The game had long been decided. With 1:47 to play, Illinois was up by three touchdowns and had all but secured its second win of the season against visiting Virginia.

But the Cavaliers were knocking on the door, inside the 5-yard line and with a first down at the Illini 2. Despite leading by 21, Illinois opted to bring its starters back onto the field. They did not want Virginia to score.

Completely locked in, they achieved their goal. First-down run: loss of three yards. Second down: incompletion. Third down: incompletion. Fourth down: incompletion.

The first of four straight wins, Illinois remains unbeaten at home heading into Homecoming week against Minnesota. The Illini are one of four teams – and the lone Big Ten West program – in the conference with an unblemished home record, a source of pride for Tarique Barnes, one of the the team's four captains.

"We are going to pride ourselves in protecting this house," Barnes said after the Iowa win. "Regardless of how the game goes, I think nobody scoring in our house is a big testament to us defending where we perform every day and where we want to protect."

Against Iowa, with just over four minutes remaining in the first half and the Illini holding a narrow 6-3 lead, the Hawkeyes took over at the Illinois 5. Three plays later, Iowa found itself backed up at the 9-yard line and had to settle for a field goal.

In a game that came down to one field goal, the Illini's 9-6 win over the Hawkeyes marked the highest attendance of the season thus far and the largest crowd since 2016. Jer'Zhan Newton, who leads the team in tackles, says the fan energy played a huge factor in the program's first win over Iowa since 2008.

"The fans play a huge role," Newton said. "We had a big crowd out there, so they kept giving us momentum and just hyped us up."

The Illini are the only FBS program yet to allow a touchdown at home, while they also are ranked for the first time since 2011, boast the top scoring defense in the country, are off to their best start to a season in over a decade, and have already matched their win total from 2021.

But they aren't satisfied. Three home games are left and Homecoming at Memorial Stadium is just a few days away.

"One of our goals this year is to protect Memorial Stadium," said starting defensive back Kendall Smith. "In order to win out in Memorial, we have to keep people from scoring in there, so it just goes hand-in-hand."

The Orange and Blue are the only team to find the end zone in Champaign in 2022, and they look to keep it that way against Minnesota, Michigan State, and Purdue. Regardless of the time left on the clock, the score on the videoboards, or the personnel on the field, the Illinois defense will do everything in its power to ensure the orange turf in the end zone remains untouched by opposing offenses, and the fans in the stands play a big role in creating a home-field advantage.

"My brothers and I, we're out there in the summer and in spring and fall camp grinding," said Keith Randolph Jr., who leads the team in tackles for loss and sacks. "There are blood, sweat, and tears on our turf. People don't see all the hard work that we really put in, and the extra work as well. Memorial Stadium is our home. It's who we are. It has a whole lot of great history behind it. To keep people out of the end zone, we take that very seriously. We try our best to not let anybody back there. 

"When somebody is creeping in, it doesn't matter if we're up by 1 or if we're up by 100, we don't want anybody to score."