Illinois Football: 5 observations from the Illini loss to Michigan State

Illinois football took a big hit to the record on Saturday with a painful loss to Michigan State.

The Illini had a chance to send the Spartans packing with a big win. We would have moved to 8-1 on the season and continued to work our way up the College Football Playoff rankings. But that all came crashing down with a disappointing 23-15 loss to Michigan State.

Here are five observations from the Illinois football loss to Michigan State.

1. Bad things snowballed for Illinois

There are a couple of games throughout the season where you have turnovers in the game but you try to overcome the turnovers to get a victory. On Saturday night, Illinois couldn’t overcome the turnover bug.

Down 9-7 in the second quarter, the Illini were driving. We were able to get the ball down into Michigan State territory, and everything looked like points in the near future. Illinois would hand it off to our reliable Heisman Trophy-caliber running back, Chase Brown. Brown would run the ball for 18 yards and end up fumbling it away to the Spartans.

That fumble alone cost us, potentially, seven points and the lead. That could have changed the game completely. Instead, the momentum swung in favor of Michigan State.

Illinois would then get the ball back with just over five minutes to go until halftime. Once again, we were putting together a great drive. The Illini had it in Michigan State territory, but a big penalty set the Illini back. We would end up not being able to convert on fourth down.

Down 9-7, still, Illinois had it around midfield on the third possession of the second half. Another fumble would result in Michigan State getting the ball and eventually scoring. We would then fail to convert on fourth down on two of our final three drives as well.

I can explain this simply. Illinois just had one of those games. One bad thing happened, and it just snowballed from there. We can’t have that happen moving forward.