Bret Bielema shares brutal reality for Illinois football in loss to Wisconsin in Week 13 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Illinois Fighting Illini were stunned by the Wisconsin Badgers Saturday night, 27-10, to halt a two-game winning streak and prevent a nine-win regular season entering Week 14.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA disheveled Bret Bielema had little to say about the lackluster performance, but he recognizes the reality of the situation: it's inexcusable.
Bielema weighed in following the loss.
"I told our guys the biggest thing they can't do is leave this moment," Bielema said. "Have to take this on the plane ride with us and learn from it, get better from it."
By doing that, all the Illini can control is the final regular season game's outcome against the Northwestern Wildcats next Saturday.
Bielema admitted, though, that nothing was alarming entering the game.
"I didn't have any red flags going into the weekend," Bielema said. "I knew we had to protect the edges, and we didn't do that, and it made a big impact on the game."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBielema remained non-committal regarding any immediate defensive adjustments, leading to further questions.
"There's obvisoulsy going to be offseason corrections, but we got to focus on Northwestern," Bielema said.
The pressure can't be greater to get a rivalry win to remove the bad taste and save the season's identity.
Come next week, more questions about the state of the season will surely be answered.
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