CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Illini lost in heartbreaking fashion to Indiana on Friday night, falling 23-20. A Hoosier touchdown with less than one minute to play ultimately proved to be the difference, and the Illini now move to 1-1 on the campaign.
Illinois outgained Indiana, 448-362, and ran 90 offensive plays but it was not enough. Chase Brown ran for 199 yards on 36 carries and Isaiah Williams had nine receptions for 112 yards and one touchdown to highlight the night for Illinois.
The Illini led for nearly all of the second half after taking the lead on their first drive of the third quarter when Tommy DeVito connected with Brian Hightower on a 16-yard touchdown. The Illinois defense set the tone early in the second half, with Kendall Smith recording his first-career interception on the second play of the half to set up the offense in Indiana territory. Illinois needed just five plays to take advantage of the takeaway and pull ahead 17-16.
The Illini used a 48-yard field goal from Caleb Griffin to push their lead to four, 20-16, with 2:16 remaining in the game before Indiana's game-winning drive.Â
Indiana QBÂ Connor Bazelak threw for 330 yards on 28-of-52 passing. The Illini defense took away Indiana's ability to run the ball, allowing only 32 yards on 26 carries.Â
Illinois will return home next week to take on Virginia at Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
Press Conference
Quotes
Bret Bielema
Opening statement:
"Well, very frustrating. We got a disappointed locker room. A few positive notes: I think it really hurts these guys that put in a lot of work since last January to where we are today. Not just the last week of preparation for these guys, but they put in a lot to invest in the season. Two opportunities are behind us, obviously 10 are guaranteed in front of us. We've got a lot of work to do. I've been in this business long enough; before you can win, you have to stop from losing.
"For me as a head coach, I've got to obviously do a much better job of emphasizing the things that we self-inflicted today. I could go through offensively, defensively, and certain phases of the game, just nonsense things that we've got to clean up to have a couple of those penalties back. But we did some things to overcome it. I think a critical point in the game, it felt like it was right there for us to push it over the edge. (Brian) Hightower claimed up and down that he caught that pass in the back of the end zone, and obviously that went to replay. I think that was not just a mental play for our kids, but Brian was just animated that he caught that. A game isn't made out of woulda, coulda, shoulda. You have to overcome those moments.
"I think the part that was positive, we are paper-thin at certain positions. Julian Pearl wasn't available for the game, but we moved Isaiah Adams out to left tackle. Jordyn Slaughter went in there, and I know we rushed for some good numbers. We weren't able to rush in the most critical moment down there in the red area to come away with a score. I think from a health standpoint, I think we came out a little bit good. Obviously Taz (Nicholson) couldn't be out there at the beginning of that last phase. He'd been nursing himself through a little bit of a soft tissue. We didn't know if we would have him this week, but he found a way to make it go.
"I think for the most part we came out pretty healthy, but it's going to be a big, big week ahead of us. We have a long drive back home. We have to hydrate. It's been a long game here today, obviously one that we have to make sure that we recover from tomorrow. Tomorrow, we'll hopefully learn a lot about our players on how they recover and get themselves ready for Sunday practice and Virginia on the backside."
Chase Brown
On his mindset moving forward:
"We can only take a step forward from here. We can't really live on this loss. It's tough, losing by three points , but we're going to learn from it."
On the offensive line:
"They worked their butts off every single day, and I wasn't worried when they went in there. Julian Pearl's going to be back and ready and healthy soon, so there's a lot that we can learn from this game."
Jer'Zhan Newton
On learning from the loss:
"The close losses hurt the most. I think just film, getting back to practice, studying our next opponent, and we have to move on from this loss. We will digest it today and tomorrow, but after that, we've got Virginia next at home so we'll have the home field advantage. We have to fix our mistakes before we can win a game."
Sydney Brown
On learning from the loss:
"We got to take the loss in now and then forget about it tomorrow after going through film. These are never easy, but we got to stop ourselves from losing these games."
On if the team gained momentum from the defense's performance:
"One-hundred percent, but obviously it wasn't enough to push forward."
Team Notes
• Illinois moved to 1-1 (0-1 B1G) on the season.
• Illinois still leads the all-time series against Indiana 45-25-3.
• The Illinois defense allowed just 32 rushing yards, the first time since Sept. 7, 2019, at Connecticut that the Illini defense allowed 32 rushing yards or fewer in a game.
• Illinois had 448 yards of total offense in tonight's game. This is the first time since 2013 that the Illini offense has posted at least 440 yards of offense in the first two games of the season.
• The Illini have controlled the football for more than 36 minutes in each of the first two games of the season.
• The Illinois offense recorded 29 first downs in tonight's game and have made at least 26 first downs in each of the first two games this season.
• The Illini went 9-for-17 on third down tonight, converting a season-high 52.9 percent on such downs.
Individual Notes
• Tonight's captains; WR Isaiah Williams, LB Tarique Barnes, DB Sydney Brown, OL Alex Palczewski
• OL Alex Palczewski started for the 54th time in his career, tying for 13th all-time in college football history and third all-time in Big Ten history.
• RB Chase Brown rushed for 199 yards on 36 carries and became the first Illinois running back to rush for 100 yards in three-straight games since Reggie Corbin from Oct. 20 – Nov. 3, 2018.
   » Brown is also the first Illini running back since Mikel Leshoure to open a season with back-to-back games with 100 yards or more on the ground.
   » Brown has back-to-back games with 150 rushing yards or more, the first Illinois running back to do so since Reggie Corbin from Oct. 27, - Nov. 3, 2018. He is also the first Illini running back since at least 1944 to open a season with back-to-back games with at least 150 yards.
   » Brown has 1,913 rushing yards for his career at Illinois, No. 20 on Illinois' all-time career rushing list. Brown also tallied 352 yards as a freshman at Western Michigan for 2,265 for his career.
   » Brown's 36 careers tied for the ninth-most in a game in Illinois history. It was the most carries by an Illini since Pierre Thomas carried the ball 37 times against Northwestern, 11/20/2004.
• QB Tommy DeVito completed 21 of his 35 passes for 232 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
• WR Isaiah Williams set career-highs in receptions (9) and receiving yards (112). He also caught his first touchdown of the season in the first quarter.
• DB Kendall Smith recorded his first career interception on the second play of the third quarter.
• WR Brian Hightower caught the fourth touchdown pass of his career, his first of the season, and his first since 2020 in the third quarter.
• DB Devon Witherspoon had three passes broken up in tonight's contest, a game high.
• DB Tahveon Nicholson forced the first fumble of his career in the fourth quarter.
• K Caleb Griffin kicked a career-long 48-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to give the Illini a 20-16 lead.
