WIU at Illinois (9/8/2018)

[Western_101]

Oh one other precious comment from whomever was in the "booth" was an awesome Stat that ILLINOIS had never lost to an Instate FCS school.

Sorry, you are a loser, if you brag that in every instance all of those teams come to your "House" and you ALWAYS have home field advantage and ALWAYS have 22 more scholarships and you manage to get a win. Hooray!

Ummmmmm.... Y'all should be trying to focus on getting to a bowl game . It's been awhile.



* In lieu of Bowl berths we shall proclaim our Big 10 dominance over FCS schools. Or not, either way.

[leatherneckcountry]

Made it back to Macomb the reason that attendance is going down are these ridiculously long media time out there was a time in the second half when Lovie called time out before they punted and then there was a media time out after the punt. The WR group is awful Lesure is a complete bust the one time he makes a play he gets lit up. Gaston needs to sit out a game he looked like last year he could be the next good receiver but he’s to much of a hot head he got tossed tonight cause he decided to be selfish and go after a guy after the play was over. Was really impressed with the pass protection now they need to work on run protection.

[WIU2DC]

Tony Tate will be something special.

Vic Johnson is a bust.

I was frustrated with all the screen passes in the flat, because it was keyed in on and pretty much contained (after the first awesome drive)

I suspected McGuire wasn't going deep because there was nothing open. Interceptions came when he tried to force it. There was a guy in our league called Chris Streveler that had the 4/5 second clock in his head and almost always could scramble for 4-6 yards. Ummmmm.....beats a sac, also not bad for a busted play. I love McGuire, however, he holds out hope too long. I admire that he recognizes not to force the ball into a place where the defender can get it. He can thread a needle. I wish he was more mobile when that timer goes off in your head you scramble for yards. Late in the game he was forcing the ball. Interesting how more U of I players were put out of commission due to injury than WIU players.

The color analyst guy was clueless, saying we had a great O line (which we do) but he just compares 2015 to 2018. The 2017 team would have been favored by two touchdowns at Illinois.

This team really has some grit and its obvious that there isn't any other team that is better conditioned than the LEATHERNECKS. Western will be fine, and Handle an improved Montana team.

Good recruits come to WESTERN because we play in a league that is ranked above 3 FBS leagues. Also, WESTERN purposely schedules hard. Tennessee Tech, Northern Arizona, Coastal Carolina, Montana State, U of Illinois, U of Montana. those our are out of league games. Heck, UNI, YSU, and NDSU are coming to Macomb.

There are FBS leagues that would love to get a Montana, Northern Iowa, Youngstown State, North Dakota State coming to their "house" These are namebrand teams for those that follow football.

All , is well, all is good.

First, I’ll start off with agreeing with your “all, is well, all is good. ” because you are 100% correct. We have the pieces to win games and like you said we don’t schedule the Drake’s or Butlers (low hanging fruit I know) of the world. We were worried about our young, unproven offense line. But after two loses, to a BIGSKY team and to a BIGTEN team I feel like they’re pretty darn good. We have some young running backs that we will have for a while. But, here are the questions I have for the posters that have more knowledge of the program than I.


1. I know our HC was our co-offensive coordinator last year. But, who is calling the play calls now? It seems (I was at the MSU game not this one) that all of our play-calls are either runs, or short dump offs to the backs or TES. Is that happening because of the play calls or because we do not have the talent at wide receiver? If it’s the latter, then why are we not starting the freshman and seeing what they can do? LeSure ( I hope he is okay) and Gaston have shown nothing in two games. They are not the talent of Lenior or Acklin to be double teamed like those two were. So, can we please, please put wide outs in the field that will A. Beat coverage B. Catch the ball.

Defensively, I am pretty happy about. I think we’ll have some trouble with USD and their QB being able to run the ball but overall our defense can only do so much.


Not to finish on a bad note and to reiterate Redneck we have the pieces and the talent to win.

I don’t believe we should have won this game like we should have in Bozeman but it should have been a closer on the score board.

Also, what I would have done to play Illinois last year and Coastal this year.

Illinois fans are proud of beating us, even more though they have 22 more scholarships and a funded university. Smh. Even with my negative questions, I hope the team holds their heads up high.

Montana is next and I hope we come out to play because they will be the toughest team of yet.

Gaston, last year he was a decent slot receiver but he costed us a few penalties in big games. (USD when we’re driving late in 4th if I remember correctly) he finally got tossed from a game, I hope Coach Elliott sits him and our team down and tells him (any player for that matter.) if he costs us yards like that he’ll bench him. I’d rather lose by 40 than be a dirty, cheap, trash talking team. IMHO.


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[ST_Lawson]

I got back to town just a bit ago too. I think there were some good receiving stuff with our new guys...Tate and Wahee, but yeah, not much from the guys we'd had. Will talk more later, going to sleep.


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[wiu712]

The Champaign News-Gazette's report card on the game:
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illi ... eptember-8


Story of the game from WCIA-TV (Champaign):
https://www.wcia.com/sports/illini/mj-r ... 1428417871

[sealhall74]

My thoughts. We are a huge work in progress. I dont think we are where we should be at this stage in terms of personnel and chemistry. Our best or at least go-to receiver has been McShane (RB). Our best runner has been Tate (WR). If we are lucky, Wahee is the 2nd coming of Acklin. I think a lot of the problems have to do with our inexperienced offensive line. Coaches know it is our achilles heel and are trying to work around it as best they can with a very mixed attack of fake and real jet sweeps and short dinky passes which can be delivered before McGuire feels a lot of heat from the blitz. Come conference time, we will see a ton of blitzes IMHO. It appears to me that the coaches have zero confidence in the running game. Last weet at MSU, the opening series was three straight passes (two incomplete) for one yard. If we cant get the running game going a bit, it will be a very long season. Defensively, I think we have some holes that were exploited last week by an MSU team that was pretty much shut down by the Jacks yesterday. Against the Illini, the offense left the defense out to dry the whole game by losing the field postion battle so not sure how well they were tested. Special teams, what can I say other than they were very much Bob Nielson-like. The game next week is huge. Home opener. If you lose it, you probably lose a lot of student and fan interest going forward not to mention putting yourself behind the 8-ball to make the playoffs. But no pressure - it's only a game. Get better each week and have some fun with it.

[ST_Lawson]

A few more things (from a text to a friend who wasn't at the game).

We're still decent, but McGuire has had to try forcing some passes to receivers that aren't Acklin. Last year, he knew exactly where Acklin was going to be. We have talent...they're just not all on the same page yet. Young o-line not creating the holes for RBs that they were doing last year. Defense playing really well overall, but when the other team gets the ball with really good field position because the offense didn't go anywhere...there's only so much they can do.
If we struggle again next week, it could be a long season.


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[wiu712]

Illinois edges Leathernecks.

From today's Burlington Hawk-Eye:
http://www.thehawkeye.com/sports/201809 ... athernecks

[letsgonecks]

Anyone have any injury updates? Rowe was helped off late, Wahee was on crutches and Lesure might have been concussed.

[sealhall74]

Anyone have any injury updates? Rowe was helped off late, Wahee was on crutches and Lesure might have been concussed.

Hope they are alright. Can't get too much thinner in the WR category without burning some redshirts. I'll be tuning in this eve for the Coach's show.