‘Makes sense everyone had a big part in it’: Illini dominated in blowout loss
Lovie Smith struggled to point to anything he felt good about following a blowout loss in what his players referred to earlier in the week as a crossroads game.
The Fighting Illini coach, who fell to 4-25 in Big Ten Conference play in his four-year tenure, watched a depressing 40-17 loss in Minnesota include a defense give a previously inept Minnesota running game 332 yards on the ground and 6.4 yards-per-carry. Smith saw an offense never reach the red zone at any point in the 60-minute football game and register just three points. And just to add injury to the insulting afternoon, Smith witnessed his starting quarterback Brandon Peters leave the game with an undisclosed injury and observed his team’s passing game leave through the tunnel before halftime with his transfer signal caller.
The problem is at 2-3 and 0-2 in Big Ten play, the Illini, who are on a three-game losing streak and coming off a bye week were more thoroughly beaten than at any point of this season, may not like the vision staring back at them in the mirror.
Minnesota, who reached a 5-0 record for the first time since 2004 with its most dominating win of the 2019 campaign, came into its Homecoming weekend just 110th in rushing offense. The Gophers had two running backs listed as game-time decisions with injuries. None of those previous things mattered. Minnesota manhandled the Illinois defensive front seven to the tune of 332 yards on the ground and had two tailbacks easily reach the 100-yard mark.
“We need to tackle better,” Smith said about his defense giving up 658 rushing yards in its last two games. “You see the game? We had guys in position to make a tackle. Got to tackle better.”
While tackling was an issue, Minnesota tailback Rodney Smith totaled 212 yards on 24 carries mostly by not having an Illinois defender anywhere near him once he broke through the first level of the Illini defensive front.
Once Peters was knocked out of the game after a designed quarterback run resulted in a violent hit, Minnesota (5-0, 2-0) never respect the ability of backup quarterback Matt Robinson to make plays vertically down the field in the passing game. The redshirt freshman ended the game with a frustrating performance of 15 of 29 for 125 yards. Robinson was only to mount one scoring drive in the game, which resulted in a 46-yard field goal at the end of the half, but had four possessions end in three plays or less. Once again, Illinois allowed the margin of the game to result in their offense getting away from what Smith stressed should be that unit’s philosophy of running the football and controlling possession.
“Offensively we need to be able to be who we are and that’s a running football team,” Smith said. “When we get a chance to hit passes, we need to be able to do that. That’s what they did against us today.”
The 61-year-old Smith said Saturday he’d actually seen something he’d never seen before in a football game. On an afternoon where his defense scored a pair of touchdowns, his team was still nowhere near a victory against a clearly superior opponent. It was the first time since 2010 where the Illini defense found the end zone more than once but unfortunately, its defense outscored the offense by double digits.
“I don’t I’ve ever been (somewhere) where we lost a game where we scored a couple of defensive touchdowns,” Smith said. “Just didn’t play good enough football.”
And the schedule doesn’t provide any comfort for a hurting Illini program as Illinois will host nationally-ranked Michigan and Wisconsin in back-to-back weeks. Smith knows if things don’t turn around for the Illini soon, they may only be favored in one more game this season (Nov. 2 vs. Rutgers).
“It’s early in Big Ten play. (The Minnesota loss) is a crossroads game but not an all is lost game,” Smith said. “When you’re playing your fifth game of the season, there’s a lot of football left to go.”