I guess you can say they lost to Art simply because he was on the field. But he didn’t beat us. If someone told me Illinois would have scored 10 points in 4 quarters I would have said that was a win.
However…when you look at the fact you are a team that can’t run the ball but decide to start the game strictly running that signals a problem. Then on top of it you have a QB who usually loosens up the defense using his feet and he’s injured and can’t run, that’s a problem. That same QB usually gets his receivers open with big plays down the field but can’t throw passes over 20 yards because he’s injured which leaves bubble screens and slants in your playbook. ANY DC in the country should be able to defend and stop an offense that only has 2 basic options on offense.
So my questions are “was this a loyalty thing to Clifford to let him gut it out because he’s a “warrior”? “Was Roberson just not good enough in the off week?” “Is this staff not capable of putting together a different game plan in the off week to cater to Roberson and get him ready against a 2-5 team at home?”
All in all this just seems like a staff loss from an offensive standpoint. Just my 2 cents
