ANOTHER FRUSTRATING NIGHT. Same damn song with the same chorus. Gone are all the explosive plays we had earlier in the season. We had one big pass play but that wasn’t enough. We just can’t stay consistent on offense when it’s a defensive “grind-it-out” game typical of the B1G. The penalties sure didn’t help either. The crazy thing is we actually looked good running the ball in the first half but came away with only seven points.
LOST OPPORTUNITIES (AGAIN.) It was absolutely mind-numbing to watch us move up and down the field and get zero points. It’s got to be disheartening to our Defense. Again, the Blackshirts played well in the first half but again, the offense couldn’t take advantage of the many opportunities they had to build a lead before losing it in the third quarter.
PENALTIES. It’s incredibly hard to sustain drives when the yellow hankies are flying on every damn drive. Illegal procedures, holding calls, and even a offensive PI, whatever. It was so bad that after every successful offensive play, I held my breath, expecting the FLAG icon to pop up on the TV screen to call it back.
THE BIG PLAY. The fake FG was the killer. It seemed like that play shifted the momentum for the rest of the game.
GILMER’S DROPSIES. Barney and Luke both made some clutch catches but Kawzi had a tough night.
A MYSTERY. I need some time to process this latest loss but my gut-reaction is that looking at all of our positions, it seems to me that we SHOULD BE BETTER than 5-4. The only thing I can say with some degree of certainty is that our FG kicking sucks. In low scoring conference games, that can--and in our situation most definitely IS--a huge difference-maker. Going into 2026, nobody could have predicted Kyle Cunanan and John Hohl would have the horrible seasons they're having.
B1G REFS CAN’T TELL TIME. This wasn’t critical to the game but I’ve got to point one particular play last night since we’ve seen all kind of bizarro clock calls from Big Ten officials this season. Tell me, how can Illinois call a running play with four seconds left in the first half, RUN IT and STILL have time to call a time out with one second left in the half??!? Good grief, when the QB simply clocks the ball, it takes off a full two seconds. Yet we're supposed to believe the Illini QB was able to hand the ball off to the RB who ran up the gut for two yards with enough time left on the clock to call a final time out. Absolutely Mindboggling.
