Who would figure that they would put the offense back on the field on 4th and forever with no time outs. Was such a heart breaking loss, if not for the time out or a defensive stop... heart breaking.
Illinois coach had guts putting the offense back on the field
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Biellema is a real coach who has won big games and knows how to coach.
More than I can say about our coach who has not won a big game outside one November game close to two decades ago.
More than I can say about our coach who has not won a big game outside one November game close to two decades ago.
He also got bailed out. Blew his last timeout on a qb run on first down with 35 second left.
You can argue he got bailed out with the time out, but he also didn't try to kick it again. I can almost guarantee you Greg would've elected to kick it again if the roles were flipped.
Bielema is a good coach and he out his team in position to win.
Bielema is a good coach and he out his team in position to win.
He had only two bullets in his gun. He got a chance to see what happened when he fired his first, which was a pathetically bad field goal attempt. His only other bullet was to go for it.
That's not guts. It's just not being brain dead.
That's not guts. It's just not being brain dead.
4th and 13, 14 seconds left. If you make the first down, the clock will stop to move the sticks. You have time for a spike and then the kick.
I am surprised they didn't bring the offense back immediately after the false start penalty.
The FG try had plenty of distance, for the 2nd try he could have kicked it more to the right. All of us would have him try a 2nd kick. Their coach had a lot of guts.
I need to look on TV when I get home, but we sit on the goal line down there, and it did not look like it had the distance at all.
who would figure they would go for it? making a kick in warm ups at that distance is night and day from doing it in a game and getting it's low trajectory past the line. He knew he made a mistake, Greg bailed him out.
Obviously the coaching staff didn’t think RU D could defend 13 yards otherwise they wouldn’t blitz bottom line
Illinois had to go 40 yards with time for one play. We had 4 defenders in position to tackle the wr but they couldn't do it.
It was 10 yards short . Barely reached the end zone.
The sad part is the defense took the sidelines away to force a pass in the middle. And the guy out ran the defenders.
Not really, a 58 yd. kick in that wind was improbable. They made a snap decision which was wrong and got a makeup, by having time to think more about it. Would you trust Patel in those conditions and distance?
100% 4th and 13 is not forever especially given our terrible inability to stop the big play, cover #13 or tackle the QB
Bingo
Until we find one we will never be thought of as a winner.
I sit at front of 129 and it didn’t seem to get anywhere near close to getting to goalpost. It looked almost like it hit an imaginary brick wall maybe around 5/10 yard line. Unless the cold was messing with my eyes.
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He got lucky. They probably had a 1% chance of winning before the snap that led to the TD. If we make a tackle the clock runs out and it’s game over. Then Illinois fans are killing him for not trying to re kick the FG. Sometime's you get lucky Kind of like savage to Brown vs UCONN
Because you DON'T know that the team is going to pass for a TD. The play was not designed for a TD. In fact, per The Athletic (paywall) the receiver was supposed to take a knee immediately after the catch, to save time for the spike and FG.
QB was hit as he threw. Blitz got there about a tenth of a second too late.
Totally disagree. 13 is not “forever”. And get a first and the clock stops long enough to spike and kick a FG. To me he had guts (and bad judgement btw) to kick a 57 yarder in that wind !
No one would have killed him for not trying to re kick the FG. Their FG kicker's career long was 50 yards.... and kicking a 57 yarder into 20 mph wind just wasn't going to ever work. If I were an Illini fan, I'd be killing him for ever even sending out the FG unit. We gifted him a view into how bad that decision was - and he made the higher percentage decision the second time out (which he should have done the first time out).
He got lucky, yes. Making a 4th and 13 isn't easy or expected... but making a 57 yarder into 20 mph winds with a kicker who'd never had a make over 50 yards was just fantasy land.
I think the FG attempt showed a lack of faith in his offense. He had so little confidence they could convert a 4th and 13, that he sent out a FG kicker with basically zero chance of success. It was a mistake... and we allowed him to see how bad of a mistake and gave him a chance to make a better decision. He was very lucky, because had we won on that dead duck kick from 57 yards the story would have been about how bad of a bonehead decision it was to even attempt that FG.
He’s perfect from kicks over 50 this year and hit from 59 this season. Wind obviously made it a bad decision, but saying he’s never made a kick over 50 yards is not correct
Just going from ESPN: https://www.espn.com/college-football/team/stats/_/id/356/illinois-fighting-illini
Says Olano is 1-2 from 50+, with a long of 50.
Or did they have their kickoff guy in for that play, who has a 2 whole career FG attempts in 2 years - a make from 59 in a very slight tailwind (from the video), and a miss from 55?
Ok, so the guy with a 50% hit rate 2 career kicks, and none in heavy wind.
I mean - stronger leg, sure, but kicking into that strong of a headwind would have needed bionics.
The right play in the first place was to keep the offense on the field and go for the first down and try and get into a makeable field goal distance. That field goal was impossible, as evidenced by what we all saw with our own eyes. The issue is those who knew it was impossible BEFORE he kicked it and those who didn’t figure it out until AFTER he kicked it. I knew he was not making it and I assume many others also knew before he kicked it. Bielema should have had his offense on the field the entire time, him and Greg both made bad decisions, problem is Greg gave him what we use to call a “do over” back in the schoolyard days of playing kickball, Brett said thank you very much and now I’ll do the right thing and put my offense on the field. Offense on the field to get the first down and closer field goal range was always the right play. Taking a gift of your opponent attempting an impossible field goal and not calling the timeout was also the right coaching play that Greg should have done.
The kicker’s long make is actually 59 yards earlier this year. He is the backup kicker but he has more distance than the starter.
Still, into the wind, he had little chance.
I'm still not sure what OP was watching on the FG attempt (laughably not close, not sure it even made it to the goalline) and BB didn't necessarily demonstrate guts to then put his O back out there. He had no other choice after getting a free look at how far the FG attempt went. It was a desperation play they had to get further downfield. The only risk was running out of clock with no TOs left but even the time remaining was generous enough to run 3 plays:
1. throw the ball in the middle of the field and get downed (or take a knee to induce whistle)
2. rush up to the new LOS to line up on a 1st down and spike the ball
3. FG attempt at a more realistic distance, say 40-45 yards, with maybe 5 or so secs remaining. Still a tough kick into the headwind.
1. throw the ball in the middle of the field and get downed (or take a knee to induce whistle)
2. rush up to the new LOS to line up on a 1st down and spike the ball
3. FG attempt at a more realistic distance, say 40-45 yards, with maybe 5 or so secs remaining. Still a tough kick into the headwind.
Some here mention GS took the timeout too late if he was going to call a timeout at all but that was intentional. Coaches do it all the time. Sometimes they take it way before the kick to make the kicker think and ice him but I've seen plenty of times where the coach does it just sec before the snap and the kick goes off and won't count whether good or no good. I suppose the thinking is it's a sort of little extra mess with the head on top of the icing by going through the motion of it. But in this case, it was essentially a trial run that was a helpful practice shot because of the wind.
Some say the stats aren't there for icing the kicker. I have no idea what the stats are or if anyone keeps track of them. IMO though, in bad weather conditions like wind, rain or snow don't bother if it's beyond 40-45. Let the kick go and what will be will be.
Guts? He would have been stupid to put the FG kicker out there again. He had no choice and we said it at the time in the stands. All they needed was to get closer for a FG but they did a Tom Savage/Tim Brown to us.
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