Illinois - What Did We Learn

I learned that when we win people here will say ‘that’s the worst team we’ll play all year.’

Do you think other team’s boards say that about us when they beat us?

We beat a B10 team on the road by two scores. A team that we haven’t beat in a while. We even did most of the stupid stuff we always do and won. It’s a good win. Take it.

 
soup said:
At some point there will be a middle backer that can actually pick off a ball against HH. I think in every start there has been a ball thrown across the middle that he completely misses the linebacker dropping back into coverage and he throws right to them. Haarberg needs to learn how to read a defense a bit better.  Zone defense confounds him to no end.
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He also looks right at the person he’s throwing to but that side arm throw is just awful and unfortunately I don’t think you can correct that?

 
I'm starting to look at the QB conversation roughly like this: you look at his total yards, and then you look at decision making & turnovers.

It doesn't probably matter that much whether his total yards come off of passing or running. Haarberg had 236 yards of total offense, which was decent. But he threw a pick, and then threw into traffic multiple times where those passes could have also been intercepted. He also threw a couple key passes just off target enough to where the receivers couldn't get to it on key plays.

On a different night where the defense wasn't on the top of their game, we probably lose with the game he played. Definitely has to be better than what he did last night.

 
C-4 said:
This. The Sims experiment was ungodly hard to watch... I think some of you blocked it out of your memory. 
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That game last night was ungodly hard to watch also. I don't really want either guy playing QB but Sims has more upside (I'm talking like a 17/100 versus a 12). They both are turnovers waiting to happen.  No offense to them, they are simply in the wrong position, athletes playing QB. We gotta stop doing this, recruit an actual passing QB.

Illinois is BAD. Even NW isn't that bad, nor is MSU, we will see about Purdue today versus Iowa. None of those teams are good thankfully and we have a chance all month/early next. 

Edit: NW is indeed that bad.  I retract that part. :lol:

 
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macroboy said:
I don’t really buy this bc we had problems w false starts before this game.
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Yes we have had problems in the past. This year has been much cleaner. Watching the game last night the movement I saw in the O line wasn't the raise up and step back movement I usually see. Rather it was lifting their head to hear the new play call while the defense points out the movement to the refs. Like most Big Ten crews these officials were clueless as they threw the flag.

 
I would agree with those who said that Illinois is a bad football team.  They are one step above Northern Illinois. These are games you have to win and against teams you have to beat.  We have beaten the mutts on our schedule so far.  Give this team credit for that at least.  However,  this team is hard to watch play football.  Offense is rather terrible.  We see a player last week break a long run, and I don't know if he even saw the field last night(Fleeks)?  I eluded to this in a post a few weeks ago, but our defense is only going to cause havoc if we bring pressure each and every down.  Our front 3/4 players get no pressure on their own.  This is cause for concern against teams with some weapons.  Purdue is a decent team, and will test our defense.  Northwestern is not a good football team, but I think better than Illinois.  We better beat NOrthwestern, because the rest of the schedule I would say we are no better than and we don't have offensive weapons like they do.  Iowa would be the outlier in that discussion, but there defense scores better than our offense does at times.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
I actually feel bad for Satterfield when his players have trouble executing simple play calls. 
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Guys were wide open...a good passing QB would've thrown the ball right to them, not over their head....it's probably tough for Satterfield to know how much to call. Haarberg's weird shotput passing style is bizarre and makes him the equivalent of a 5'10 QB, but maybe that's what he feels he needs to do for accuracy because he sure wasn't throwing any strikes in the spring. I think we need to pass to Grant out of the backfield more just as a relief valve....he can be deadly in the open field.

 
This team needs the bye week.  They need to figure out the offense.  Course at this point the season is half over, you should have figured out the offense by now.  I see a scenario where Simms gets the nod after the bye week.  One huge complaint I have against HH is his inability to pitch the ball.  He should have pitched the ball early on in that game last night and Grant might have broken a long one on several occasions.   It was there.  I don't know if he understands by pitching the ball early, it will open up for him later in the game.  He lacks some general football knowledge. 

In short this team lacks overall talent on both sides of the ball.  If they do earn a bowl bid, it says something for the coaching staff, and also says something about the Big 10 west.  Going forward if we don't upgrade the talent level on this roster, 5-7 wins is the max.  We see all these teams scoring points and having at least one deep threat, and we have literally no one.  That has to change.  Hats off to Malachi that dudes was blocking down field last night.  That was nice to see.

 
My thought on the QB situation is this. 

Sims has been a starter at the FBS level, P5, for almost 4 years. And he still makes those mistakes of wild throws and poor ball handling. 

Haarberg has started 4 games, he is a tough runner, holds on to the ball and makes poor advised throws. 

I think HH could be coached into a decent passing QB. He still is pretty raw and with the right instruction could make improvements on reads, check downs etc. I think it has been too long for Sims to make any improvements at this point. Sad to say for him. 

Finally I think with HH, as of right now anyway, you cater any throws to his abiliy. Roll him out, throws to the flat, anything over the middle or deep needs better training. 

 
I honestly feel that 3 more wins are going to be hard to come by with this offense.  Yes, we need to use Grant more, but as I stated, if HH won't pitch him the ball sometimes, he will start to show some frustration and won't play as hard.  Grant can pound out at least 3 or 4 yards on almost every carry.  Against good defenses he does struggle, but most of the the teams left on our schedule he can overpower alot of those defenders.  I would like to see Purdy get a shot as well going forward.  He can run, and I think can pass the ball somewhat better than what we have seen from either Simms or HH.

If were going to keep showing the option, we better start pitching the ball and spreading the defenses out so they have to honor the pitch man or its for nothing other than window dressing.

 
Undone said:
Honestly, Altmeyer is an absolutely terrible QB. Blackshirts get so much credit in this one, especially the goal line stand on their first drive...but a better QB for them definitely could have wound up giving us the 'L' in this game because of our offensive ineptitude. He skipped multiple passes off the turf.
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I’m glad you said this.   There were multiple missed passes/dropped balls thatbwowukd have kept drives alive for Illinois that a competent team completes.   I still think the D plays too far off the receivers on one side.   

 
Undone said:
I'm starting to look at the QB conversation roughly like this: you look at his total yards, and then you look at decision making & turnovers.

It doesn't probably matter that much whether his total yards come off of passing or running. Haarberg had 236 yards of total offense, which was decent. But he threw a pick, and then threw into traffic multiple times where those passes could have also been intercepted. He also threw a couple key passes just off target enough to where the receivers couldn't get to it on key plays.

On a different night where the defense wasn't on the top of their game, we probably lose with the game he played. Definitely has to be better than what he did last night.
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But it was very windy. Not exactly apples to apples with other games. Does Sims pass better last night? I doubt it.

 
Micheal said:
My thought on the QB situation is this. 

Sims has been a starter at the FBS level, P5, for almost 4 years. And he still makes those mistakes of wild throws and poor ball handling. 

Haarberg has started 4 games, he is a tough runner, holds on to the ball and makes poor advised throws. 

I think HH could be coached into a decent passing QB. He still is pretty raw and with the right instruction could make improvements on reads, check downs etc. I think it has been too long for Sims to make any improvements at this point. Sad to say for him. 

Finally I think with HH, as of right now anyway, you cater any throws to his abiliy. Roll him out, throws to the flat, anything over the middle or deep needs better training. 
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I would agree somewhat, but I would also find spots for Purdy to get some shots.  I think he is just as fast and maybe a better downfield passer.  Start figuring out what you have good and bad before next season.  Why carry a roster full of Qb's who are not going to ever play for you?  HH has some bright spots, but he is not running the offense like it should be.  This offense is not good, but when your not in command of it, its tougher on everyone. 

 
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