OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
I realize this, and I’m never expecting Illinois to be an elite football program. I just want them to win the games they should win consistently. This Minnesota team is not good.
Minnesota 25, Illinois 17 Postgame
I believe you express the sentiments of a huge segment of Illini Nation. I know you express ours perfectly. Those of us who've been around a while know it's been the same for decade upon decade. We've grown to expect and accustomed to what happened yesterday. Although we enjoyed being at the game going into it we really had a preconceived notion that what happened was how it was yet again meant to be. As we walked to the parking lot the general feel among the people we interacted with was that this was somewhat anticipated. I believe in the coaching staff and I believe the players give their all but this stuff happens every time we think the culture has finally changed. We will always be supporters but every time this happens it becomes a bit harder to ever be truly optimistic. How many times will this feeling repeat itself?
Gotta be good before you can be great. We aren't a deep team yet and sometimes I think we are overthinking how we play football.
On offense run the ball, keep ahead of the chains with shorter high percentage passes, and use play action to hit deep routes.
On defense keep contain and funnel better athletes to the other team towards the heart of our defense.
You have 2 plays to get 2 yards. I would prefer to pass on 3rd and run on 4th. 3rd down gets blown up and now it’s a passing down and we are one dimensional. A whip route would be a good thing to run in that situation. We have a lot of success with the slants and sluggo
Central IL Illini
- Springfield, IL
We were underdogs, it's hard to say we should "win these games consistently". If anything we have won a lot of the coin flip games this year (Kansas/Nebraska/Purdue). Analytics have been lower on us than the pollsters all year. I just think this is probably more like 7-5 team than a 10-2 team and there's nothing really wrong with that.
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
We were at home against a team that was beaten at home by a bad UNC team and smoked at home by Iowa.
It was a game we should have won - no excuses. Accepting losses like this doesn't do anything to change the culture of the program. I can handle getting beat by Oregon on the road. Losing to a mediocre Minnesota team at home is just same old Illinois.
This isn’t a very good team and the coaching staff has done a good job keeping us in every game.
8-4 more likely. You never know what can happen but check the win probabilities for the remaining 3 games.
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We are also a team that beat Purdue by 1 point. Minnesota has been the better team the last month
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
This is true. What is also true is that Minnesota had a much softer schedule during that same time frame. I think Minnesota is slightly better than Illinois, but not by much (hence close line). The game yesterday came down to two momentum plays. Fleck going for fake punt with all momentum and failing (Illini take advantage). After Illini take lead, Minnesota converts 2nd and 10 for 37 yards on an underthrown ball, where defender simply never found ball. At worst it should have been a 15 yard PI, not a long completion. If the ball is broken up as it should have been, then it is 3rd and 10, Illini still with all momentum.
Illini had every chance to win, but could not make the plays in final 6 minutes when the game mattered. It happens, but it still hurts. Illini now have three games with more favorable matchups. Hopefully the team comes out strong from the bye, as 8-9 wins is still possible, despite this close loss.
I agree. We are perennially in the bottom four of the conference for recruiting. Without a big NIL boost, I'm afraid this is about as good as it gets, folks.
Lots of good points in this thread. I'll add my .02...
One thing I'm grateful for with Bret is that we are pretty much competitive game in and game out. I remember many times that wasn't the case.
This team/roster lacks depth. That has to improve.
We also need a lot of help in the trenches. O-line play is bad. And for whatever reason, we keep trying to run between the tackles. That's borderline insanity. We need to play to our strengths. Quick passes. We have receivers and TE's who are great blockers. We don't use that nearly enough.
We weren't good at run defense before losing Rosiek, but it's even worse without him. LB and interior DL have to be a recruiting focus next year.
We can win any/all of the last three games. We can also lose them all. Going to be interesting.
One thing I'm grateful for with Bret is that we are pretty much competitive game in and game out. I remember many times that wasn't the case.
This team/roster lacks depth. That has to improve.
We also need a lot of help in the trenches. O-line play is bad. And for whatever reason, we keep trying to run between the tackles. That's borderline insanity. We need to play to our strengths. Quick passes. We have receivers and TE's who are great blockers. We don't use that nearly enough.
We weren't good at run defense before losing Rosiek, but it's even worse without him. LB and interior DL have to be a recruiting focus next year.
We can win any/all of the last three games. We can also lose them all. Going to be interesting.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
quality wise , we needed to play a B+ game
unfortunately , we played a C- minus game
the main difference from the early season games is turnovers . we have gone from positive to negative .
The recruiting in the trenches is not good enough. Atleast the player development for the dline has been good. Can’t say that about the oline
I've heard J leman say on werners podcast that he actually found it harder to pay at home sometimes than on the road because of this exact vibe. The crowd brings this weird tension where they are just waiting for something to go wrong. and I have seen it so many times at games. Everyone is nervously quiet, and the first time the opponent scoresb or something the balloon deflates.
Michigan game felt different this year. Cried energy was one of expecting to win, confident and loud.
Every team has setbacks, but if we want them to bounce back in two weeks against MSU we shouldn't walk in sending the message that we expect them to lose out.
Rewatching the game (yeah, I know, why?), it seemed like Luke had trouble seeing over the Minny linemen when he was in the pocket. More tipped balls than usual, maybe even more sidearm throws than usual. He didn't have many clean pockets. Most of that was because he got put into far too many obvious passing downs after gaining nothing or even losing yardage on first down plays. Captain Obvious here says when you cannot run the ball effectively on first down but keep doing it...it's not a great recipe for success.
All that said, if someone had told me the Illini would be 6-3 at this point, I'd have taken it and given thanks. In terms of program momentum, they really need to win a couple of these last three games (another Captain Obvious observation).
All that said, if someone had told me the Illini would be 6-3 at this point, I'd have taken it and given thanks. In terms of program momentum, they really need to win a couple of these last three games (another Captain Obvious observation).
blackdog
- Champaign
We commented throughout the game that there was a huge majority of people sitting on their hands all game. I think Dads day had a huge amount to do with that. Lots of people coming from out of town that don't really care about the game at all which puts a huge damper on the energy. People were in and out of their seats way more than usual all game long to go get concessions and it felt more like a picnic at times than a football game.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
It's difficult for me to feel much more than mild disappointment about the loss yesterday. I absolutely despise losing to Fleck but the fact is that he had the better team. Preseason we were arguing about whether this team could break the 0.500 ceiling. It has substantial talent deficiencies and I still find it incredible that the game in State College was ours to lose. IMO the coaches have done a solid job with what they have. Every team will have lackluster Saturdays; when it does the only thing that can save it is outsize talent. In addition, a long season grinds down players. Without depth you get what we're seeing now.
I'm not in the camp of "this is as good as it gets." BB and Co. have steadily improved HS recruiting and have the portal, which can improve our fortunes quickly IF we get the NIL $$. That's a big if. Until then, where we are beats 3-9 or 4-8 by a country mile. I'd like to be Iowa but we're not. Yet.
Rest, get healthy, and then give thanks for the fact that we've got MSU at home. Our boys are doing their best. I wish for their sakes yesterday that it had been superior to the challenge. We're better than both MSU and Rutgers. We've got our tickets for Nov. 23 in Piscataway and are looking forward to seeing an Illini victory in person, no matter how ugly.
I'm not in the camp of "this is as good as it gets." BB and Co. have steadily improved HS recruiting and have the portal, which can improve our fortunes quickly IF we get the NIL $$. That's a big if. Until then, where we are beats 3-9 or 4-8 by a country mile. I'd like to be Iowa but we're not. Yet.
Rest, get healthy, and then give thanks for the fact that we've got MSU at home. Our boys are doing their best. I wish for their sakes yesterday that it had been superior to the challenge. We're better than both MSU and Rutgers. We've got our tickets for Nov. 23 in Piscataway and are looking forward to seeing an Illini victory in person, no matter how ugly.
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Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Sadly, this is a longterm trend of fans not making MS a true home field advantage. A lot has been placed at the feet of coaches and players, but fans have really not done their part over the years. No idea how we "get there" from a fans perspective, but it is concerning. I fear a very unengaged crowd in two weeks, and that is exactly the opposite of what is needed. The team has the potential of winning 9 games, which is rare territory for the program, yet you would not know it looking at crowd engagement.
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Everyone on this board needs to call all their friends and get them to show up lol.
They need to make Memorial Stadium a more intimidating place to play for opponents. Make it more compact in to bring the fans and students closer to the field and trap in the noise. I noticed that there were students sitting in the southeast corner of the stadium for the Michigan game and it helped.
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I have heard this argument over and over in these past 3 decades, and before White I heard it all the way back to 1959..... STOP with the blaming the crowd BS (pardon my German) most people are not sadists or masochists... so to spend ever increasing sums of money to sit in the sun on a hot summer day watching a losing football team lose again, it gets increasingly more difficult to continue to spend those ever increasing dollars on this activity. . . You find other things to do, and so you get out of the habit. . . Yet if you'll notice, WHEN the program catches lightning in a bottle - which only happens once a decade - and actually starts winning, the FANS return to spending those ever increasing amounts and RETURN to the stands... There are many (Repeat: MANY) who would fill those stands, but they want to see SOMETHING... Not 2 yards and a cloud of dust (I wouldn't mind the dust if we got the 3 yards, but we don't)... This fan base is STARVING for good competent, and competitive teams...
I believe that this coach is probably the best we've had since Ray Eliot - Yes I know Mackovic and White got us some victories but neither was building a program that was sustainable. I believe Coach B is building this program - Raising our floor, into a sustainable and profitable program. But getting up off the mat is really difficult, and once you've been on the mat for decades, it's so much MORE difficult... But it's NOT the fault of the FANS...