Illinois Football: 5 observations from the Illini win over Minnesota

Just when you thought Illinois football was about to lose another heartbreaker, the Football Gods blessed us with a victory.

What a crazy game. The Illini had this in the bag until we made another bad mistake. That bad mistake was followed by another bad mistake. Things were snowballing, but Jer’Zhan Newton and the Illinois defense held strong. This enabled one of the most legendary drives in Illini program history.

Here are five observations from the Illinois football win over Minnesota

1. John Paddock just became an Illini legend

Illinois had this game locked up coming down the stretch. Up 21-20 with less than six minutes to go in the game, Isaiah Williams caught a first down to extend the drive. He didn’t make it to the ground, though. The ball was fumbled, and shortly after, Minnesota threw a touchdown to go up 26-21.

This was brutal as an Illinois fan. The icing on the cake was the interception Luke Altmyer threw on the next drive. This pick with four minutes to go in the game seemed like the nail in the coffin. This game was over.

Until it wasn’t.

Illinois’ defense had a great stop and we got the ball back. Altmyer came back out, and almost instantly, the Illini were in a fourth-and-11 situation. In steps backup fifth-year quarterback John Paddock. The Ball State transfer had to step in for Altmyer, as the Illini starter went out with an injury.

Behind the eight ball and cold as ice, Paddock came up clutch. The coldness from sitting on the bench apparently gave Paddock ice in his veins, as the backup lit the world on fire. He threw a great pass to Isaiah Willams to convert the fourth down. Paddock then hit Pat Bryant in the middle of the field for another first down.

And then it happened.

Paddock drops back, scans the field, sees Williams deep, and lets it fly. A 46-yard touchdown was the result of the play, and an Illinois victory was a result of the game.

Stepping into a final drive of a game without throwing a pass is one thing, but doing this while the first play is fourth-and-11 is a whole different scenario. Paddock just had one of the best and most clutch drives from an Illinois quarterback, easily, in the past couple of decades. Given the scenario, I would argue that was in the top five most clutch drives in program history. Paddock is an Illinois legend.