Indiana football loses a shootout to Illinois ending their bowl chances for the season

Indiana football came into Champaign needing to win out to secure bowl eligibility and they had their worst defensive performance of the season. Indiana lost 48-45 in overtime to Illinois, ending their bowl hopes.

The Hoosiers allowed 662 total yards of offense to the Fighting Illini. They averaged 9.3 yards per play on offense on their way to 42 points in regulation.

Illinois was without their starting quarterback, Luke Altmeyer, and did not matter. Backup QB and Ball State transfer John Paddock torched the Indiana defense and specifically the secondary.

“We planned for both [quarterbacks]. We watched film on the one that ended up playing. Obviously didn’t know [Paddock] was gonna end up playing,” Allen said about preparing for both quarterbacks. “You obviously have to prepare for both, made phone calls trying to find out as much about him as we could, watched film from where he came from and felt good about that part of it, but obviously we couldn’t keep pressure on him, that was the issue.”

Indiana only had one sack on Paddock, who threw for 507 passing yards and 4 touchdowns with a 67% completion percentage. Three different Illinois wide receivers had over 90 yards and a touchdown against the Hoosier defense.

Isaiah Williams led the way with 9 catches for 200 receiving yards with two touchdowns. Pat Bryant added 5 catches for 131 receiving yards with a touchdown.

“[We] tried multiple coverages, obviously [Isaiah Williams] was a matchup issue,” Allen said about the Illinois receivers. “Doubled him then they were getting the ball to [Pat Bryant] and [Casey Washington].”

Indiana had no answer for the Illinois passing attack and Tom Allen was ‘shocked’ by the big plays that the defense allowed.

“Shocked in the first half, especially a couple of blown coverages,” Tom Allen said about the big plays. “… Very frustrating, just no excuse for it.”

The Fighting Illini had 5 different wide receivers with a reception of at least 20 yards as Indiana could to stop the big play.

The pass defense was not good today, but that was not the only problem for the Indiana defense. Missed tackles were another big issue for the defense as Illinois consistently made the first tackler miss before adding more yards.

Reggie Love III ran for 140 yards on 24 carries with two touchdowns. The Indiana defense had a major collapse on a day they needed a big performance most.

“A couple of young guys made some mistakes,” Allen said about the defenses performance. “At the same time, if they are in at this time of year they gotta make plays, just really disappointing.”

Tom Allen has preached a playoff mode mindset because Indiana needed to win out to secure bowl eligibility. Despite the offense scoring 45 points, it was not enough as Indiana dropped to 3-7 on the season, ending their bowl hopes.

“That’s unacceptable, we worked really hard to get our offense on track and made a lot of adjustments,” Allen said postgame. “… The defense gotta step up and do their jobs. Call it what it is, defense let this team down today.”

Indiana will host Michigan State next week in the team’s final home game before wrapping up the season in West Lafayette for the Old Oaken Bucket game against Purdue.