Illinois at Nebraska, Friday, September 20th, 7:00pm CT, FOX

#101      
BZuppke
I think this is a very difficult game to win, on the road against a ranked team and a big crowd. That being said, we’re at a point where we can win almost any game including this one. If we do win I think it will be because our secondary gets key picks. Here’s hoping we win one of these next two road games.
 
Last edited:
#102      
stlillinifan
Huge Illini fan here.... and there would be nothing better than waking up Saturday morning to college game day and seeing Illinois 4-0 and in the top 20. But I don't see it happening. If we were the kind of team that could go on the road and be it a much improved Nebraska program, we would have blown out Central Michigan at home. Still hoping for a six win season
 
#104      
CaptainCrutch
stlillinifan said:
If we were the kind of team that could go on the road and be it a much improved Nebraska program, we would have blown out Central Michigan at home. Still hoping for a six win season
Click to expand...

This might be a hair too pessimistic for me but I prefer this sentiment over people taking about how there’s not a game left on the schedule we can’t win. Is it possible that we are team that can go into the stadiums of 2 of the top 10 programs and beat them? Yeah, I guess. But we haven’t run the ball effectively against anyone yet, and we have absolutely no depth dang-near anywhere. Our offensive line isn’t where it needs to be and our QB had some notable flaws that will be exacerbated against better competition. You can look at this as as optimistically as you want and there’s plenty reason to do so, but there are plenty of things cutting the other way too. We rant don’t know what this team is yet.

Tl;dr - going into this season, landing somewhere between 5 to 7 wins was the expected range of outcomes. Let’s not get so high on the early returns that 6-6 is a letdown.
 
#108      
Illinijoe
stlillinifan said:
Huge Illini fan here.... and there would be nothing better than waking up Saturday morning to college game day and seeing Illinois 4-0 and in the top 20. But I don't see it happening. If we were the kind of team that could go on the road and be it a much improved Nebraska program, we would have blown out Central Michigan at home. Still hoping for a six win season
Click to expand...
While I agree that winning in Lincoln is unlikely, basing it off of how much we beat CMU by at home isn’t really right. Many great teams don’t end up blowing out an inferior opponent. Georgia was a massive double digit favorite and almost lost. However, we do have 3 games under our belt that would indicate there still are plenty of issues. Vegas is probably right - about a 10 point underdog.
 
#111      
RIP_Chief_2003
CaptainCrutch said:
I mean…here’s the thing. We’re gonna know what Raiola is after this game. He hasn’t faced a defensive secondary like what our’s has shown itself to be thus far. He’s got arm talent and is very creative, but I haven’t seen him play an intellectually-challenging defense yet. If he can pick us apart, forget about it. We’ll lose by 2 TD’s at least. If he can’t, though, we might bait him into multiple turnovers that tip the game our way.

That’s about it though. Their defense is very, very good. Our run game is not good. Line hasn’t held up well against meh defenses so far, facing a real one is gonna make everything look worse.

We can win this one but it’s not gonna be a bielema ball kinda game if we do. I think we throw it all over the yard and get a few turnovers to win it.
Click to expand...
Lunney should take advantage of our garbage O-Line a bit more and run some RB screens. I dont remember if we've run any through our first three games. Perhaps that is one play we've kept for B1G play.
 
#113      
GrayGhost77
KenSWburbs said:
Agreed. All the pressure is on NE.

The media keeps saying they should be 7-0 heading to Ohio State.
Click to expand...
The media vision is clouded by the name Nebraska and clings to the past remembrances of those old, great Nebby teams of 25-30 years ago. Rhule has merely started out okay so far in his tenure there. Same record as Bret in his first year but starting off with much better talent. They do have playmakers on both sides of the ball, but I'm still not convinced he's as good of a college coach as Bielema. He had one great season at Baylor and a couple decent years at Temple in a weak conference, but Bielema's overall coaching record is better. I think we'll come in and surprise a bit. We have less to lose than they do and I see us opening up a the playbook a lot more in this game. Barring injuring I absolutely think we cover, if not win outright. A win and we have a great chance of being ranked in the top 20 this time next week.
 
#116      
ChiefGritty
robertgoulet said:
Pretty crazy to me seeing a line of -9 when it's #24 @ #22, but I guess they're probably getting 3.5 for home field.
Click to expand...
We're ranked purely as a function of preseason expectations for Kansas.

I am a strong, strong supporter of a vibes-based AP Poll. That's part of what makes college football fun. Enjoy it. But don't confuse it for a reliable prognostication of the quality of the team.

It will be a miracle if we're 5-3 when the calendar turns to November.
 
#117      
IlliniShelt
ChiefGritty said:
We're ranked purely as a function of preseason expectations for Kansas.

I am a strong, strong supporter of a vibes-based AP Poll. That's part of what makes college football fun. Enjoy it. But don't confuse it for a reliable prognostication of the quality of the team.

It will be a miracle if we're 5-3 when the calendar turns to November.
Click to expand...
Purdue should be a win and anything after that is gravy.

I think saying we need a miracle to win at Nebraska or to get Michigan at home is laying it on a little thick. I'm not expecting those to be wins but we can win without divine intervention.
 
#118      
Illini2010-11
ChiefGritty said:
We're ranked purely as a function of preseason expectations for Kansas.

I am a strong, strong supporter of a vibes-based AP Poll. That's part of what makes college football fun. Enjoy it. But don't confuse it for a reliable prognostication of the quality of the team.

It will be a miracle if we're 5-3 when the calendar turns to November.
Click to expand...
I believe that the most likely outcome for the Illini going into November is 4-4, but getting to 5-3 will not be a "miracle". It is very difficult to win on the road in the B1G (and Nebraska and Penn State will be ranked), so I completely expect the Illini to fall short the next two weeks, though I think the Illini will be very competitive in both games. We will know a lot about this team coming out of the bye week to face Purdue. It is the most important game, IMO, as the season can completely spin out of control with a loss.

The Kansas win got the Illini into solid conversations of making a bowl game (most projections for this team were around 5 wins preseason). I think this team is about a 6-7 win team at this point, but a win this weekend will change the outlook considerably.
 
Last edited:
#120      
ChiefGritty
Illini2010-11 said:
I believe that the most likely outcome for the Illini going into November is 4-4, but getting to 5-3 will not be a "miracle". It is very difficult to win on the road in the B1G (and Nebraska and Penn State will be ranked), so I completely expect the Illini to fall short the next two weeks, though I think the Illini will be very competitive in both games. We will know a lot about this team coming out of the bye week to face Purdue. It is the most important game, IMO, as the season can get completely spin out of control with a loss.

The Kansas win got the Illini into solid conversations of making a bowl game (most projections for this team were around 5 wins preseason). I think this team is about a 6-7 win team at this point, but a win this weekend will change the outlook considerably.
Click to expand...
"Miracle" is overstating it, fair enough. 5-3 is unlikely, let's just leave it there.

But I very much agree with you, how we play in our upcoming losses is going to tell us a lot.

It's entirely possible that we're 4-4 and yet very confident that we're a bowl team with a longer-term arrow pointing up. I'd take that over a fluky 5-3 to be honest.
 
#121      
bluemountain
ChiefGritty said:
We're ranked purely as a function of preseason expectations for Kansas.

I am a strong, strong supporter of a vibes-based AP Poll. That's part of what makes college football fun. Enjoy it. But don't confuse it for a reliable prognostication of the quality of the team.

It will be a miracle if we're 5-3 when the calendar turns to November.
Click to expand...
5-3 would be amazing...to beat any one of UM, PSU, NE or OU would be quite an accomplishment for this team
 
#124      
ptgrd23
Great start 3-0.

My goal is to go 8-4 regular season. The schedule favors us.

We should be favored at home vs Purdue Minnesota and Michigan State which gets us to 6 wins.

All we have to do is steal 2 wins vs @ Nebraska, Michigan @ home, @ Rutgers or @ NW. I think that is very doable.

1726504775577.png
 
Back