Emotion – or the lack thereof – was the name of the game in now-No. 22 Illinois’ close 20-17 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday.

“A win’s a win, and obviously that’s the bottom line, but we’re not happy with the way we played and there’s some things we’ve got to get fixed,” head coach Ron Zook said. “The biggest thing is we need to play with more emotion. Football is an emotional game and for some reason we’re not flying around like we’ve got to.”

Scoring 42 points in their loss to Missouri and putting up 47 points against Eastern Illinois, the Fighting Illini struggled on offense with quarterback Juice Williams connecting on 13 of his 25 attempted passes.

Junior tight end Michael Hoomanawanui was the team’s leading receiver, accumulating 74 yards on five receptions, while running back Daniel Dufrene played double duty rushing and receiving. Dufrene caught a 10-yard touchdown pass and turned in a career-high 126 yards on the ground.

Though Dufrene had an impressive game, the rest of the Illini offense was flat.

“We didn’t play to the best of our ability,” Williams said. “Our offense had what, 20 points? No actually we had 13; Brit (Miller) scored a touchdown. That’s terrible versus what we did the last couple of weeks.”

Miller, the team’s most outspoken and vocal leader, was able to wrestle the ball away from ULL quarterback Michael Desormeaux. With the fumble recovery, the linebacker ran 27 yards for his first career touchdown.

“We practice that every day in practice,” the Decatur, Ill., native said about forcing fumbles. “It’s the most boring, mundane part of practice, but it paid off today. I got my hands on the ball, we were able to stand him up and I was able to rip it out and take it into the end zone.”

Miller, along with junior defensive back Vontae Davis, recorded 13 tackles. The rest of the defense had an important game, proving it is possible to stop the other team’s run — something Illinois had struggled with in its first two games.

Tyrell Fenroy, ULL’s praised running back, was held to just 28 yards on the ground. Fenroy became the Ragin’ Cajuns’ all-time rushing leader on his first carry of the game, bringing his total to 3,336 career rushing yards. Combining with Desormeaux, Fenroy was able to add another 52 receiving yards.

Even though ULL (0-2) came in as a 25-point underdog, Fenroy believed his team played Illinois as well as possible.

“The first quarter, we went out and we saw we could establish the run, we saw could move, we saw, ya know, we can play with these guys,” Fenroy said. “After the offense went out on the first drive, we saw we could move the ball, and I think it opened everybody’s eyes and realized we can actually do this.”

In the first quarter, the Ragin’ Cajuns booted a 24-yard field goal off the foot of Drew Edmiston but trailed the Illini at halftime 17-3. Staying quiet until the last five minutes of the game, Desormeaux made a 34-yard run into the end zone to close the gap at 17-10.

The final few minutes saw both teams going back and forth, as Matt Eller connected on his second field goal of the day with under two minutes left to play. However, ULL did not back down; instead Erik Jones caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Desormeaux with 18 seconds left to bring the score 20-17, in favor of the Illini.

Unfortunately for the Ragin’ Cajuns, their last-minute surge fell short, and Garrett Edwards was able to retrieve Edmiston’s onside kick to seal the deal for the Orange and Blue.

“We were pulling energy and playing with heart in the fourth quarter,” Fenroy said. “The fourth quarter came and the offensive line, our receivers and quarterbacks and running backs just everybody came together and there was no letting up, when they scored and kicked a field goal and they scored and still there was no letting up, no matter what the clock said … everybody came to the fourth quarter to play with heart.”

While Louisiana-Lafayette had energy and heart, the Illini (2-1) were lucky to make it through the game with the win.

Illinois has a bye next weekend and will not play Saturday. The players and coaches hope it will give everyone a chance to regroup and prepare for Penn State in the Big Ten opener in State College, Pa., on Sept. 27.

“We want to turn this into a positive, ya know,” Williams said “We’re not satisfied with the win we had, but I mean I’m hoping and praying we’re able to bounce back from it, learn from our mistakes we made today, because if we don’t we’re going to have trouble this year.”