Saturday nights battle between the 5-1 Illinois Fighting Illini, and the Iowa Hawkeyes was a thriller to say the least, which you probably would not expect out of a 9-6 final score in a Big Ten matchup. The thrilling part of this game came from the fact that winning was found in many sources that were not expected prior to the 6:30 PM kickoff.
Let’s start with the obvious big story line. Illinois only scored 9 points over the entire span of the game, and walked away with a win, and those 9 came on the shoulders of Freshman Walk on Kicker Fabrizio Pinton. Moments prior to kickoff, starting K Caleb Griffin, who was a likely-to-go, game-time decision that was believed to be good to go for Saturday, found himself not able and Fabrizio had to step in last second. Pinton went 3/3 on the day including a the game winner to put Illinois ahead 9-6. An extremely heroic effort from a young man who is going to have a very bright career moving forward at Illinois. Yet another new name stepping up, making themselves known, putting out a fire.
Then of course we can move back to the fact that Illinois was only able to find themselves in field-goal range for the entirety of the game. Of course, this is not all to fault the Illinois Offense. The Hawkeye defense is very similar to Illinois in strength, physicality, as long as statistically as well. I believe that anybody who knew this, knew that this game would be low scoring. However, I don’t think anybody expected that starting quarterback Tommy DeVito would leave the game early with a lower leg injury. His status is still unknown, however head coach Bret Bielema said it was “Nothing Catastrophic”, and seemed to be a “Re-aggravated ankle.” However, Illinois will want to quickly get him back on the field, as you can tell there was a little sense of discomfort offensively when he exited the game. This created a wrinkle in Barry Lunny Jr’s offense, and left the game up to senior backup QB, and Rutgers Transfer Art Sitkowski. Of course it’s always difficult to enter a game at QB and create a good flow, especially when the entire offense is used to playing with a different QB with a different style of play. Tommy is able to create a little bit more work with his legs, and Art is A little bit more of your prototypical pocket passing, pro style quarterback.
The passing attack really struggled, creating 116 yards of passing offense. Isaiah Williams, the Illini’s best receiver, had an especially rough night. Of course he’s a phenomenal athlete and will have no problem bouncing back from this performance, but after a couple of turnovers including a muffed punt that set up Iowa inside Illinois territory, Williams eventually left the game with a concussion. It just wasn’t #1’s day.
The Illini struggled to get the ball moving down the field to start after DeVito’s injury, however, after a couple of big plays like a 34 yard pass to Brian Hightower, and some massive runs by Chayse Brown, you set yourself up just enough to win despite the MANY fires you had to put out. The Illini finished the day with 316 total yards of offense, with stud RB Chayse Brown earning half of those yards himself with 146 on 31 Carries. At the end of the day, lunney Jr’s offense did enough to get the job done, and did what they could with a lot of moving parts. That’s what winners do, and truthfully, Illinois has found winning and what it takes to do so under Bret Bielema.
What else can we say about Ryan Walters, and his Stonewall Defense? Iowas offense was held to a total of 222 yards and no TD’s against Illinois with a turnover. Fun fact for die hard Illini fans, Illinois defense has yet to give up a touchdown in Memorial Stadium this season. On a total of 30 runs by the Iowa Offense, Iowa was only able to produce 52 yards rushing the entirety of the game. An astonishing stat for Ryan Walters, but also for the Massive Illinois front 7 led by the “Law Firm”, Johnny Newton and Keith Randolph. Newton finished the day with 7 tackles on 3 TFL’s, and was a nightmare for the Iowa Interior OL, who had a really tough day Saturday night. Keith Randolph found himself all over Iowa QB Spencer Petras for the majority of the night, and finished with 2 sacks, on 4 total tackles. A monster performance by this interior defensive line, who still leads the team in tackles. The highlight performance of the night defensively came from Sophomore DE/LB Seth Coleman, who ended Saturday with 5 tackles, 4 solo tackles, 2 TFL’s and 2 sacks. All this to boot with a ton of pressures and hurries on Iowa QB Spencer Petras, who struggled to look comfortable for most of the night thanks to Coleman and the Illini front 7. A couple of things are for certain, Illinois defense is really good, they are very well coached, they help this team win a lot, and at the end of this season, Ryan Walters is going to get PAID. After the game, Brett Bielema was quoted saying Ryan Walters Defense continues to be the “Fire Department”, continually putting out fires along the way. When your defense is this good, you can put out a lot of fires, including winning a Big Ten football game that you did not score a touchdown in.
What does it mean?
As you sit currently, Illinois is now ranked the number #24 team in the nation in the AP top 25 for the first time since 2011. Illinois is 5-1, with a 2-1 Big Ten record thus far, with wins over Bielema’s former program in Wisconsin, and an Iowa team who is not only your heated rival, but a rival you have not beaten in 14 years or at all in Big Ten West play. Illinois has now placed themselves in the driver seat of the Big Ten West, and control their own destiny moving forward. What does it mean? A whole heck of a lot. Illinois football is finding ways to slowly place themselves back into relevancy, and the sky is the limit right now because of how well your Defense is playing. How long has it been since you could really say any of these things about Illinois football, let alone all of them. What a time to be a fan of the Fighting Illini.
You can catch Illinois again next Saturday in what will be a rocking Memorial Stadium for an 11 am kickoff vs Minnesota. It’s Homecoming for Illinois , the Illini are on FIRE, and it’s going to be electric in Champaign. You can start our coverage in Bloomington/Normal at Now 100.7 starting at 10 am. Be on the Look out for the “Illini Now Minnesota Pregame Preview” coming soon at NowBN.com/Illini and @Illini now on twitter.
Comments