**** What we learned - Illinois edition ****

[RedRex]

1. The Defense is learning to adapt to looks not shown on film during the week. The learning curve is getting better every week.

2. Nate Gerry is getting comfortable enough at safety to start taking chances which are resulting in picks and tfl's.

3. Cross gets into trouble running too upright, and Ron Brown was the 1st one to call him out on it. Looks like Imani took the lesson well because he ran low and tight afterwards.

4. Gregory is a freaking demon when starting from a stand up linebacker spot. It adds to the OL confusion when the guy you HAVE to account for gets lost in the chaos after the snap.

5. Joe Ganz gets paid so little he cannot afford dry cleaning and is forced to where pajama bottoms to the game.

6. Ameer.....wow...that's it, just Wow!

 

[Mavric]

2. Nate Gerry is getting comfortable enough at safety to start taking chances which are resulting in picks and tfl's.

He plays at full speed. Which, in his case, is considerable. He's missed a few tackles because he's flying around so fast but it results in many more great plays made than missed.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

I'm certainly no Taylor Martinez hater but this offense is in much better hands than the previous four years. Tommy sure has room to improve in the decision making department but he can manage a game and provides leadership. His throwing ability is light years ahead of TM's. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but the QB difference is the main reason our O is so much more prolific and effective. TM was a special talent and gave a lot for this program but TA is much better for making everything click.

Ummmm, yeah.
There is this cat that wears #8. We saw the difference when he was out of the game even with #4 at QB.

I think that the word I'm looking for to desribe this line of thinking is delusional.

Ah....actually it's your line of thinking that's hard to follow, Hunter.

What are you saying exactly? That Ameer is the only reason the offense looks better this season?

Even though it's Ameer's fourth season?

 

[Mavric]

Even when teams double team Gregory they still can't block him.

 

[True2tRA]

I'm certainly no Taylor Martinez hater but this offense is in much better hands than the previous four years. Tommy sure has room to improve in the decision making department but he can manage a game and provides leadership. His throwing ability is light years ahead of TM's. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but the QB difference is the main reason our O is so much more prolific and effective. TM was a special talent and gave a lot for this program but TA is much better for making everything click.

Ummmm, yeah.There is this cat that wears #8. We saw the difference when he was out of the game even with #4 at QB.

I think that the word I'm looking for to desribe this line of thinking is delusional.

Ah....actually it's your line of thinking that's hard to follow, Hunter.

What are you saying exactly? That Ameer is the only reason the offense looks better this season?

Even though it's Ameer's fourth season?

I'll tell you right now I bet Kenny and Ameer wish they had a couple more years with Armstrong.

 

[TonyStalloni]

I am excited by and for this team. To me they show a mental toughness I haven't seen for way too long. They are doing the things a team does and not just 11 players wearing the same uniform, which I thought were ok except the shiny numbers. I think the game saturday is winnable if we don't turn the ball over. We may get behind early but we play all 4 quarters and seem to get stronger as the game goes on. Our D tends to get a bit lost early but the coaches do a good job of getting them on track after a few series....which is what often happens with young players. Our team won't back down and I think they have something to prove.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Ameer should be considered the Heisman front runner at this point in time.

We are deep at RB and there is little drop off from AA- think about that.

Beck has done much better these last two games, let's hope that continues against some much tougher defenses.

Liked the shoes, the rest of the red rising uniform was just bad. Hope they burn them and switch to Nike.

We've got a challenge coming up with MSU. Should be a great game.

Beck has done well all year minus the mcneese state game.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. The games Beck called against Miami and Illinois were noticeably improved from the previous three games. Specifically he seemed to stick with what was working while also exploiting what the defense was giving us. Previously he would try to out guess the D, force things he thought would be there, and generally get in his own way. IMO the change from the first three games to the last two has been quite remarkable and obvious.

Against FAU and Fresno State, pretty much everything Beck called was working. Against Fresno State, the passing game was actually working better than the running game. So when you say Beck needs to stay with what works, that would include everything in the two games where we ran and passed with an exciting array of offensive weapons, scored 55 points, and logged the single highest offensive output in Big 10 history.

"Exploiting what the defense gives you" isn't a phrase reserved for rushing the ball. The whole point of the concept is to be reactive and flexible. Everybody, and I mean everyone, loves that we've been able to run over the last two opponents. But a big part of that has been OL adjustments that have helped the running game break out. If we end up passing the ball more in future games, it won't necessarily mean Beck has gone away from what's working. It may simply mean the running game wasn't doing the job by itself.

I'm with TonyStalloni here. Mental toughness makes a huuuge difference. Playcalling is a lot easier when everyone is executing.

 

[JJ Husker]

I guess the problems I have with Beck's playcalling in those first three games stems from a few really bad choices. I believe the best example was the FAU opening drive, third and fourth down play calls. Totally ridiculous to not decide to just ram the ball down their throat. Even if they load the box and we fail, it's better than what we did. That same scenario has played out a few times in each of those first thrree games. Beck just tried too hard to be too cute at times. Like a many have said, he just couldn't keep out of his own way. Sure we were still highly successful in two of those games but not because Beck didn't make plenty of bad play calls along with plenty of good ones. When it is a lesser opponent, I expect us to be pretty efficient so the dumber calls seem to stick out more. I just sense that he has been approaching it differently (and better) the last two games. It seems obvious to me that he is being a little more patient and has chosen to rely more heavily on the O line and our RB's, especially Ameer, and that is a much better gameplan IMO.

 

[Mavric]

If we're nit-picking a couple plays from a game where we averaged about 8.5 yards per play, rolled up 55 points and nearly 800 yards of offense and only punted once with the starters in, I think it's possible that our expectations are a bit unreasonable.

Edit: after re-reading, I think you meant McNeese, not FAU. On both the third- and fourth- down plays, TA checked at the line. Not sure if it was an automatic check based on the defensive alignment or just what TA though would work better but it is pure speculation as to if that's the play Beck actually called. I would guess something else was originally called.

 

[BigRedBuster]

If we're nit-picking a couple plays from a game where we averaged about 8.5 yards per play, rolled up 55 points and nearly 800 yards of offense and only punted once with the starters in, I think it's possible that our expectations are a bit unreasonable.

Edit: after re-reading, I think you meant McNeese, not FAU.

+1

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

I guess the problems I have with Beck's playcalling in those first three games stems from a few really bad choices. I believe the best example was the FAU opening drive, third and fourth down play calls. Totally ridiculous to not decide to just ram the ball down their throat. Even if they load the box and we fail, it's better than what we did. That same scenario has played out a few times in each of those first thrree games. Beck just tried too hard to be too cute at times. Like a many have said, he just couldn't keep out of his own way. Sure we were still highly successful in two of those games but not because Beck didn't make plenty of bad play calls along with plenty of good ones. When it is a lesser opponent, I expect us to be pretty efficient so the dumber calls seem to stick out more. I just sense that he has been approaching it differently (and better) the last two games. It seems obvious to me that he is being a little more patient and has chosen to rely more heavily on the O line and our RB's, especially Ameer, and that is a much better gameplan IMO.

Not to be a broken record, but there were two crucial sequences in the Miami game (one where we started after a turnover on our 5, the other first and goal on the Miami 5) where Beck tried to ram the ball down their throat with three consecutive rushing plays to Abdullah. That strategy failed both times. In that second and third game, Ameer had 107 yards on 35 carries (and 56 yards on one carry).

Did Beck then go away from the running game? No, he didn't. But some people conveniently forget that consecutive runs can fail as often as consecutive passes. Near as I can tell, the accusation of "too cute" is mostly the decision to pass instead of run, or perhaps the decision to take a shot deep.

I can't remember if it was a direct quote or some reporter's speculation, but it was suggested that Beck fully intended to work on the passing game during the cupcake portion of the schedule because he wasn't all that worried about our ability to run. Armstrong needed in game training for a passing attack we would need -- if not as often -- in conference play.

 

[74Hunter]

I'm certainly no Taylor Martinez hater but this offense is in much better hands than the previous four years. Tommy sure has room to improve in the decision making department but he can manage a game and provides leadership. His throwing ability is light years ahead of TM's. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but the QB difference is the main reason our O is so much more prolific and effective. TM was a special talent and gave a lot for this program but TA is much better for making everything click.

Ummmm, yeah.There is this cat that wears #8. We saw the difference when he was out of the game even with #4 at QB.

I think that the word I'm looking for to desribe this line of thinking is delusional.

Thinking TA is a better leader, game manager, and has better throwing mechanics than TM is delusional? Thinking 5-0 is better than any start under TM is delusional? You might want to look up the word delusional. I don't think it means what you think it does.

Yeah, we've heard about leadership from the coaches, but they also told us many times that a player was just fine, even though Stevie Wonder could see that he wasn't. Game manager, perhaps . but nobody ppb this board knows what plays are being called, what's being checked into, etc. It's all speculation. Better throwing mechanics, yes, at times be does, but he still isnt a better passer.
And the 5-0 start, well we haven't played a ranked team yet, and if you didn't know, there are 25+ other positions out there contributing to a team game.

I'm not the one who's delusional enough to convince myself that it's because of that guy.

 

[74Hunter]

I'm certainly no Taylor Martinez hater but this offense is in much better hands than the previous four years. Tommy sure has room to improve in the decision making department but he can manage a game and provides leadership. His throwing ability is light years ahead of TM's. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but the QB difference is the main reason our O is so much more prolific and effective. TM was a special talent and gave a lot for this program but TA is much better for making everything click.

Ummmm, yeah.There is this cat that wears #8. We saw the difference when he was out of the game even with #4 at QB.

I think that the word I'm looking for to desribe this line of thinking is delusional.

Ah....actually it's your line of thinking that's hard to follow, Hunter.

What are you saying exactly? That Ameer is the only reason the offense looks better this season?

Even though it's Ameer's fourth season?

Ah, typically when a college athlete has more years under his belt, He gets better with age. Id say that Ameer is better this year than last. I could be wrong, but i don't think i am.
Did you watch that game Saturday? Did you see how the offense wasn't as fluid or potent when Ameer was out of the game?

Other than handing the ball off and occasionally making the right reads, what did the QB position have to do with that?

 

[Danny Bateman]

If we're nit-picking a couple plays from a game where we averaged about 8.5 yards per play, rolled up 55 points and nearly 800 yards of offense and only punted once with the starters in, I think it's possible that our expectations are a bit unreasonable.

Edit: after re-reading, I think you meant McNeese, not FAU.

+1

Lol. Says +1 and subsequently fails to actually +1.

 

[74Hunter]

I'm certainly no Taylor Martinez hater but this offense is in much better hands than the previous four years. Tommy sure has room to improve in the decision making department but he can manage a game and provides leadership. His throwing ability is light years ahead of TM's. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but the QB difference is the main reason our O is so much more prolific and effective. TM was a special talent and gave a lot for this program but TA is much better for making everything click.

Ummmm, yeah.There is this cat that wears #8. We saw the difference when he was out of the game even with #4 at QB.

I think that the word I'm looking for to desribe this line of thinking is delusional.

Ah....actually it's your line of thinking that's hard to follow, Hunter.

What are you saying exactly? That Ameer is the only reason the offense looks better this season?

Even though it's Ameer's fourth season?

I'll tell you right now I bet Kenny and Ameer wish they had a couple more years with Armstrong.

If you would have heard Kennys interview on S&B over the summer, you would probably be shocked that he was very complimentary and defensive of his previous QB. But let's not let a small thing like that get it the way of a neat story. As i previously said, delusional indeed.
On a side not,,not sure what's up with my phone and the damn auto correct. My apologies.