Illinois football dropped their second game in a row on Saturday to the Purdue Boilermakers.
This was a disappointing loss for the Illini considering the Big Ten West was on the line. Illinois was bit by the penalty bug, we couldn’t stop Purdue’s passing attack, and our quarterback play wasn’t as strong as it needed to be. These were all things that contributed to the 31-24 loss to the Boilermakers.
Here are five observations from the Illinois football loss to Purdue.
1. Tommy DeVito had a bad game
Before the last couple of weeks, the Illinois football team had been cruising this season. We were 7-1 at one time with our only loss early in the season to Indiana.
A big reason Illinois was able to get off to such a strong start is that we had a quarterback who could manage games and complete passes. Tommy DeVito had a great start to the 2022 campaign. Through the first eight games, he only had one contest where he threw for worse than a 60% completion rate.
Illinois needs DeVito to play well and not make mistakes. We need him to be consistent and complete passes at a high clip, whether they are one-yard passes or bombs down the field. But, on Saturday, that didn’t happen.
DeVito had, arguably, his worst game of the season against Purdue. The Boilermakers held DeVito to 201 yards on 18-of-32 passing. His 56.3% completion rate was just a tick over his season-low 54.5% completion rate against Iowa, which Illinois only scored nine points in that game.
Purdue was also able to force DeVito to throw an interception, albeit it wasn’t really his fault as a lineman tipped the pass, but it is still an interception, nonetheless. This interception pretty much sealed the fate of the Illini.
The Illini needed consistency out of DeVito against Purdue, but we didn’t get that. He had his second-lowest completion percentage of the year, he had an interception, and his legs weren’t working as he only had one yard rushing. DeVito is an important piece to winning. When he struggles, so does the Illini.
2. We need to stop trying to be something we are not
I touched on the tough game that Tommy DeVito had in the previous slide. Illinois needs him to play well to win games. But we also need to stop trying to be a team that we are not.
The Purdue Boilermakers were able to throw on the Illinois defense. They were getting shredded whenever Aiden O’Connell was on the field. So, how do you slow down the Purdue offense? Keep them off the field. It is that simple.
Illinois didn’t implement a game plan to keep Purdue off the field, and when they saw O’Connell having success against the Illini defense, we didn’t make adjustments. Illinois needed to stop passing as much, or we could have at least started dinking and dumping the ball down.
DeVito had 32 pass attempts against Purdue, and that number should have been lower. We have a strong running back in Chase Brown who only had 23 carries on the day. Illinois went away from him too often and too early in the game. He should have been getting the ball more.
I also believe we could have used Reggie Love III more. He only had four rushing attempts against the Boilermakers. That number could have easily been 10 or more touches.
The lack of usage of Isaiah Williams confuses me too. Illinois didn’t use our most electric player on the field nearly enough. He had three total touches against Purdue. That number should be much higher.
Offensive coordinator Barry Lunney relied too much on the arm of DeVito. I think he is a good quarterback, but when you see the defense needing help and DeVito not completing a ton of passes, then we should have fallen back on the running game. We are a running team. Let’s be who we are.
3. Penalties killed Illinois
Coming into the Purdue game on Saturday, the Illini hadn’t been the most disciplined team when it comes to penalties. This is a reflection on the coaching staff and the discipline instilled in the players.
Before the game, Illinois was averaging 7.1 penalties per game, which ranked No. 97 in the country. That is not a good number at all. But, on Saturday, Illinois wanted to crush that number, and crushed it they did.
Not only did Illinois eclipse the 7.1 penalties in the game against Purdue, they decided to nearly double that number and had a total of 12 penalties on the day. This is an astonishing number.
Illinois is actually an even worse team in the country in penalty yardage per game. Coming into Saturday, we were accruing 64.9 penalty yards per game, which ranked No. 108 in the nation. That is out of 131 teams. Illinois pretty much doubled that number against Purdue by accumulating 121 yards in penalties.
If you watched the game, you would have seen some bad calls go against the Illini. There is nothing we can do about those calls. But there were some legit pass interference calls against Illinois. Alex Palczewski also had a couple of false start penalties that cost the team greatly.
This game was a struggle for the Illini, and one of the big reasons we ended up falling to Purdue was due to penalties. If we want to win in the future, this has to be corrected.
4. Chase Brown still had a magical season
Even with Illinois struggling the past couple of weeks, there has always been one constant and that is the greatness of running back, Chase Brown.
Brown has had one of the most magical seasons in Illinois football history. Coming into Saturday, he led the nation in rushing and still had an outside shot of getting invited to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
The Heisman is out of the question completely now, and the Illini are losing, but Brown is still going strong. He would finish the Purdue game with 23 carries for 98 yards and two touchdowns. He was also second on the team in receiving with 32 yards.
Toward the end of the game, Brown was tackled and had his leg rolled up on. He never reentered the game, and his status moving forward is in question. Bret Bielema didn’t have any updates on Brown’s situation after the game.
I am hoping it is just a rolled ankle and nothing more. I would hate for Brown’s season to end like that. As we are now through the Purdue game, Illini fans need to appreciate what we have seen this season.
Brown has now rushed for 1,442 yards this year. Even if he doesn’t play in the final two regular season games and the bowl game, he would still finish No. 3 on the Illinois single-season rushing record. Only Mikel Leshoure (1,697 yards) and Rashard Mendenhall (1,681 yards) would finish ahead of Brown.
The 3,005 yards Brown had accumulated with the Illinois football program is another special number. His game against Purdue moved Brown to No. 2 on the Illinois all-time rushing record list, right behind Robert Holcombe (4,105 yards).
No matter what happens for the rest of the 2022 campaign, Brown has been special for the Illini, and we have witnessed one of the greatest seasons in Illinois history. Thank you for everything, Chase.
5. This season is not a loss
Last season, the Illinois football team finished 5-7 and was so close to making a bowl game. We were competitive in just about every contest as well. The hope for the 2022 campaign was to finish better than 5-7 and to make a bowl game.
Those expectations continued when Illinois started the season 1-1 with a loss to the Indiana Hoosiers. This loss was a bit disappointing as we could have easily won that game. But a six-win campaign was still a solid expectation.
Illinois then went on a tear. We won six-straight games to move to 7-1 on the season. It was a great run, and many people changed the expectations for the year despite having the same talent. Illinois had a legit shot to represent the Big Ten West in the conference championship game, we had a good shot at making a New Year’s Six bowl game, and there was a distant outside shot of making the College Football Playoff.
Those expectations might have been a little out of touch, though. The reality is this Illinois team still doesn’t have the depth and talent needed to really make a national impact. I love the run we went on, but we aren’t a top-15 team in the country.
After two losses, I see a lot of negative comments about Illinois. Some of the comments consisted of “fans” saying this is the typical old Illinois team letting us down. But, instead of blaming Illinois for “letting us down” how about we look at the expectations we had for the Illini.
The fact we are 7-3 is an impressive season thus far. Getting to seven wins is an accomplishment this season, and we are already bowl-eligible. Illinois has a tough game against No. 3 Michigan and then finishes with Northwestern. This should be a victory for the Illini.
I wanted Illinois to win the Big Ten West and give our best shot to Ohio State, but those expectations might have been a little out of hand. That doesn’t mean this season isn’t a success, though. Illinois can get to eight wins. We are going to make a bowl game. And we could end up winning a bowl. This is a great building block for the future.