Illini grade: C minus
Give us your grade here
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Blaine Gabbert, QB, Missouri
The junior resuscitated a stagnant offense in the second half without his starting running back, spreading the ball all over the field to erase a 10-point deficit. He hit on 34 of 48 passes for 281 yards with two TDS and no INTs.
OFFENSE
Illinois D
Missouri B-
After two quarters, Illinois had an A and Missouri an F. But it's a 60-minute game. When you turn the ball over four times, you will often get beat by more than 10 points.
DEFENSE
Illinois C+
Missouri B
Many expected the Tigers to light up the scoreboard, but the makeshift Illini unit overachieved for much of the day. Solid performances from Steve Hull and Justin Green provide hope for Vic Koenning's bunch.
Special teams
Illinois A
Missouri B
Derek Dimke put points on the board and made a 52-yard field goal – that's always a plus. Anthony Santella averaged 47 yards per punt, also very good.
Overall
Illinois C-
Missouri C
The Illini exceeded expectations. But as Ron Zook said, you're judged by wins and losses. The offense has to grow up in a hurry, and if the defense continues to improve, maybe they'll get some wins.
I also disagree with the C+ grade for the illini defense.. They deserve at least a B. Starting freshmen quarterback nathan scheelhasse struggled but did some positive things. There is no reason to grade the defense that harshly. Missouri's QB is a 5 star quarterback and we did a good job on him for the most part. The turnovers put the defense in bad positions at times but that is part of the game
Lighten up Jimbo. I believe Illinois was the only Big Ten team other than Purdue that played Division I opponents. I saw marked improvement in tackling, and special teams. Scheelhaase made some plays and made some mistakes. Upside looks very good. Yeah Michigan's QB had awesome numbers but that was against UConn. Not even sure the football team is FBS. Give the team a solid C+ for a solid 30 minute effort. If we can make that to 60 minutes we're gonna surprise some people.
The bottom line is, we dont have guys that can play football. Remember our team is made up of players that no other teams wanted. We get all the left overs, we are and always will be one of the worst football teams in the country. Can someone tell me the last time we had a winning tradition where we actually had 3 or 4 winning seasons in a row? I thought so! Enough said. When is the last time we went to back to back bowl games and won both? When was the last time we won a bowl game period? Can anyone even remember its been so long ago? We suck, suck, suck, suck.
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