After a first half that saw the momentum swing back-and-forth between the Scarlet Knights and the Illini, Illinois blew Rutgers out of the water off the strength of a dominant third-quarter run.

“Three weeks ago, as we went into the second half of the season, we weren’t playing our best ball and needed to get on a roll,” said head coach Lovie Smith. “That’s what we’ve done. It seems like each week something new comes along. This weekend, we were at 10-10 going into the half. We felt that we just hung in there at first and needed to turn things around in the second half.”

Illinois took initiative on offense early in the first quarter. After two stagnant possessions by the Illini and Scarlet Knights, transfer quarterback Brandon Peters and the Illini found life by way of a 48-yard pass over the heads of the defense and into the hands of walk-on sophomore receiver Donny Navarro, who was stopped just short of Rutgers’ red zone by defensive back Christian Izien.

Senior running back Dre Brown finished off the 8-play, 78-yard drive with a rush into the end zone to take the first lead of the game, capped off with an extra point from kicker James McCourt to go up 7-0 with 8:38 left in the first quarter.

Following a third consecutive drive without a first down, the Illini extended their lead with an 11-play, 56-yard drive. What would have been another touchdown, this time off of a pass to wide receiver Josh Imatorbhebhe, was ruled incomplete, and after another failed throw to tight end Daniel Barker, the Illini settled for a McCourt field goal from 33 yards out.

With the Illini up 10-0, the Scarlet Knights looked destined to keel over, but as the Illini offense grew stagnant and the defense loosened up, the Scarlet Knights took full advantage.

Rutgers responded right away in the second quarter on their first drive with an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. The Illini almost stopped the drive after a hard sack on Rutgers quarterback Johnny Langan by Illinois defensive lineman Jamal Milan, but on the subsequent play, Langan found receiver Mohamed Jabbie for a 31-yard pass into the end zone to cut the lead to just a field goal.

The Illini continued to try overpowering the Scarlet Knights’ defensive line, but they were held to three yards per play in the first half and struggled to get much going in the passing game after the completion to Navarro. Peters was also sacked on two consecutive three-and-outs for the Illini, while Rutgers closed the half with a 25-yard field goal from kicker Justin Davidovicz, tying the game to close out the half.

Illinois’ offense struggled to get back into a rhythm at the start of the second half but broke their cold streak by way of a 54-yard carry by Peters all the way to Rutgers’ 2 yard line. Brown finished off the sequence with a touchdown on the following play, putting the Illini back up 17-10.

In the next possession, Langan dodged a sack from defensive back Stanley Green but had the football knocked out by defensive lineman Isaiah Gay. Defensive back Nate Hobbs recovered the fumble and returned it for a 36-yard Illini touchdown, extending the lead again to 24-10.

“Every game is for Bobby,” Gay said, in reference to defensive end Bobby Roundtree. “We’re just playing hard, and trying to get as much movement as possible to make plays.”

In the next possession, Peters connected on a 52-yard bomb to Imatorbhebhe for their third touchdown to cap off the quarter, effectively blowing the once-tied game wide open to the tune of a three-touchdown lead, 31-10.

The Illini opened the fourth with another touchdown off of a 55-yard pick-six by linebacker Dele Harding to extend the lead to 38-10, capping off their second-half run with 28 unanswered points and sitting on cruise control to defeat Rutgers 38-10.

Peters threw for 120 yards and a touchdown, completing six of his 11 pass attempts. As a team, the Illini rushed for 204 total yards, led by running back Reggie Corbin’s 51. Peters rushed for 41 yards of his own, while Brown finished with two of the offenses three touchdowns.

“I really felt like we came to life in that second half,” Imatorbhebhe said. “All the momentum from the defense, from the pick six to the fumbles, all of those things really worked together to give the offense the energy we needed to finish the job.”

Meanwhile, on defense, Gay broke out in the absence of defensive lineman Oluwole Betiku with a sack, six tackles and the forced fumble that turned into a touchdown by Hobbs. Harding, Green and linebacker Milo Eifler each finished with 10 or more tackles. Harding and Green each joined Gay with a forced fumble of their own. Harding and Hobbs were credited with the two defensive touchdowns.

“In our defensive room, we have an exclusive touchdown club,” Smith said. “(Hobbs) joined it today. It’s good to see him make a play like that because he’s been playing outstanding this season.”

Hobbs referenced the banter between himself and Smith about the “touchdown club.”

“Coach Smith has been teasing me about it,” Hobbs said. “So when I saw I had the opportunity, I knew what I had to do.”

With the win, the Illini have won three straight Big Ten games for the first time since 2007, the longest such streak in the Lovie Smith era. Their last time winning three straight games came in 2011, and this is the first time the Illini have been over .500 in November since 2015. With the win, the Illini inch ever closer to the goal they set for themselves of making it to a bowl game this season.

“We all were seeing that we’re getting better. We’re close,” Smith said. “We’ve lost a lot of close games, but we’ve seen improvement. If you feel like you’re doing things the right way and you keep just working hard, it changes. And that’s what’s been happening with our program. Now we have seen that light at the end of the tunnel, and we’re talking about playoff football. In playoff football, you win and advance. We’ve been in that mode for a while.”

@jaredfarmer

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