Illinois Football: 3 key numbers for the Illini to beat Kansas

3. 33.3% conversion

Illinois managed to win the game last Saturday in heart-attack fashion. This wasn’t an easy victory, as the Illini had to score 23 points in the second half to escape with a win.

In the second half, Illinois started to gel a little more. The ball started to move down the field, and we started to put points on the board.

Illinois ended up converting just 33.3% of their third downs last Saturday against the Rockets. This isn’t a good number and one that will enable us to lose a lot of games this season if we remain at this percentage.

As of right now, Illinois ranks No. 62 in the country in third down conversion percentage. This is out of the 99 teams that have registered a DI game. That means we near the bottom one-third of the country.

If the Illini only covert 33.3% of the third downs against Kansas, then we will be in trouble. Thankfully, the second half against Toledo looked much better than the first half.

Illinois only converted 1-of-4, 25%, of third downs against the Rockets in the first half. In the second half, that number was 2-of-5, 40%. The Illini offense started to get into a groove, and I am hoping that carries over to Friday.

A side note, Illinois failed to convert on the lone fourth down attempt in the first half. They were 2-of-2 on fourth downs in the second half, though.

Illinois has a chance to move to 2-0 on the season, but we need to convert on third downs. I think the third down conversion percentage needs to be 45% or better if we want any chance to knock off the Jayhawks in Lawrence.