Illini turn it over three times, give up touchdown to offensive lineman in loss to Wisconsin

Share

Wisconsin is one of the best teams in the country. Illinois, to put it mildly, is not.

So Saturday's relatively easy win for the Badgers down in Champaign was not surprising in the least, the Illini doing very little on offense in a 24-10 defeat.

While Wisconsin had little trouble picking up its eighth win in as many games to stay undefeated on the season, it didn't pile up the style points it could've used ahead of next week's first batch of College Football Playoff rankings.

The Badgers did, though, come away with one highlight-reel play, tossing a touchdown pass to offensive lineman Michael Deiter in the game's final minutes.

Illinois, meanwhile, couldn't do much of anything on offense, once more constantly swapping quarterbacks, with Jeff George Jr. and freshman Cam Thomas both seeing plenty of action. Neither had much success, however, and they combined to go 9-for-31 passing the ball with a pair of interceptions.

The Illini did sneak a touchdown in with 49 seconds to play. The outcome was well determined by that point, but Kendrick Foster did get in for a score to make the final tally slightly more respectable. Still, the Illini finished with just 286 yards of total offense.

Illinois' defense was actually pretty good against one of the best teams in the land. Helping was the fact that star running back Jonathan Taylor departed the game with an injury. But the Illini held the Badgers to 303 total yards.

With the loss, the Illini dropped to 2-6 on the season and 0-5 in Big Ten play. They travel to play Purdue next weekend.

Contact Us