Northwestern's season ends in familiar style with 38-28 loss to Illinois

[mshelton33]

Northwestern's season ends in familiar style with 38-28 loss to Illinois

Here are our takeaways from Northwestern's season-ending loss to Illinois at Wrigley Field on Saturday.

northwestern.rivals.com

Here are our takeaways from Northwestern's 38-28 loss to Illinois to close out the 2024 season.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

I think your evaluation on Braun at the end, and his ceilings and floors, are totally fair. It was a pretty poor season, but if I squint I can say things like despite a disaster o line and poor, young QBs, they could have easily beaten Duke for 5 wins and significantly outgained Illinois offensively yesterday, a substantial achievement, and only lost because of Boe’s turnovers and horrible red zone play.

But… there’s the rub. Boe’s involvement was beyond bizarre, especially as the game was getting close in the second half. The offense under Lausch was quite effective, roll with it! And the red zone wasn’t bad luck, it’s been a massive failing all year.

Then more disastrous, point-costing game management mistakes by Braun. Like VERY VERY basic clock management errors.

The optimistic bits in our performance and the NIL news make me on the optimistic side about NU’s future… but after yesterday I’m more pessimistic than ever that Braun is ready to be a Big Ten head coach who can achieve what the organization is trying to build. TBH the single biggest problem with our team yesterday was Braun.

 

[FanatiCat]

I think your evaluation on Braun at the end, and his ceilings and floors, are totally fair. It was a pretty poor season, but if I squint I can say things like despite a disaster o line and poor, young QBs, they could have easily beaten Duke for 5 wins and significantly outgained Illinois offensively yesterday, a substantial achievement, and only lost because of Boe’s turnovers and horrible red zone play.

But… there’s the rub. Boe’s involvement was beyond bizarre, especially as the game was getting close in the second half. The offense under Lausch was quite effective, roll with it! And the red zone wasn’t bad luck, it’s been a massive failing all year.

Then more disastrous, point-costing game management mistakes by Braun. Like VERY VERY basic clock management errors.

The optimistic bits in our performance and the NIL news make me on the optimistic side about NU’s future… but after yesterday I’m more pessimistic than ever that Braun is ready to be a Big Ten head coach who can achieve what the organization is trying to build. TBH the single biggest problem with our team yesterday was Braun.

There are many who have to take a big step next year.
Braun is still a young and unprepared Power 4 head coach, like Fitz was. He needs to improve game management skills.
Lujan is a young OC inexperienced at the Power 4 level. He needs to develop Lausch and Boe (whoever wins out), and use these supposed NIL resources to get some OL and WRs (and probably a RB for depth).
McGarigle is still inexperienced being on his own as DC. He did well most of the year but the last couple games looked like the worst Colby Cheese JON matador-style defenses.
Lausch (and/or Boe) need to make significant year over year leaps in ability.

The admin is going to give these guys the next year to do this. I suspect in part because this is not a good time for a coaching search when we still have a really tough year left before opening up the new stadium.