Illinois Fighting Illini vs Indiana Hoosiers Football Recap

Illinois 43, Indiana 13

This would certainly qualify as the low point of the Indiana Hoosiers’ 2010 season. It’s one thing to have your head handed to you on a platter by the likes of Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin, but it’s quite another matter to be obliterated by a Ron Zook-coached club from Illinois.

The Fighting Illini were able to shut down the vaunted Hoosier passing game on Saturday, but then again, when one realizes that the Illini managed to blow out Indiana at home, just how vaunted can anything be if it’s associated with the Indiana football label?

With Indiana now sitting at 4-3, time is running out for Coach Bill Lynch’s team to grab the more winnable Big Ten games on the season slate. If the Hoosiers can’t upend Northwestern this week, they’ll almost certainly have to beat both Penn State and Purdue in the final two weeks to become bowl eligible. That’s because the Northwestern game is followed by dates with Iowa and Wisconsin. Deciding not to show up for a contest against the Zookers at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois, wasn’t a very good idea for the visitors.

Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase completed 13 of 21 passes for 123 yards and two touchdowns.  The redshirt freshman from Kansas City did not throw an interception. Indiana quarterback Ben Chappell threw for 279 yards and a touchdown, but was picked off three times and didn’t do a good job at all of handling the constant pressure he faced.  The Illini defense forced five turnovers that led to 24 points for the home team.

IU turned the ball over three times in the first half.  All three turnovers led to touchdowns.  Tavon Wilson’s interception on the Hoosiers’ first possession led to an Illini field goal.  Illinois’s Justin Staples then forced a fumble that led to a touchdown pass from Scheelhaase to Jared Fayson.  Then, Staples once again entered the fray and made a difference for the Illini. He pressured Chappell and forced him to hurry a throw, which Patrick Nixon-Youman picked off and returned 68 yards for a touchdown to give Illinois a 24-7 lead with 7:07 left in the second quarter.  The teams then traded field goals, and the Illini led 27-10 at the half.

Illinois kept up the pressure in the second half, taking a 29-10 lead by blocking an Indiana punt through the back of the end zone for a safety.  The Hoosiers’ only points of the second half came on a Mitch Ewald field goal with 1:53 left in the third quarter that made the deficit 16 points, at 29-13.

Illini running back Mikel Leshoure nailed down the win with a seven-yard touchdown run that made the score 36-13 Illinois with 3:54 left in the fourth quarter.  Leshoure finished with 77 yards rushing on 16 carries.

Illinois closed out the scoring when Jonathan Brown intercepted IU backup quarterback Dusty Kiel and ran 66 yards for a touchdown in the game’s final minute.

All in all, the 24 points Illinois scored off turnovers, plus the two points produced on the blocked punt, gave the Ilini 26 points in a game they won by 30. Mistakes still matter in college football. Oh, how they do.

As a result, Indiana’s postseason hopes just grew a lot dimmer.

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