Attention turns to the Illini

eyekwah

eyekwah

Well-Known Member
Really apprehensive about the game with Illinois. Too many advantages for Illinois in this game, its a home game for them, two weeks off for their players to recover from their demise of Nebraska, and Iowa coming off a tough game with Nebraska's best shot. And you can't dismiss players looking ahead to the game with Wisconsin the following Saturday.

I'd feel more confident if the QB position for Iowa was better at passing but it is what it is. Any pass completion over 20 yards is questionable. BF needs to realize that right now Petras is not able to throw the deeper ball. I watched a number of games and I believe his problem is not getting enough air under the longer throws. The QB's making the long throws are letting the receiver run under the ball and dropping it into the receiver. The throw to Ragaini was too flat a projectory. Just my opinion.

I expect this to be a close scoring game and Iowa cannot commit turnovers which Illinois has been getting a lot of this year. I just hope the team is ready to play.
 
I think the hawks will be ready. If the same Illini qb who played against nebby is in he is a pretty good runner but they dont run him by design that much. The illini offense will be a test as they are supposed to have a top line, two faster, shifty rbacks, and I assume at least decent receivers.

Their defense shut nebby down after Mccaffrey got nebby off to a good start.

I think the hawks will not abandon the run and throw a bunch like they did against jNW which played right into Fitzy's hand. I hope Kallenberger is back or Cronk if they are the top two right tackles. I am not worried about not having the deep passes yet if we make completions at a good clip to routes that get yards after the catch.
 
If the Illinois QB is Brandon Peters and he's playing well, they are a completely different team. Early in the year he had his worst game ever -- and he had some stinkers at Michigan -- but after sitting out due to injury or illness, when he came back he dominated the game vs Nebraska. Iowa better rest up, because the Illini will bring it. NW's loss yesterday surely had to give the Hawks some extra juice tho: at this point, there are only 4 teams still in contention to play in the BTen Championship game: Ohio St., Indiana, NW & the Hawks. There's plenty to play for!
 
Grady said:
If the Illinois QB is Brandon Peters and he's playing well, they are a completely different team. Early in the year he had his worst game ever -- and he had some stinkers at Michigan -- but after sitting out due to injury or illness, when he came back he dominated the game vs Nebraska. Iowa better rest up, because the Illini will bring it. NW's loss yesterday surely had to give the Hawks some extra juice tho: at this point, there are only 4 teams still in contention to play in the BTen Championship game: Ohio St., Indiana, NW & the Hawks. There's plenty to play for!
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Very good post and yes it was Peters and he really picked nebby apart and ran well when needed.

Do we already know if jNW at Minny game is cancelled? If Minny plays and has most of their players they can beat jNW because Minny's defensive weakness would be against jNW offense that is not dynamic not getting 300/ypg very often.

And sparty ran the ball well on jNW yesterday and Ibrahim could have a big day.
 
I watched Illinois get absolutely dominated by Minnesota. Considering Minnesota would have trouble fighting their way out of a wet paper bag...I was counting this as a resounding win. However, the Illinois team I watched play Nebraska, was not the same team I watched play Minnesota. They came out aggressive in the passing game and ran the ball all over Nebraska.

This is going to be a good game. I think if Iowa doesn't turn the ball over...we will win....but turnovers would even this one out pretty quickly. The bottom line is that we have a defense that continues to get better and makes adjustments...and usually plays it's best football in the second half...the hallmark of a good defensive team.

It's kind of the classic trap game with Wisconsin coming in next week...but I don't think our guys are overconfident...as they will watch the film of the Illinois - Nebraska game.
 
If you look at how both teams just played Nebraska, I don't see how we could be over confident. We had better come ready to play. That said, I think the coaching staff has generally done a good job of doing that. I don't think this will be a cakewalk but we come out on top. I really like how our defense is playing and I think they will be up to the task.
 
I'm pretty confident Illinois will get on the scoreboard, and that will be an upgrade (for them) over our last two visits to Champaign.....

Didn't Geno Stone knock their starting QB out of the game last year? We were hell on quarterbacks by the end of the year. We knocked out the starter three of the last four games we played.
 
I don't care what Illinois did against Nebraska. Nebraska now has that Iowa game circled as their Super Bowl and both teams were coming in on a short week. 0 stock can be put in that matchup. Iowa will smash Illinois. 69-0.
 
okeefe4prez said:
I don't care what Illinois did against Nebraska. Nebraska now has that Iowa game circled as their Super Bowl and both teams were coming in on a short week. 0 stock can be put in that matchup. Iowa will smash Illinois. 69-0.
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Nice.
 
okeefe4prez said:
I don't care what Illinois did against Nebraska. Nebraska now has that Iowa game circled as their Super Bowl and both teams were coming in on a short week. 0 stock can be put in that matchup. Iowa will smash Illinois. 69-0.
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You could have made that prediction two years ago and not been far off.
 
We're having wayyyyy more fun fucking with Debby in the Fusker thread than worrying about the fighting Lovies.

Just sayn. :)
 
I usually tend to be a little conservative, even pessimistic about predictions, but I think we win comfortably. I'm really not worried about Illinois having the extra time off. With this being a weird/abbreviated season, I think the extra reps help the Hawks. This is a solid Iowa team, we should be able to take care of a very mediocre Illinois and I expect them to do just that.
 
I went to Champaign to watch #4 Iowa play in 1983. Iowa got boat raced by 5 TDs that day. What I remember most is that I got hammered the night before and how hung over I was through the whole day.

I sat next to a young mom who talked to me. At halftime her daughter who was a student joined her and sat with me. I was too exhausted to have a conversation to get to know her. shame.
 
NCHawker said:
I went to Champaign to watch #4 Iowa play in 1983. Iowa got boat raced by 5 TDs that day. What I remember most is that I got hammered the night before and how hung over I was through the whole day.

I sat next to a young mom who talked to me. At halftime her daughter who was a student joined her and sat with me. I was too exhausted to have a conversation to get to know her. shame.
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I was at that game too. And the one in 08 when we lost on a last second FG.
(that was the year we beat SC in the Outback bowl and Illinois finished 5-7)

So, yes, Iowa *can* lose in Champaign. To (on paper) worse Illinois teams.

The south wind off the cattle lots didn't help either.
 
Seth53 said:
I was at that game too. And the one in 08 when we lost on a last second FG.
(that was the year we beat SC in the Outback bowl and Illinois finished 5-7)

So, yes, Iowa *can* lose in Champaign. To (on paper) worse Illinois teams.

The south wind off the cattle lots didn't help either.
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I registered a 0.28 BAC at halftime of that Illinois game in 2008. Ugh. It was bad. The 3 down lineman defensive set at the end scared me. And for good reason. What a disaster.
 
Vegas has confidence in the Hawks, last I checked we were -13. Anyhow, I think it will likely be close hard fought game that goes either way, or if the D continues to improve, and Petras doesn't F up - even improves a wee bit, we could win by 13ish or a bit more. Time will tell, but at least it looks to be exciting rather than a boring blowout.
 
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