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

#351      
RoundBalcs
I’m confident our secondary can hold strong and rattle Raiola, and I have faith in our receivers and Luke. Our OL, DL, rushing attack, and run defense scare me….

I’ll hold off on a prediction, and I don’t like thinking of this as a ‘prove it’ game, but I don’t feel like we’ve seen enough ability to run or stop the run to be successful in this one.

Prove me wrong guys!! I-L-L
 
#352      
aaeismacgychel
Chukwuwumba said:
If we lose, hopefully within 1 possession. We can win by a lot, would be fine with that.
Neb defense is stout. Hoping the offense has balance where Illini do not abandon the run, a la Tony Peterson vs iowa(was it Iowa?). Put stress on the defense and don’t run vanilla plays. Go for it. Lunney/ BB I’m interested in play calls.

Defense I’m interested in how they play run/ balance with pass def.im hoping Pass def is strong enough where wr cannot get open therefore LBs and Bailey can support run game. But raiola may be too good to do this. Disguise def and mix up playcalling.

Can’t be predictable on both sides. Think I’m most interest in how OC and DC call game. Put pressure and stress on both sides, make them think.
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One of the things that Nebraska seems to like to do is a lot of throws close to the line of scrimmage and short to medium passes across the middle of the field and I do think that really plays to the strengths we've shown thus far this season if they stick with that type of attack. Patterson has done a great job on screens and both Cox and Brooks have provided very tight coverage on those short to medium passes when they've been in the game. And for our CBs and NBs in general, the weaknesses I've seen have come more from the 8-20yd routes outside the hashes where we lose coverage. Middle of the field throws is where Miles and Xavier start lurking and Bailey start getting involved in both laying the lumber and assisting in the run game.

As such, if I were to guess, I think we'd try defending with the idea of that Nebraska gameplan in mind where we might creep Bailey up to help as much as he can in the run game, lock down the short passes and screen and dare Rhule to call longer developing pass plays and routes for Raiola where he'll be more susceptible to throwing into disguised coverage. It's certainly possible we'll get burned if we sell out too much for the run, but if it's between that or consistently giving up 7yds a carry, I think we'll need to risk Dylan beating us as I don't see Nebraska going the route of the Kansas OC in inexplicable going away from a working run game.
 
#356      
Illiniwacker
Roundball Sage said:
Nebraska folks have clear and long-standing priorities:

1. God.

2. Family (which for many includes #3 below -- blood related or not)

3. The Big Red

4. EVERYTHING ELSE

God bless 'em. NIce folks to have as friends.
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Went to Lincoln 2 years ago - they are the nicest people !
Hope they have a miserable time tonight.
 
#357      
IlliniKat91
illiram said:
It's 93 degrees in Lincoln, Nebraska right now. Will be 88 degrees at kickoff. I hope we are the more fit team. This could be the difference. Really hoping the guys hydrated non-stop the last few days. These types of games are won or lost on the little things...
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It's hard to imagine after the heat last Saturday that the team wasn't watching the weather report and hydrating as much as possible.
 
#359      
LFOD
As others have mentioned, my biggest fear is that we'll be unable to stop the run. Plenty of other things to worry about as well, but that's my top worry.

I'm going in with hopes high and expectations low. And whatever happens in this game, we're already well on our way to a solid season.
 
#360      
illiram
Is anyone else sitting at work wishing it was 7pm CT?! Dang I cannot wait. It's our time. It's our turn. I feel a change like I did in bball with Brad Underwood. Why not us.

Illini 27
Neb 21
 
#361      
SampsonRelpenk
My head tells me this is one that gets away from us a little. Not quite a blowout, but a game where Nebraska is comfortable most of the way and we just have trouble getting things going consistently. Definitely hope I am wrong! No matter what happens we'll still be on schedule for this season's goal.
 
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