It’s been a long eight weeks since Illinois shut out Charleston Southern on Sept 15.

Since then, the Illini have lost seven straight and have extended last season’s six-game Big Ten losing streak to 12, failing to hold a Big Ten opponent under 30 points this season until Saturday against Minnesota.

Illinois’ defense held its own, but the offensive woes continued and the Gophers still prevailed.

The Illini held Minnesota to three points at the half, which kept the game within reach despite the offense managing to score just three points.

“We don’t look at the offense or anything like that like it’s their fault or anything,” defensive end Michael Buchanan said. “If (the Gophers) don’t score, we could have won 3-0. So we stop and look at ourselves and look at the mistakes that we made.”

The defense, which entered the season heralded as the strength of the team, has underachieved through 10 games after finishing among the top 10 in the nation last season. The Illini are allowing an average of 31.5 points per game and have been susceptible to big plays.

But Illinois has shown flashes of success against some of the Big Ten’s top teams, and the defense’s 17 points allowed Saturday were the least all year outside victories over Western Michigan and Charleston Southern.

“We were a lot more disciplined in there, and I think we just played with a lot of emotions,” Buchanan said. “Even though we’re not getting W’s on the board, I do feel like we are playing better as a team. … We just haven’t finished games.”

The defense has been hit with injuries — linebacker Jonathan Brown and safety Steve Hull missed Saturday’s game — which forced two freshmen linebackers from Ohio, Mason Monheim and Mike Svetina, into starting roles for their debut seasons.

Monheim, the team’s leading tackler, recorded a game-high 15 tackles against the Gophers, but his career performance was undercut by the final score. And while the Illini are entrenched at the bottom of the Big Ten, Monheim said the team is still motivated and is looking forward to an opportunity to end its seven-game slide against a Purdue team that notched its first conference victory of the season Saturday.

“It hurts, but there’s no point in dwelling on it,” Monheim said. “If you’re going to dwell on it, you’re gonna keeping losing, and the focus we need to have is on Purdue. They’re coming to our house, the last home game, and we need to finish on a good streak.”

For the seniors who have just two games remaining in their Illini careers, they’re hoping to lay down a foundation for the program to build on after they’re gone.

“We just really want to set a path for the younger guys,” Buchanan said. “So they don’t have to go through this.”

Chad can be reached at [email protected] and @cthornburg10.