COLUMBUS, OHIO — Illinois left Ohio Stadium with a familiar taste in its mouth.

A 52-22 loss to Ohio State in front of 105,311 fans brought its losing streak against the Buckeyes to five, albeit the 2011 Ohio State victory was vacated.

The loss extended Illinois’ overall losing streak to six games in a row, just like the one that ended the Illini’s regular season last year. This marks the second consecutive season that the Illini have lost at least six games in a row, the first time since the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.

Illinois has eliminated itself from postseason play and ended its chances of winning a third consecutive bowl game. As quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase said, the Illini are just playing for the love of the game.

“We’re not going to be able to reach that and then you have to reevaluate and you have to really look at what you can do,” Scheelhaase said.

Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller proved why he was a Heisman trophy candidate, keeping the Illini defense off-balanced all day long.

When Illinois lost arguably its best defensive player in linebacker Jonathan Brown to a shoulder injury in the first quarter, the Illini were forced to use two freshman linebackers to try and contain Miller.

The Buckeye quarterback took advantage, using his strength and agility to shed would-be tacklers from the Illini and finish with 18 rushes for 73 yards and a touchdown. When Illinois began to bring extra players in the box, Miller made the Illini pay with his arm, as he escaped the pocket and threw strikes deep downfield, finishing 12-for-20 passing with 226 yards and two touchdowns.

“Obviously we wanted to have a better showing than we had tonight,” defensive coordinator Tim Banks said. “We also weren’t under any illusions to think he hadn’t done that to a lot of people.”

The Illini left the game with more optimism than in the week’s prior because they were able to hang with Ohio State for the first quarter. Illinois got on the scoreboard first with help from an Ohio State defensive pass interference penalty that kept an Illini drive alive on third down. Kicker Nick Immekus would make his return for the first time since Week Three with a 46-yard field goal conversion.

The lead wouldn’t last long, as Miller led the Buckeyes down the field for a 10-play, 79-yard touchdown drive capped off by a 3-yard touchdown by running back Carlos Hyde, who’d finish the day with three touchdowns.

New punt returner Terry Hawthorne helped kick-start the Illini’s next offensive drive with a 45-yard return. Hawthorne finally looked healthy and contributed to Illinois on defense and in special teams. He had 158 kick return yards to go along with 10 total tackles, a sack and two tackles-for-losses.

Add a 15-yard Ohio State late hit on a defenseless wide receiver, Darius Millines, and Illinois had first and goal from the 10-yard line. But Illinois was unable to covert the drive for a touchdown and settled for a 28-yard field goal by Immekus to make the score 7-6.

“We’ve got to be more consistent on offense,” Illinois head coach Tim Beckman said. “And have to be able to drive the football and be able to put seven points on the scoreboard in the red zone, and that’s what I’m used to and thats what were striving to do better. “

Ohio State took over with 31 straight points. Illinois has talked throughout this six-game losing streak about the snowball effect that happens when one bad thing happens to the Illini, and they were unable to stop things from piling up on Saturday.

It started in the second quarter, when Miller led his team downfield with a 31-yard completion to Nick Vannett to set up a 31-yard field goal converted by Ohio State kicker Drew Basil to give Ohio State a 10-6 lead.

A 32-yard pass by Miller then set up another Hyde touchdown to give the Buckeyes a 17-6 lead; Miller added a 51-yard touchdown pass to Rod Smith with five minutes to go in the first half that put the game all but out of reach. That made it 24-6, before Carlos Hyde scored his third touchdown on the day to make it 31-6.

Scheelhaase tried to get the Illini back into the game when he forced the ball into traffic and had his pass intercepted near the end of the second half. He finished the day 19-for-34 with 96 yards and the interception.

Illinois did get tight end Jon Davis into the game running the ball for the first time since Week Three against Charleston Southern. Davis had been injured, which is why he was mostly relegated to blocking on offense for the Illini. Davis ran the ball eight times for 30 yards and a touchdown.

With the Illini’s loss and elimination from bowl competition, Beckman’s focus for the remainder of the season turns to trying to get the Illini to improve and build for next year.

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