Illinois Football: 4 observations from the Illini loss to Purdue

Illinois football moved to 1-4 after a defeat to the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday afternoon.

Another close call for the Illini resulted in a loss, 13-9. This is the second-straight single-digit loss and three out of the four games have been single-digital losses. The Purdue loss hurt, but there was some good and some bad in the defeat

Here are four observations from the Illinois football loss to Purdue.

1. Ryan Walters has the defense playing well

This is only year one of the new Illinois football coaching staff, and already defensive coordinator Ryan Walters has the Illini defense playing well.

I didn’t think I would say that in year one considering the roster is basically the same as it was under the previous regime. But the adjustments that have been made have gone a long way in the success of the defense in the past two contests.

It is evident that going with some type of 3-4 defense was the right move. Illinois has a tremendous defensive line led by some great veteran players. The shift of a handful of defensive ends to linebacker has proven to be a great move as well. This gives Walters more flexibility.

Yes, Illinois struggled the first few games on defense, but Walters saw what was happening. The secondary was the weakest part of the defense. They were getting torched up the seam consistently. Over the past two games, this hasn’t been the case, and I have to give Walters all the credit in the world for that adjustment.

Illinois has now given up a total of 33 points in the past two games, which comes out to 16.5 points per game. When we give up 20 or fewer points in a game, those should be victories.