Illinois football had zero business winning the game on Saturday, but we fought hard and came away with the dub.
It was an insane roller coaster of emotions. The Illini would turn the ball over three times, our quarterback would get hurt on the second drive, and Iowa would start multiple drives inside of Illinois territory. But despite all of that happening, Illinois still won the game 9-6.
Here are five observations from the Illinois football win over Iowa.
1. Incredible defensive performance
I know in the past five games, the Illinois defense has been great. But on Saturday night, this defensive performance was one for the ages.
Illinois could have laid down in this game. We lost our starting quarterback in Tommy DeVito in the second drive. We had three fumbles, two of which were lost. We gave Iowa every chance in the world to score more than a field goal.
But the Hawkeyes couldn’t score more than a field goal on any single drive. Do you know why? Because our defense played incredibly well.
Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras threw for 170 yards, which sounds like a good number, but that came on 36 attempts. Petras was only 18-of-36, 50%, passing on the night, and he threw an interception, which ended their second-to-last drive of the game.
Illinois being able to stop Iowa’s passing attack wasn’t the most impressive thing on the night, though. It was the ability to stop a usually talented Iowa running game. The Hawkeyes would finish the loss with 30 attempts for 52 yards, which comes out to 1.73 yards per carry.
And, lastly, I want to point out the obvious great defensive stat. The fact Iowa only scored six points is incredible. Holding any team to six points is a great feat, but Iowa had back-to-back drives in the first half where they started at the Illinois 35-yard line and the Illinois 5-yard line. Out of these two drives, the Hawkeyes only scored three points. That was the turning point in the game.