What Indiana's Curt Cignetti Said About Illinois' Offensive Line

Curt Cignetti saw what Illinois football fans didn't want to see.

Over the first three weeks of the season, the Illini went 3-0 and outscored their opponents by a ridiculous 135-22 margin. Offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. dialed up chains-moving plays as easily as he might call an Uber. Especially with the benefit of a half of football to analyze, Illinois' coaches made virtually all the right offensive moves.

But a half of football on Saturday in Bloomington set the Illini hopelessly behind and in a momentum death spiral. Indiana unleashed hell up front, and the Hoosiers just kept coming – from different angles, with different personnel, on varied down-and-distance scenarios, sometimes delaying or disguising blitzes. Illinois couldn't get it blocked up, and this time the onslaught only continued after halftime. The Hoosiers finished with seven sacks, a mere two rushing yards allowed and a 63-10 demolition of the Illini.

Halftime stats from Bloomington. Indiana has more sacks (5) than Illinois does rushing yards (3). #iufb pic.twitter.com/vwqasN9ebu
— IndianaHQ (@IndianaHQ) September 21, 2025

As stunned as many observers were by what they had witnessed, Cignetti, Indiana's sorcerer strategist and head coach, was as unfazed by the results as a criminal mastermind who had engineered every step up of a perfect heist: "That's what I saw on tape, too."

What Cignetti saw when he scouted Illinois' first three games were nine sacks allowed and a pretty steady stream of pressure on quarterback Luke Altmyer, despite the Illini having returned five starters on the offensive line and Lunney making every effort to balance the pass with the run game. Where many saw experience, Cignetti saw a group that last year gave up 32 sacks – more than all but four other Big Ten teams. Where others saw a strength, Cignetti saw cracks in the foundation.

"I thought our defensive line could whip their offensive line, and they did," Cignetti said after Saturday's game. "They came out and played with tempo early. Give [Altmyer] time, and he's gonna get the ball where it's gotta go. I think the sacks were huge."

The Illini were rattled when they simply missed D'Angelo Ponds racing off the edge to block a Keelan Crimmins punt, which Ponds scooped up and deposited in the end zone to give Indiana the go-ahead score. There was more of the same when Illinois took the ball again from scrimmage, on both pass and run plays. At first, the Illini failed to identify or miscommunicated in blocking blitzing defenders. But soon they were simply getting beat off the snap – mostly on the edge, but by the second half also along the interior.

"The blocked punt got us going, and then they couldn't stop us," Cignetti said. "They couldn't match up on the perimeter, and then we broke their will and just pounded them. He's a good quarterback, but he took a lot of sacks last year, too."

And now that there's blood in the water, Altmyer figures to take many, many more of them until Lunney and Illinois' blockers figure out how to consistently get a push up front and account for every defender sent screaming into their backfield.