After last week’s unlikely upset against the Penn State Nittany Lions, the football program reached its best point during the first season of the Bret Bielema era. Illinois went on the road and beat one of the best programs in all of college football in a thrilling nine-overtime bout.

Despite the positive vibes around Memorial Stadium, there was still a huge question mark about the quarterback play for Illinois. Artur Sitkowski took over the starting role for Brandon Peters and went 8-19 with 38 yards and three turnovers. Sitkowski’s poor performance ended in the fourth overtime, when he suffered a broken arm at the hands of the Penn State defense.

Bielema decided against any sort of shock announcement for the quarterback position and announced during the week that Peters would be back under center once again. The head coach was excited during the week at the fifth-year senior’s progress and knew he would step up his performance for Saturday.

“This last week was Brandon Peters’s best week of preparation since I’ve been with him,” Bielema said. “I had no doubt in my mind that he was really locked in and focused. He was very demonstrative in practice, as I saw and heard some things from him that I hadn’t seen in his preparation to this point.”

Heading into Dads Weekend, the Illini were slated for a matchup with the Scarlett Knights, who were 3-4 on the season. Winning against Penn State meant there was a very slight chance Illinois could qualify for a bowl game come the end of their 12-game regular season. And throughout the first half against Rutgers, Peters played a huge role in Illinois’ offensive success.

In any game that Illinois has played well in this year, it has been imperative for them to establish the run game early, getting Chase Brown and Josh McCray involved. This time it was a little different for the Illini, as Brown and McCray both had mediocre outings, with neither of them finding the end zone.

Illinois jumped out to a 14-10 lead at halftime behind surprisingly good play from Peters. He went 14-19 with 190 yards in the first half, including two touchdown passes to Isaiah Williams and Daniel Barker.

The Illini seemed to be in the driver’s seat going into the locker room, however, the second half was a completely different story.

Between three offensive line penalties to start the second half and punts on the first four drives, the Illini offensive train came to a screeching halt. Peters was upset with how flat and unfocused the offense was in the second half and is painfully aware of the improvements that have to be made.

“The offense shot ourselves in the foot in the second half, and we could not get anything going,” Peters said. “The penalties really hurt us, and when you lose a game like that, it always hurts. It’s going to hurt the whole week, but luckily, we have another chance against Minnesota.”

Throughout the second half, Illinois could not muster up a single point and eventually lost the matchup 20-14.

The most crushing part of the game came with time winding down in the fourth quarter. Illinois was having its best drive of the entire second half, with the momentum seeming to be fully in the home team’s favor. On a 4th and 1, Bielema opted to pitch the ball out wide, and the Rutgers defense sniffed it out immediately and forced a turnover on downs.

Although it was a disappointing end to Saturday’s matchup, Peters took some positives away from the Rutgers games. He hopes the offensive unit can build on some of these things with only a few games left in the year.

“We ran the ball really well last week, so that opened some things up in the pass game,” Peters said. “Chase (Brown) is a huge highlight in this offense, and we just took advantage of that, and I think Isaiah made a great play on that ball. We just have to continue doing things like that if we want to be successful in the Big Ten.”

Illinois will be back in action this upcoming Saturday against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Big Ten matchup in the Twin Cities will begin at 11 a.m. Central Standard Time.

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