Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
Pregame: Illinois at Nebraska, Friday, September 20th, 7:00pm CT, FOX
- Status
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Tough, tough call this week. I'm hoping Aaron Henry and BB can put together a defensive game plan similar to what the Texans did to Caleb Williams this past Sunday night. Blitz the crap out of the young and inexperienced QB.
19-17 Illini
We kick a game winning FG at the buzzer. If it's 50 yards or less, Olano gets the call. If it's 51 yards or longer, Moczulski is the hero.
So far --- 2-1 against the spread, and 3-0 in predicting the winner.
19-17 Illini
We kick a game winning FG at the buzzer. If it's 50 yards or less, Olano gets the call. If it's 51 yards or longer, Moczulski is the hero.
So far --- 2-1 against the spread, and 3-0 in predicting the winner.
I think it's fair to say this would be Bielema's biggest win? All eyes are on Nebraska right now. The fans think they are back, pretty much every media network has been talking about if they are back. They have a star (but young) QB. It's on national TV on Friday night so no other games competing with it. This is the perfect opportunity to send a message to the country that Illinois is legit.
2021 - Beat PSU in the 9OT game. It was no doubt an incredible win. But we were 2-5 and it was more of a "we are a mediocre team that stole a game against a team that was overlooking us."
2022 - Incredibly fun season, but not really any marquee wins. Throttling Wisconsin in Madison was a blast, but everyone said "Wisconsin is bad" instead of "Illinois is good". We were so close in Ann Arbor, but came up short.
2023 - No big wins.
2021 - Beat PSU in the 9OT game. It was no doubt an incredible win. But we were 2-5 and it was more of a "we are a mediocre team that stole a game against a team that was overlooking us."
2022 - Incredibly fun season, but not really any marquee wins. Throttling Wisconsin in Madison was a blast, but everyone said "Wisconsin is bad" instead of "Illinois is good". We were so close in Ann Arbor, but came up short.
2023 - No big wins.
Yeah. That time we lost a close one at Nebraska and the refs almost purposely marked the ball wrong on one of our drives deep in their territory was creepy.
MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
First road game of the year hasn't usually gone well. I'm not going to die if the Illini lose this one.
Probably.
Probably.
I am an optimist. Illinois 24-23
Anyone know if there is a watch party in the Libertyville area?
100%It is now 7.5
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
That game still rankles me. I even had two screen shots showing how the near-side official changed the spot by nearly two full yards. It was so obvious that something else was in play for that game.
I worry about Luke getting hurt on one of those runs. Anyone know how Leary has been looking in practice? I need to know how nervous I need to be each time Luke gets tackled.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Just watched the full game highlights of the Nebraska vs Colorado game. A few takeaways:
1: Nebraska’s running game is very good. If we can’t stop it, they might not even need to throw to win.
2: Raiola is very good. A true playmaker. A great arm. Good on his feet. The full package.
But—he’s just begging for a multiple interception game this year. Against Colorado, he had one ball he just floated up in the air for a 40 yard gain. A better defense picks that off every time. He had another pass that bounced off the chest plate of a Colorado defender and back into the arms of a Nebraska receiver for a touchdown.
3: Nebraska’s defensive line is scary. Luke’s gonna take a few hits in this game. Our offensive line has to play much better.
4: Nebraska’s defense plays very sound. Not very many missed tackles. When they hit, they hit hard, they wrap up, and they take their guy to the ground.
All that said, the Nebraska / Colorado game was much closer than the score would indicate.
It was one of those games where nothing went right for Colorado and everything went right for Nebraska.
A list:
- 2 “should-have-been” interceptions by Colorado which lead to touchdowns for Nebraska. Take those two off the board and it’s a different game.
- When the score was 7-0, Colorado threw a pick six that was just a terrible read by Sanders and never should have been thrown.
- Nebraska blocked a field goal on the 10 yard line.
- Nebraska stuffed Colorado on 4th and inches twice.
- Targeting called against Colorado with less than a minute to go before halftime that lead to a Nebraska touchdown to go up 28-0 at half.
Nebraska was clearly the better, more talented team, but this game was closer than it appeared.
More evidence of that:
This is the net success rate from the game, which captures which team had more successful plays (it doesn’t take into account turnovers, penalties, and other important parts of football, but typically the teams with the best net success rate over the span of a season win the most games).
Colorado had a better net success rate than Nebraska:
I still don’t necessarily see us winning this game. Mostly due to match up. They can run the ball, we struggle to stop the run. They have a scary defensive line, we struggle on the offensive line.
But I think the game is going to be closer than a lot of people.
1: Nebraska’s running game is very good. If we can’t stop it, they might not even need to throw to win.
2: Raiola is very good. A true playmaker. A great arm. Good on his feet. The full package.
But—he’s just begging for a multiple interception game this year. Against Colorado, he had one ball he just floated up in the air for a 40 yard gain. A better defense picks that off every time. He had another pass that bounced off the chest plate of a Colorado defender and back into the arms of a Nebraska receiver for a touchdown.
3: Nebraska’s defensive line is scary. Luke’s gonna take a few hits in this game. Our offensive line has to play much better.
4: Nebraska’s defense plays very sound. Not very many missed tackles. When they hit, they hit hard, they wrap up, and they take their guy to the ground.
All that said, the Nebraska / Colorado game was much closer than the score would indicate.
It was one of those games where nothing went right for Colorado and everything went right for Nebraska.
A list:
- 2 “should-have-been” interceptions by Colorado which lead to touchdowns for Nebraska. Take those two off the board and it’s a different game.
- When the score was 7-0, Colorado threw a pick six that was just a terrible read by Sanders and never should have been thrown.
- Nebraska blocked a field goal on the 10 yard line.
- Nebraska stuffed Colorado on 4th and inches twice.
- Targeting called against Colorado with less than a minute to go before halftime that lead to a Nebraska touchdown to go up 28-0 at half.
Nebraska was clearly the better, more talented team, but this game was closer than it appeared.
More evidence of that:
This is the net success rate from the game, which captures which team had more successful plays (it doesn’t take into account turnovers, penalties, and other important parts of football, but typically the teams with the best net success rate over the span of a season win the most games).
Colorado had a better net success rate than Nebraska:
I still don’t necessarily see us winning this game. Mostly due to match up. They can run the ball, we struggle to stop the run. They have a scary defensive line, we struggle on the offensive line.
But I think the game is going to be closer than a lot of people.
Last edited:
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Great info!
My bet would be that they'll be 4-2 and we'll be 4-2.
I know they’ve generally been pretty high on him (as a backup), and you can see the spring game on tape where he throws 2-3 40-yard bombs so he’s got a good arm. But, again, he’s the backup for a reason.
Focus more on the fact that the 1-2 scrambles per game has always been a part of Luke’s game and he’s generally stayed away from injuries on it. He did get a concussion last season, but that wasn’t in a scramble.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Illinois' Bret Bielema talks Dylan Raiola, Nebraska history ahead of Friday showdown
Bret Bielema’s familiarity with Nebraska goes back decades. Ahead of Friday's ranked matchup, the Illinois coach had high praise for the Husker fanbase and quarterback Dylan Raiola.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Playing any QB backup except Texas is someone thing you’d rather avoid. Altmyer is probably the 5th-7th best B1G QB. Leary may look good in practice, but he would have lessons to learn if he was playing.
He's a top 5 QB in the B10.
Paddock did ok, no?
The ILL-INI nation is very near the corn... That sounds like a good 2 ints and 3 sack outing for a freshman QB who will learn what disguised secondary looks like.....the hard way.
- Status