EVANSTON, Ill. — The end couldn’t come any sooner for the Illinois football team.

All of the Illini’s seasonlong struggles were on display during Saturday’s 50-14 thumping by the Wildcats, including an offense that was unable to score points and plagued by turnovers (four), a formerly top-ranked defense that allowed costly penalties (eight for 88 yards) and at least 30 points in eight games this season.

All of that added up to Illinois dropping its final nine games to finish 2-10, winless in conference play.

The Illini scored on their opening possession on an 11-play, 78-yard drive capped off by Donovonn Young’s 15-yard touchdown. Then Illinois was flagged for “illegal numbering” because it didn’t have enough offensive linemen lined up on the line of scrimmage on a trick play that negated a successful two-point conversion in the first quarter.

At the end of the first quarter, Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase threw an interception on the first play after the Illini received the ball via an interception. During that play, Illinois head coach Tim Beckman was run into by a referee and ended up on the ground, which resulted in a 15-yard sideline interference penalty, his second such penalty.

“That was on me,” Beckman said. “I just got in the way, got excited in the game. I’m sorry.”

The image and video of Beckman on the ground became an Internet favorite, summing up a woeful first season as head coach of Illinois. It was difficult for him to put in words what was going on in his mind as he stood behind the lectern moments after the season ended.

“You want your kids, just like you want your sons, to experience winning, and we didn’t experience winning this year,” he said. “It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through.”

The turnovers proved the most costly for the Illini. Justin Green fumbled on a kickoff that led to a Northwestern touchdown and a 10-7 lead it would never relinquish. Illinois has now turned the ball over in 23 consecutive games.

Scheelhaase threw two interceptions, and Reilly O’Toole played for first time since Oct. 13 against Michigan.

Beckman said he planned to use O’Toole, who only attempted four passes; his only incompletion was an interception. But he did lead the Illini on their only other scoring drive and ran for a touchdown in the second quarter.

After the game, Beckman was no longer referring to Northwestern as “the team upstate,” at least not for now.

He made it a priority to intensify the rivalry between Northwestern and Illinois, hanging the purple block-N logo in the football facility and putting a line through it for emphasis.

But Illinois had no answer for Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, who finished 9-of-11 for 102 yards, throwing a career-high three touchdown passes and running for another. The Wildcats ran for 338 yards, including Venric Mark’s 127.

It was revenge for a Northwestern team that had lost to Illinois for the past two seasons. In the fourth quarter, as the P.A. announcer called out Northwestern’s promotional slogan of “Chicago’s Big Ten team,” the announcement seemed to get the loudest cheer of the day from the crowd of 32,415.

The Illini didn’t stick around to see the Wildcats celebrate with the Land of Lincoln Trophy.

Beckman said his message to the players was that things can only get better. But he has a long way to go to turn Illinois into a contender than what he first imagined shortly after his hire.

“We’ve been disappointed and frustrated for a while,” Scheelhaase said. “Just because we haven’t been producing the way we wanted to. Obviously, we want to finish on a good note, but then (that) happened today.”

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