Then No. 24 Illinois and No. 22 Nebraska brought the physicality last Friday night. Predictions and bets favored the Cornhuskers for a variety of reasons. This was the 400th consecutive sell-out game at Memorial Stadium and also the Illini’s first away game. From that, the Illini went in as the underdogs for the game.
Despite all of this, the Illini fought until the end. Ending the fourth quarter 24-24, an overtime battle approached in front of 87,000 Husker fans. Ultimately, the Illini scored a touchdown, putting a stamp on their second-ranked win in three weeks. Following its win, Illinois moved to No. 19 in the AP poll. The team’s win helped knock Nebraska out of the top 25 completely.
After issues last year defensively, the Illinois defense has been progressing into a new era this year. The defense was able to counter Nebraska’s offense and pushed Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola negatively on yards. While also recording five sacks on Raiola, the defense did their job.
They weren’t perfect though. Illinois got lucky late in the game when Raiola missed an important touchdown pass in the end zone. Nebraska then missed the field goal that followed. Their mistakes ultimately led the game into overtime. It also led to Illinois’ victory, taking advantage of mistakes for one of its best games of the season so far.
Junior quarterback Luke Altmyer was the best quarterback of the game. After a disappointing end to 2023, he has shown a lot of confidence and poise under center this season.
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After helping the Illini secure the win, Altmyer was awarded two new honors. The first is being the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week — a rightful honor after completing 77.78% (21-27) of his passes while adding four touchdowns and 215 yards.
Altmyer has thrown 10 touchdown passes and zero interceptions through the first four games. This makes him the only quarterback in the country to do so this season, per the Fighting Illini Football site.
Additionally, he’s been announced to the Davey O’Brien Great 8 Award list. Altmyer is now on the watch list for the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award, the most prestigious quarterback award in the nation.
Another key player from the Illini is senior wide receiver Pat Bryant. He caught two touchdowns in Lincoln, tying him for second most in the country through four weeks. Bryant started the Illini off with an early first-quarter lead and later went on to secure the win in overtime.
Along with improvements, the offensive line for Illinois also played much better. After numerous penalties last week against Central Michigan, Illinois this week was a whole different team. With only three plays that had negative yards and three penalties overall, the Illinois team cleaned up well. This comes after three sacks on Altmyer and 10 penalties in the last game.
Coming in as the underdog, Illinois exceeded the majority of the nation’s expectations this weekend. This was a much-needed conference win for the team, as they are on track to make a bowl game this year.
Illinois will be playing their third-ranked matchup this week at no other than Beaver Stadium. A much-anticipated matchup, with reports from head coach James Franklin of an unofficial whiteout game for Saturday.
