fourth quarter if his workload had been like Feagin’s in early part of game. Don’t get me wrong, Valentine was great late, but let’s put it in some context.
 
#234      
EyeoftheIllini
Orange Roughy said:
On our last FG, why didn't we wait to snap the ball until 3 seconds left on the clock instead of around 11 seconds? That time almost cost us the game?
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I noticed that too. I wonder if it had anything to do with Olano being relatively young and inexperienced. Rather than trying to orchestrate things to use up every last second they could, they just wanted to let him use regular routine and not have him stand there longer and potentially increase pressure.
 
#237      
HensonHall71
Awesome win- the game played out almost exactly then opposite of what most thought going into the game

We were supposed to be better in the trenches on both sides of the ball and our run game was going to be able to do some things

They were supposed to have one of the best secondaries in the country and all of their WR talent back

We couldn’t run the ball and they dominated us in the trenches all game I thought- we had our secondary and WRs make big time plays which won the game for us - Who knew?
 
#239      
battle
EyeoftheIllini said:
I noticed that too. I wonder if it had anything to do with Olano being relatively young and inexperienced. Rather than trying to orchestrate things to use up every last second they could, they just wanted to let him use regular routine and not have him stand there longer and potentially increase pressure.
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Because we had called time out ( 1 sec on play clock) so game clock was stopped. Kansas erred by taking their 2 time outs after the 2 mon warning rather than before. We got the first down at2:28. It would have been 3rd down at 2:00 vs 1:50. And is potentially worth more than 10 sec
 
#242      
Chukwuwumba
secondary played great against experienced wr corps. Gives the team options to move pieces around, scheme for better run def., and put pressure on the qb.
WR played great. Franklin and Bryant were impressive. Get both the ball more.
Oline was much better than last year, much more consistent play to play, pass blocking so much better. A few run plays that ended right away due to multiple lineman getting through.
Luke looked comfortable in the pocket and trusted blocking.
Great game to watch. Close throughout. Made exciting plays on both off and def
 
#243      
gibb52
Fantastic win. If we jump into the top 25 that's great but not something I care about all that much. I also don't care about Nebraska, ScUM, Minny, or Purdue right now. I only care about Central Michigan. Twelve one game seasons. We can crow when the 12th game is over. Winning season. Bowl game. That's what I want. And this was a huge step in that direction. I-L-L baby!!
 
#244      
TheChief4Life
Orange Roughy said:
On our last FG, why didn't we wait to snap the ball until 3 seconds left on the clock instead of around 11 seconds? That time almost cost us the game?
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I don’t remember why, but the clock was stopped, so it didn’t matter. We could have snapped it with 35 seconds left and it wouldn’t have affected the game clock. My hunch is that we called a TO with a second left, ultimately resulting in exactly what you were thinking should have happened.

I was at the game and don’t remember 🤦‍♂️, sorry!
 
#245      
TheChief4Life
battle said:
Because we had called time out ( 1 sec on play clock) so game clock was stopped. Kansas erred by taking their 2 time outs after the 2 mon warning rather than before. We got the first down at2:28. It would have been 3rd down at 2:00 vs 1:50. And is potentially worth more than 10 sec
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This is why I should read all posts before posting. I thought this was it.
 
#246      
illinidarrin
I would like to know what from the 3rd quarter to the 4th? We looked horrible in 3rd and all the sudden it's like a switch was turned on and they were a completely different team in the 4th.
 
#248      
bartwa
I don’t know if it’s relevant but I noticed that when there was a closeup of Kansas’ quarterback and the receiver that made the touchdown catch they were panting. Maybe the Illini were better conditioned and just wore the Jayhawks down.
 
#249      
TheChief4Life
illinidarrin said:
I would like to know what from the 3rd quarter to the 4th? We looked horrible in 3rd and all the sudden it's like a switch was turned on and they were a completely different team in the 4th.
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I may be in the minority, but the narrative “we looked horrible in the 3rd” I think is being overplayed. We had two possessions in the 3rd, and went 3-and-out in both of them. Yes, that’s bad, but there will be plenty of times that we go back-to-back possessions 3-and-out even against mediocre or worse teams, and no one will bat an eye because we’ll win 35-10 or something.

What made the 3rd quarter look “bad” is that Kansas had like an 8 1/2 minute drive that just seemed to go on forever in the middle of our two 3-and-out drives. I am sure others will point out all the terrible things that the defense did on that drive, but honestly, it was just “one of those drives”. Kansas just seemed destined to score on that drive.

Again, bookend that with weirdly called plays in two 3-and-out drives by the Illini, and it looks bad. I’d instead say they looked worse in the 3rd than any other quarter (maybe all year). But I wouldn’t say we were horrible or bad or anything like that.

Also, game situation dictates play calling. A 4th quarter where we’re up by 20 probably looks a lot more like the 3rd quarter we saw. But being down and needing chunk plays opens the playbook more.

That’s my take, at least.
 
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