Penn State 21, Illinois 7 Postgame

#151      
SAELION
Brosky said:
our upfront defense was exposed. I can't think of a reason PSU needed to throw a single pass. Penn State is too good. That level of play is what we have to shoot for, and I'm sure BB knows it.
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Penn felt that Illinois got overwhelmed. Quote from a Penn lineman:
Vega Ioane, the Penn State guard who is playing at an elite level this season, looked across the line of scrimmage in the second quarter and saw a wearying Illinois defense.

"Every block I made, it seemed like they didn't even want to try against me anymore," Ioane said late Saturday night at Beaver Stadium.
 
#152      
therealmiket86
Mr. Tibbs said:
indeed they were
Luke had so little time . on more than a few plays , a PSU defender came after him from the LOS untouched
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Even when we tried to run screens to slow them down it would get blown up. The one thing I don’t get is not staying under center when we got down to the 2. Pound the ball and eat up clock. Who go into halftime with a lead and it a different game. It was a big momentum swing when we get points
 
#154      
altgeld88
SAELION said:
Penn felt that Illinois got overwhelmed. Quote from a Penn lineman:
Vega Ioane, the Penn State guard who is playing at an elite level this season, looked across the line of scrimmage in the second quarter and saw a wearying Illinois defense.

"Every block I made, it seemed like they didn't even want to try against me anymore," Ioane said late Saturday night at Beaver Stadium.
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Is he really a reliable narrator? The fact that our D stuffed them several times approaching the red zone indicates otherwise.
 
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#155      
EyeoftheIllini
Illini2010-11 said:
It was a good game, but I would argue the score is less indicative of how much Penn State dominated the second half.

I honestly couldn't believe Illinois was driving to try to tie game in mid 4th quarter.
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Agree. Not soon after the kickoff to open second half, it became apparent to me pretty quick that it was going to take some big time self destruction by PSU for Illini to win. Frontline of D was getting gashed consistently, and O-Line and offense didn’t seem to have any answers for PSU’s penetration.

Someone earlier posted that Illini are fine at “skill positions,” but have a lot of work to do when it comes to both lines. Couldn’t agree more. That said, Illini showed they are a solid team. Long ways to go to get to next level, but an easy team to root for and watch. And I think they’ll give us more good memories as season goes along.
 
#156      
RoundBalcs
Color me extremely disappointed in this one. We were physically outmanned and obviously less talented in many places on the roster. That said, we still shot ourselves in the foot with mistakes and blew a chance to win this one. It’s frustrating - had we not beaten ourselves too, what would the end result look like? Probably still ends in a loss, but it’s the ‘what ifs’ that will eat away at me.
 
#158      
Rammer34
Illini2010-11 said:
It was a good game, but I would argue the score is less indicative of how much Penn State dominated the second half.

I honestly couldn't believe Illinois was driving to try to tie game in mid 4th quarter.
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Had the Illini not botched the end of the half (goal-to-go from inside the five), this might have been a different game. My hope is that Lunney will abandon shotgun inside the five.
 
#160      
LJ22
Rammer34 said:
Had the Illini not botched the end of the half (goal-to-go from inside the five), this might have been a different game. My hope is that Lunney will abandon shotgun inside the five.
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I can't hate the outcome, and I don't think it would have changed the final result, but being a few yards from the end zone and coming away with zero points going into halftime literally haunted my dreams last night.
 
#161      
skyIdub
#166      
TheFlyingIllini1317
BZuppke said:
Clearly their lines dominated and that was the story of the game. However, what might have been had we scored a TD before the half? Would Franklin’s odd play calling have gotten more odd? Throw the ball more? Possible picks by our guys? Our failure to go up 7 allowed them to grind it out in the second where had we scored they might have tried too hard and given us some defensive opportunities.
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I keep thinking about this, if we score that TD I think we would of had a 75% chance of closing it out. Disappointed like everyone, but Bret has had this program come a long way. We have a must win vs. Purdue and if we win that we are 5-1 going into Michigan, BEAT PURDUE!
 
#167      
Illini-Rule
OskieWowWow said:
I respect the mentality. Iowa built a program that wins minimum 9 games a year, so can we. There's nothing special about Iowa
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Not to take anything away from, because they are a very good program. But every year they seem to have on of the easiest schedules in the Big 10.
 
#168      
Illini-Rule
and 69 others said:
How the hell did Bowling Green score 24 points in a half against that defense?
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Penn St. figured out that by pressuring our QB and pinning their ears back and going after Luke every down was more than we could handle. I hope that doesn't give other teams the cheat code for beating us. It doesn't seem as if we have the ability to counter that, whether with our offensive linemen or play calling.
 
#169      
lstewart53x3
The better team won. Overall though, I’m encouraged by the result.

Looking at KFord’s stats, we moved up 0.5 points in his model pushing us up 3 spots from 44 to 41. So we performed better than his model expected.

Compare that to our B1G foes who also played top 15 teams:

Michigan St lost at home to KFord #2 OSU and fell 0.8 points and 4 spots in the rankings (61-65).

UCLA lost 34-13 at home against #9 Oregon and fell 0.4 points and stayed the same in the rankings (75).

Wisconsin lost 38-21 on the road at #10 USC and fell 0.6 points and 3 spots in the rankings (55 to 58).

Each of those teams underperformed model expectations, whereas we over-performed. Which bodes well for the rest of the season.
 
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#170      
bleedorange and blue
Illini2010-11 said:
I want the coaches, staff, and players preparing through practice to have an expectation of winning.

For me, as fans, we need to expect the team to be competitive each and every time the team takes the field (at this part of the rebuild), and we are beginning to do that. And most importantly, fans need to fill Memorial Stadium each and every home game. I believe unrealistic expectations is what leads to less fans packing the stadium.

With that said, I  expect this team to get to at least 8 wins this year, and I expect this coaching staff to continue to hit recruiting hard to make this team championship quality in the years ahead.
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I have expected to win every game since Bob Blackman, I have suffered
 
#171      
IlliniReb
Illini2010-11 said:
I want the coaches, staff, and players preparing through practice to have an expectation of winning.

For me, as fans, we need to expect the team to be competitive each and every time the team takes the field (at this part of the rebuild), and we are beginning to do that. And most importantly, fans need to fill Memorial Stadium each and every home game. I believe unrealistic expectations is what leads to less fans packing the stadium.

With that said, I  expect this team to get to at least 8 wins this year, and I expect this coaching staff to continue to hit recruiting hard to make this team championship quality in the years ahead.
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Pin this. Exactly right
 
#174      
STLini25
IlliniTaffy said:
They'd have to beat Michigan and Oregon probably. Kansas is horrible this year and Nebraska looks very meh despite their rankings when we beat them.
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10-2 and the only loses to Top 10 Penn State and Top 10 Oregon both on the road is in the top 12.
 
#175      
NashvILLe05
Illini-Rule said:
Penn St. figured out that by pressuring our QB and pinning their ears back and going after Luke every down was more than we could handle. I hope that doesn't give other teams the cheat code for beating us. It doesn't seem as if we have the ability to counter that, whether with our offensive linemen or play calling.
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PSU had the personnel to do it. Not everyone will. We’ll also learn from this game and get better.
 
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