Illinois Football: 3 areas of success in the loss to Purdue

3. Time of Possession

The way you win, or at least be competitive, in games is by controlling the ball. The past offensive coordinator was bad in this department, but I have been impressed with the current Illini squad.

Illinois nearly won and should have knocked off Purdue this past Saturday. A big reason for the close game was due to time of possession. Illinois had the ball for 33:45 of the 60 minutes in the game. Purdue only had it for 26:15.

Ball control goes back to the first two slides of this article. Illinois being able to run the ball well with their stable of running backs and having a good defense will enable the program to control the game more often.

In the Maryland game the week before, Illinois had a better time of possession with 30:51 compared to the Terrapins’ 29:09. It was a close loss again for the Illini.

Now let’s take a look at the first three games, where Illinois was giving up 33.7 points per game. In the 28-point loss to Virginia, the Cavaliers had the ball for 32:08 and Illinois had it for 27:52.

Illinois lost the time of possession in the UTSA game as well. UTSA had the ball for 30:42 compared to the Illini who had it for 29:18.

Finally, in the lone win against Nebraska, the Illini had the ball for 34:55 compared to the Cornhuskers who only had it for 25:05. This is the biggest margin of ball control, and the game went in favor of Illinois.

Ball control matters. At a minimum, if Illinois is controlling the ball as often or more than the opposing team, then we are in the game. If this trend continues, more wins will be put up on the board.