It was an ugly Saturday night for the Illinois football program, as we dropped to 7-4 on the season.
The Illini were poised to have a great 2025 campaign, but that has all come crashing down. Illinois had a chance to put Wisconsin away and move to eight wins, but we didn’t show up to the game.
Wisconsin controlled this contest throughout. Illinois had chances, but we failed to convert. Bret Bielema touched on this in his postgame press conference.
Here are five interesting Bret Bielema quotes from the Illinois football presser vs Wisconsin
- “I just knew this was a good football team defensively. We had to take care of the edges, and that was a big thing we didn’t do today.”
Illinois’ biggest bugaboo this season has been the offensive line. This issue reared its ugly head on Saturday.
Bielema is right when he says Illinois didn’t take care of the edges. Illinois’ offensive tackles let so many pass rushes through. The fact that Luke Altmyer had a decent game goes to show you how talented of a quarterback he really is. The Illini offensive line was awful.
- “We did enough things to shoot ourselves in the foot. And a lack of composure. Uncharacteristic of what we have done. Yeah, very frustrating overall.”
It was one of those snowball games for Illinois. Wisconsin didn’t do anything tremendous beyond their running game, but the Illini did plenty to lose the contest.
A bad snap on special teams gave Wisconsin the ball in our territory. We had plenty of errors on both sides of the ball, too. This was just a bad performance in all aspects of the game.
- “We definitely didn’t run the ball effectively. That was probably, for me, the frustrating part. We tried to get the ball inside, and then we went to the perimeter, and nothing happened. It was a summation of a lot of really bad football.”
It was really bad football. The running game is the most confusing thing right now. I can easily pin this one on the offensive line, too.
Illinois can’t get anything going on the ground, but we didn’t run the ball a lot. I think the Illini running backs had a total of 14 carries. That is an unacceptable total by the coaching staff.
- “Expectations are awesome because they are created by what we have done. Obviously, seven wins is not where we want to be, so that part is the reality of the moment.”
I have mentioned this a few times, but having expectations isn’t a bad thing. That means the program is doing something right.
Not meeting those expectations is a new feeling. Illinois had high hopes of a College Football Playoff berth this season, but that didn’t happen. How the team and fanbase respond is going to be an interesting thing to watch.
- “We were down by 10, and I think we had first and goal at the nine, and just to walk away from there with three points. In that situation, you have to have touchdowns and not field goals. I think that was a big part of the game right there.”
This was a big moment in the game. Altmyer dropped back and had a wide-open Justin Bowick for a touchdown. Bowick didn’t turn around, though.
The communication and chemistry were off on Saturday. It showed with plays like this. Illinois failed to put the ball in the end zone, and it contributed to losing the game against a bad Wisconsin team.