Illinois football barely took care of business in its last nonconference game of the season.

Down by a point with two minutes left, the Illini faced their second-straight loss. Kicker Taylor Zalewski made a 51-yard field goal to give Illinois the 27-25 lead. The defense held on in the team’s final tune-up before Big Ten play begins against Nebraska next Saturday. The Illini took advantage of opportunities in their 27-25 win over Middle Tennessee State.

“I’ve never seen an ugly win. It’s either a win or a loss,” head coach Bill Cubit said. “Sometimes you play real well and you lose, sometimes you don’t play real well and you win. … We didn’t play real well. Usually you need three phases, of offense, defense and special teams to win, we didn’t. We lost two phases and I thought the defense played real well.”

Illinois’ defense stole the show after a poor performance at North Carolina last week, giving up 48 points to the Tarheels. Middle Tennessee State’s offense finished with 330 passing yards and only 38 rushing yards. While the offense struggled to gain momentum, the defense kept the game close despite missed opportunities on the offensive side of the ball.

The first big defensive play came in the second quarter when Illinois forced Middle Tenesse State to punt the ball from its own 25-yard line. The Illini’s Caleb Day — who played his first game of the season after he was suspended for the first three game — raced to block the punt and Clayton Fejedelem scooped the ball and returned it for the touchdown.

The other big play also came in the second quarter when Dawuane Smoot forced Blue Raiders quarterback Brent Stockstill to fumble the ball. Jihad Ward recovered the ball and ran it down the field before he fumbled the ball at Middle Tennessee State’s 11-yard line. Illinois’ Chunky Clements recovered the ball after a long sequence of plays.

While Illinois’ defense did a good job of limiting the Blue Raider’s offense for most of the game, there were still a couple of open plays, including a 63-yard touchdown pass where there was a breakdown in coverage by the secondary. Despite the mistakes, players and coaches both see progress being made in the first four games of the season.

“I thought we were getting after the quarterback than we had,” co-defensive coordinator Mike Phair said. “We just need to keep on taking the ball away, that’s what we’re preaching, and trying to score, we still have to do that.”

The Illinois offense started the game with a good drive after receiving the ball to start the game. Quarterback Wes Lunt led the offense down the field for 75 yards and seven plays in 2:05. The Illini ended the drive with a touchdown when Lunt threw a five-yard pass to Malik Turner.

Lunt and the offense failed to continue with the first-possession momentum for much of the game. Dropped passes have been a theme for the team after the first three games and it seemed like Lunt and the wide receivers were not on the same page for most of the game. There were moments when Lunt saw a different diffusive scheme than his wide receivers which led to overthrown passes or wrong execution of routes.

Illinois had two drives when the offense made it to Middle Tennessee State’s 20-yard line and didn’t score any points. The Illini did score an offensive touchdown in the third quarter when freshman running back ran for a eight-yard touchdown — he finished with 80 rushing yards.

Illinois will start Big Ten season against Nebraska next Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Although the win over Middle Tennessee State wasn’t the prettiest, players know that it doesn’t matter how close the game is if it’s the right result.