Big Ten Football: Northwestern, Illinois look like potential contenders

Two Big Ten football teams made a statement on Saturday as Northwestern and Illinois each put together impressive wins.

Nebraska entered this season a “sleeper” pick to win the Big Ten West and was predicted by numerous publications to dramatically improve upon their three wins from last season. However, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald in the season opener for both the Wildcats and Cornhuskers was determined to lead Northwestern to a victory over Nebraska in Dublin, Ireland.

Nebraska started off the game playing well scoring two touchdowns and leading by a score of 14-3  early in the second quarter. The Wildcats answered with back-to-back touchdowns as Northwestern quarterback  Ryan Hilinski threw for two touchdown passes to give the Wildcats a 17-14 lead.

The Cornhuskers came out of halftime determined not to lose to Northwestern in their season and Big Ten football opener in Ireland as Nebraska running back Anthony Grant scored two consecutive touchdowns to give the Cornhuskers and head coach Scott Frost a 28-17 point lead. However, what happened next would end up costing Nebraska the game.

The Cornhuskers attempted an on-side kick following their second touchdown of the second half and Northwestern recovered it and with good field position. The Wildcats got into Nebraska’s red zone and Northwestern running back Cam Porter run it from three yards out to reduce the Cornhuskers’ lead to only a four-point lead.

In the fourth quarter, after Cameron Mitchell intercepted Nebraska’s Casey Thompson pass, the Wildcats on a four-yard Evan Hull touchdown run put Northwestern up 31-28. Nebraska struggled to move the football in the fourth quarter and the Wildcats ran the ball late in the game making the Cornhuskers use all three of their timeouts. With just under a minute and thirty seconds left in the game, Northwestern’s Xander Mueller came up with an interception to seal the win for the Wildcats and pull off the upset.

Illinois Head coach Bret Bielema wanted to carry over the momentum from the end of last season when the Fighting Illini won four of their last seven games including a road win over then No. 7 ranked Penn State and another road victory over then No. 20 ranked Minnesota. Illinois started off the season on a strong note and made a statement by easily defeating Wyoming from the Mountain West conference.

Illinois scored on their first drive of the game when Fighting Illini quarterback Tommy DeVito threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Illinois running back Chase Brown to make it a 7-0 game. After a missed field goal attempt late in the first quarter by the Fighting Illini, Wyoming connected on a field goal to make it a 7-3 game going into the second quarter.

Brown got his second touchdown of the game but this time on the ground when he ran 11 yards to the end zone to make it a 14-3 lead for the Fighting Illini. Not much later, after an Illinois defender picked up a pass from Wyoming’s quarterback Andrew Peasley,  Fighting Illini kicker Caleb Griffin connected on a 26-yard field goal to make it a 17-3 game and that would be the score heading into halftime.

The Fighting Illini offense would continue to play well in the second half and after a field goal by Wyoming to start the second half, it was all Illinois the rest of the way. Pat Bryant caught a six-yard touchdown pass to make it a 24-6 game to put the game out of reach for the Cowboys to attempt a comeback. Brown scored another touchdown with a five-yard run into the end zone to make it a 31-6 game. Lastly, Reggie Love III scored on a 33-yard touchdown run to make the score 38-6 and that ended up being the final score.

Both Northwestern and Illinois were not expected to have good seasons in 2022 but both programs made strong statements in their season openers starting the season 1-0.  The Wildcats across the Atlantic Ocean on a neutral field upset Nebraska in Ireland when not many were expecting them to defeat the Cornhuskers.

Illinois was expected to win, especially at home but they dominated Wyoming on both sides of the ball and showed that the end of last season was not a fluke.

No one is saying that these two teams will be undefeated when they play one another at the end of the season but it is not out of the realm of possibility that the Big Ten Football West division title will be on the line when they face off against one another. Time will tell if they are contenders in the West but they showed in Week 0 play that it is at least a possibility.