Illinois Football: 3 observations from the Illini loss to Purdue

In completely heartbreaking fashion, the Illinois football team fell short against Purdue on Saturday afternoon.

Let’s first start off by saying that Illinois was missing 14 players for the game against the Boilermakers due to COVID-19 related illnesses and tracing. This knocked out starting quarterback Brandon Peters and backup quarterback Isaiah Williams, among others.

Illinois then had third-string quarterback Matt Robinson go down with an injury. In steps Peoria native Coran Taylor. He was electric for most of the game with a few bad, bad, mistakes peppered in. But, for the most part, I was happy with what I saw.

The Illini did manage to get into a hole early, though. Down 14-0, the Illini managed to score their first offensive touchdown of the season when Mike Epstein scampered into the endzone from seven yards out.

A field goal with less than a minute left put Illinois down 17-10 at halftime. Not a terrible first half all things considered. A bad interception deep into Illinois territory put Purdue in the driver’s seat for another easy touchdown. Two Illinois drives later saw the Illini fumble the ball and the Boilermakers scoop and score.

Down 31-10, the Illini weren’t finished. Back-to-back touchdown drives put Illinois within seven points, 31-24. The Orange and Blue had a chance to tie the game with a drive but couldn’t convert on fourth down. Purdue would end up winning 31-24.

Here are three observations from the Illini loss to Purdue.