Daily Illini: Saturday’s game becomes must win for program

[BleedGopher]

per Carson:

What does Nov. 9, 2019, mean to you? For the Illinois and Minnesota football programs, it meant success and excitement for the future.

Illinois knocked off Michigan State in East Lansing, storming back from a 28-3 deficit to win 37-34. The signature win clinched head coach Lovie Smith his first bowl game, which provided assurance he was the man for the job at the time.

Minnesota, playing in front of a sold-out crowd, outplayed No. 4 Penn State, winning the game 31-26. Behind quarterback Tanner Morgan’s three touchdowns, Minnesota improved to 8-0 and became a serious college football playoff contender, and head coach P.J. Fleck was considered one of the best young coaches in the country.

Both of these teams returned top players and were each prepared to make 2020 their best seasons in recent memory.

Flash forward to November 2020: Both teams are 0-2, and since Nov. 9, the Illini are 0-5 and the Golden Gophers are 2-4. After this week’s game in Champaign, someone is going to be 0-3, and their program’s trajectory will go down with them.

“It’s a game we need to win,” Lovie said. “We’re going to do everything possible to win.”

Saturday's game becomes must win for program - The Daily Illini

What does Nov. 9, 2019, mean to you? For the Illinois and Minnesota football programs, it meant success and excitement for the future. Illinois knocked off Michigan State in East Lansing, storming back from a 28-3 deficit to win 37-34. The signature win clinched head coach Lovie Smith his first...

dailyillini.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I feel like 'must win' and 2020 are somewhat weird parings.

Maybe they need to 'must win' to win X, but everything is weird this year.

 

[TurfGopher]

hopefully we emerge from the B1G Toilet victorious and get some much needed momentum. Other wise this would be a brutal loss that would carry compounding pain from the previous two abysmal losses.

 

[gophernut1]

Watching the Illini face Wisconsin a few things stuck out:

1.) Their front 7 is good against the run.
2.) Their cover 2 defense left big holes in the zone for WR and TE to take advantage of. (they had a lot of discipline issues in coverage).
3.) Their offense has a few fast people and 1 big WR, but there was not a lot there that looked special against WI.

If our offense can move the ball and score I think this will be a good game for our defense to start gelling . I don't think the Illini offense will have the talent or athleticism that killed us the first 2 games.