Illinois-Indiana Gameday Binoculars: Blogging, Play-by-Play & Analysis

Illinois takes care of business, whipping Indiana 43-13.

The defense was great as usual, picking off Indiana four times and taking two of those interceptions to the house.

The IU-UI contest can be reviewed with Writing Illini’s complete play-by-play and analysis after the jump, beginning with live blogging from the mid-third quarter to the end of the game and then picking up with the first half review on page two.

Third Quarter

2nd and 7 Indiana from its own 46: Ben Chappell hits wide receiver Damarlo Belcher for gain of 8 yards and a first down.

1st and 10 Indiana from the Illinois 46: Chappell hands off to Tandon Doss, who loses a yard after Nate Bussey makes the tackle. There is a flag on the field; however, it’s been picked up. 2nd and 11 Indiana from its own 47: Chappell lines up in the gun and hits Belcher for a first down.

1st and 10 Indiana from the Illinois 31: Chappell pumps and throws the ball away. 2nd and 10 IU from the Illinois 31 with 5:29 left in the third quarter: Chappell lines up in the gun and floats a pass over the head of wide receiver Terrance Turner. 3rd and 10 Indiana: Chappell lines up in the pistol formation, steps up and hits Terrance Turner for a gain of 10 yards and a first down.

1st and 10 Indiana from the Illinois 20: Chappell lines up in the gun and hands to running back Trea Burgess for a gain of 7 yards. Clay Nurse with the tackle. 2nd and 3 Indiana from the Illinois 13: Chappell hits Belcher for a first down.

1st and Goal Indiana from the Illinois 8: Chappell hands to Burgess for a gain of two yards. 2nd and Goal Indiana from the Illinois 6: Chappell lines up in the gun, fakes a handoff and keeps the ball for a gain of 1 yard. 3rd and Goal Indiana from the Illinois 5: Chappell lines up with 5 receivers and hits Doss at the 3 yard line before Travon Bellamy stands up the IU receiver. 4th and Goal IU from the Illinois 3: Indiana will attempt a 21-yard field goal. Mitch Ewald hits and Illinois leads 29-13.

Indiana goes 14 plays but only ends up with a field goal as Illinois holds strong inside its 10 yard line. The Illini lead 29-13 late in the third quarter. IU gave the Illini some problems with the no huddle, but Illinois adjusted when it mattered on that drive.

Indiana squibs a short kick to the Illinois 30, where Ashante Williams makes the catch and runs for about 3 yards. Illinois is called for a block in the back and will start 10 yards back.

1st and 10 Illinois from its own 20: Nathan Scheelhaase lines up in the gun and hands off to Mikel Leshoure for a gain of 2 yards. 2nd and 8 Illinois from the 22: Scheelhaase options to Leshoure, who gains a yard. There is another penalty on the play — a chop block on Randall Hunt. That will push Illinois back half the distance to the goal. 2nd and 19 Illinois from its own 11: Scheelhaase lines up in the gun and hands to Troy Pollard for a gain of 2 yards. That will be the end of the third quarter.

Illinois leads 29-13 at the end of three quarters. The Illini seem content with running up the gut at this point. With that said, this is still only a two-possession game. Illinois will need to be more aggressive, given IU’s ability to move the ball down the field.

Start of the Fourth Quarter

Illinois led 27-10 at the break and was outscored 3-2 in the third quarter.

3rd and 16 Illinois from its own 14: Scheelhaase lines up in the gun and underthrows a wide open Eddie McGee on the sidelines. 4th and 16 Illinois from the 14: Anthony Santella lines up in the end zone and booms a punt to the IU 30, where Tandon Doss returns it to the Indiana 42-yard line.

Indiana has good field position here with plenty of time. Illinois will need to keep its pedal to the medal.

1st and 10 IU from its own 42: Chappell lines up in the gun, double pumps and throws a pass that is deflected by Aaron Gress and intercepted by Terry Hawthorne.

Illinois turns over the Hoosiers. Chappell has been picked three times today.

1st and 10 Illinois from the IU 46: Scheelhaase fires an incomplete pass intended for Jack Ramsey. 2nd and 10 from the IU 46: Leshoure runs for 2 yards. 3rd and 8 Illinois from the IU 44: Scheelhaase is flushed out of the pocket and steps out of bounds after a 1-yard run. 4th and 5 Illinois from the 43: Santella is in to punt again and pins a beauty inside the 10-yard line, where it is downed at the 6-yard line.

Illinois fails to get a first down after the Hawthorne interception. Thankfully, Santella pins the Hoosiers inside the 6-yard line. From what I’ve seen of the Illini offense thus far, it hasn’t been too impressive. Thank goodness for the defense and special teams, and the fact that Chappell has had a very bad day. Let’s see if the Illini defense can come up with another big turnover.

1st and 10 Indiana from its own 6: Chappell hands off to Burgess for a gain of a tough 4 yards. 2nd and 4 from the IU 10: Burgess runs to the left side and picks up 2 yards. Travon Bellamy makes the tackle. 3rd and 2 Indiana from its own 12: Chappell lines up in the gun and hands off to Burgess, who just picks up the first down after Corey Liuget tripped him up. Liuget had some great pursuit on that play.

1st and 10 Indiana from its own 16: Chappell’s pass is tipped by Martez Wilson and caught by IU offensive lineman Andrew McDonald. 2nd and 8 from the IU 18: Chappell hits Antonio Banks for a gain of 7. 3rd and 2 IU from its own 25: Chappell hits Kofi Hughes at the sticks for a first down.

1st and 10 IU from its own 28: Chappell lines up in the gun and runs for a yard before Patrick Nixon-Youman makes the hit. 2nd and 9 IU from its own 30: Chappell lines up in the gun and hits Hughes for a first down despite the pressure from Clay Nurse. This play will be reviewed as it looked like the ball may have bounced. This will not be a catch. Hughes appeared to trap the ball. This official review is taking forever. Come on. Make the call already. The ruling on the field has been reversed. In other words, it was an incomplete pass. 3rd and 9 IU from its own 30 with 9:15 remaining in the fourth quarter: Chappell lines up in the shotgun and hits Duwyce Wilson for a gain of 7 yards. Nate Bussey makes a great tackle and Whitney Mercilus brought great pressure. 4th and 2 IU from its own 37: Indiana surprisingly decides to punt and sends one to the Illinois 31-yard line, where Jack Ramsey makes the catch and is quickly tackled.

Illinois holds the Hoosiers, which pass up a 4th and 2 opportunity from their own 37 despite trailing by 16 points with less than 9 minutes remaining on the game. Indiana should have went for the first down. Illinois certainly isn’t complaining. Expect some more runs up the gut. Let’s see if Illinois can run off a good 4 or 5 minutes here and finish this game off.

1st and 10 Illinois from its own 31: Eddie McGee is in at quarterback and hands off to Jason Ford, who runs for 4 yards. Ford is down after the play and clutching his knee. It looked like Ford’s knee got twisted up when falling down. Ford is up and being helped off the field. He is putting no pressure on his right foot. 2nd and 6 Illinois from its own 35: McGee keeps the ball and runs for 10 yards.

1st and 10 Illinois from its own 45 with 8 minutes remaining: McGee lines up in the gun and keeps again, losing 1 yard on the play. 2nd and 11 Illinois from its own 44: Nathan Scheelhaase is back in the game and shovels a pass to freshman wide receiver Ryan Lankford, who gets 8 tough yards. 3rd and 3 Illinois from the IU 48: Scheelhaase lines up in the gun and hits Lankford on a slant for a first down.

1st and 10 Illinois from the IU 37: Scheelhaase lines up in the gun, fakes a handoff to Leshoure and runs for a gain of 4 yards. 2nd and 6 Illinois from the IU 33: Scheelhaase lines up in the gun and hits A.J. Jenkins, who bounces off a tough hit and runs for a first down. Great toughness from Jenkins.

1st and 10 Illinois from the IU 19: Scheelhaase bootlegs and hits Zach Becker for a gain of 7 yards. 2nd and 3 Illinois from the IU 12: Leshoure runs up the gut for a first down. There is an offsides penalty on Indiana. Illinois will get the first down regardless.

1st and Goal Illinois from the IU 7: Scheelhaase fakes to Becker and throws a low pass to Leshoure that is incomplete. Illinois is liking the bootleg on this possession. 2nd and Goal from the IU 7 with 3:57 remaining: Scheelhaase hands off to Leshoure, who runs through a big hole and scores an easy touchdown. Leshoure was untouched on that play. Derek Dimke drills the extra point and Illinois leads 36-13.

Illinois officially puts this game away with 3:54 to go as Leshoure goes into the end zone untouched on a 7-yard touchdown run. Dimke’s extra point makes it 36-13. Illinois got the job done on that series, burning some time and making this a 23-point game.

Dimke kicks off to the IU end zone, where Duwyce Wilson receives the ball and returns it to the IU 16.

1st and 10 Indiana from its own 16: Chappell hands off to Burgess for a gain of 3 yards. 2nd and 7 IU from its own 19: Chappell lines up in the gun and fires an errant pass out of bounds. 3rd and 7 IU from its own 19: Chappell lines up in the gun and hits Duwyce Wilson for a first down.

1st and 10 Indiana from its own 27: Chappell hands off to Burgess, who is hit hard by Trulon Henry after a gain of 1 yard. 2nd and 9 Indiana from its own 28: Chappell hits tight end Ted Bolser for 28 yards over the middle.

1st and 10 IU from the UI 43: Chappell got hammered on that last play and is out of the game. Zach Davis-Walker runs for 6 yards on first down with Dusty Kiel in the game. 2nd and 4 IU from the UI 37: Kiel is picked off by freshman linebacker Jonathan Brown, who returns the pick to the house for a 66-yard touchdown.

After knocking Ben Chappell out of the game with a crushing hit, Illinois freshman linebacker Jonathan Brown returns an interception 66 yards for a touchdown. Dimke’s extra point makes it 43-13 Illinois with 44 seconds remaining.

Dimke kicks the ball into the end zone for a touchback.

1st and 10 IU from its own 20: Banks runs for 7 yards and that will be the last play of the game.

Illinois wins 43-13. The defense has 4 interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns by second-stringers. The Illini improve to 4-3 on the year and 2-2 in the Big Ten.

Writing Illini will review the first half and get the play-by-play up in a couple of hours. For a recap of the first half and the first part of the third quarter, see Page 2.