Tommy Davis didn’t call for a fair catch.

With the game tied at 14, the Illini forced Indiana into a quick three and out with minus-1 yards on the drive. Indiana was forced to punt, and as the Illinois punt returner was swarmed by Hoosiers, he attempted to catch the ball and try and gain positive yardage.

Instead, he muffed the punt. Indiana recovered at Illinois’ 22-yard line.

He wouldn’t get another chance, during this game, at least, to return another punt.

Illinois head coach Tim Beckman said Davis was crushed in the locker room. Davis told his coach he thought that play cost the Illini the game.

It wasn’t the single reason the Illini would fall 31-17 at Memorial Stadium to Indiana, but there were many mental lapses like Davis’.

Illinois out-gained Indiana in total offense, but it’s difficult to win with eight penalties for 81 yards and when Indiana scores 14 points off Illinois turnovers.

“We can’t beat ourselves, and that’s one of the things that sadly we continued to do today,” defensive end Michael Buchanan said after the game.

Glen Foster knew he’d made a mistake right away.

On fourth-and-1, Indiana decided to go for it on the Illinois 13-yard line with the game tied at 14. A hard count by Indiana quarterback Nate Sudfeld caused Foster to jump offsides and gave Indiana a first down.

The defensive lineman stomped and swung his arms in frustration. Indiana would have a fresh set of downs, and it would go on to score a touchdown on the next play to take a 21-14 lead it would not relinquish.

Donnovonn Young planted his hand down on the field to avoid being tackled just to gain some extra yards.

The running back, who gained 125 yards on the day, was trying to get his offense going with his team down 21-14. With that, he was carrying the ball loosely and it was knocked out of his hand and the Hoosier recovered it on the Illinois 20-yard line. Indiana added a field goal and the Illini weren’t able to recover.

“We’ve got to fix these mistakes, man,” junior linebacker Jonathan Brown said. “Too many mistakes. Too many petty mistakes leading up to insurmountable leads.”

The Illini had late-hit penalties by Terry Hawthorne and Justin Staples of 15-yard penalties that kept Indiana drives alive. The Illini’s defense was unable to catch up.

Quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase had deep passes and receivers wide open with room to run for big plays — big plays missing from the Illinois offense all season long. Those throws glanced off fingertips multiple times, either behind or over the heads of the receivers and fell incomplete.

“That was a little bit frustrating,” offensive coordinator Chris Beatty said. “We can’t have long foul balls. We’re not the team that can make up for those long foul balls. We get those, we’ve got to make sure we hit home runs.”

The Illini may be pressing too hard to make a play. When a team is losing, players will often want to be the guy to bring them out, which often leads to mistakes.

“We can’t do those things,” Beckman said. “We’re not a good enough football team, or anybody’s a good (enough) football team to do those things. It ended up biting us and we ended up losing the football game.”

Jamal can be reached at [email protected] and @JamalCollier.

Editor’s note: This article has been expanded from a previous version. This is the version that appears in Monday’s paper.