Illinois Football: 3 quick takeaways from comeback win over UConn

It wasn’t a dominant performance for the Illinois football as some had predicted but it overcame a bad first quarter to beat UConn, 31-23.

To put the achievement of winning on the road in a non-conference game in perspective, the last time Illinois did so was in 2007 when they won at Syracuse. That was nearly a dozen years ago and winning against UConn on the road breaks the long, unwanted drought.

The game itself started off not so good for the Fighting Illini. Brandon Peters threw an interception that was returned 52 yards for a UConn touchdown. To make matters worse, the Illinois defense was unable to stop the Huskies offense resulting in two UConn field goals.

The good news was, however, that the defense did not give up any touchdowns to this point as the offense was having trouble early against the Huskies defense. Illinois offense was held to under 50 yards after one quarter.

Early in the second quarter after the Huskies took a 13-0 lead, the Fighting Illini took over. Junior running back Ra’Von Bonner, who filled in for the two injured Fighting Illini running backs, took a screen pass for 28 yards for a touchdown.

Peters was just getting started after an ugly first quarter. He ended up having a great second quarter as he threw two more touchdown passes one to Josh Imatorbhebhe and the other to Daniel Barker. Illinois ended the quarter with a James McCourt 53-yard field goal giving the Fighting Illini a 24-13 lead.

After a third quarter Huskies touchdown to cut Illinois lead to only four, Peters once again found UCS graduate transfer Imatorbhebhe in the end zone increasing the Fighting Illini lead to 11 points heading into the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter was back and fourth as the Huskies ended up with a field goal making it a one possession game. However, senior linebacker Dele Harding ended a late UConn drive with an interception to give Illinois the win.

Takeaways

• The Fight Illini defense continues to impress coming up with two interceptions and five sacks.
• After a slow start, Illinois offense got going and the passing attack continues to improve and is becoming one of the the top tier passing offenses of the Big Ten thus far this season.
• Special teams are a strength not a weakness. McCourt’s 53-yard field goal on the road was impressive. He is also perfect on the season with extra points. Blake Hayes didn’t have the greatest game punting but not costly mistakes. His only punt that gave UConn good field good position came late in the game.

Players of the Game

• Brandon Peters was 24-for-35 for 227 with four touchdowns
• Imatorbhebhe had four catches for 42 yards and two touchdowns
• Harding had eight total tackles, one interception and one QB hurry
• Oluwole Betiku Jr. had four tackles, 3.5 sacks and 2 QB hurries

Next up for Illinois

Eastern Michigan comes in to Campaign for an early kickoff as they enter the game next week at 1-1 with a loss against Kentucky this week. The Eagles will be the toughest test so far as Eastern Michigan last season went to Purdue to upset the Boilermakers and the season before that Rutgers.

Illinois looks to go 3-0 before Big Ten play begins. The Fighting Illini after hosting Eastern Michigan will host Nebraska.