Illinois-MTSU Recap

In case anyone wasn't able to watch the Illinois game today, I thought I'd recap a few things.

After scoring on the opening possession, Illinois held a 7-3 lead in the 2nd quarter. With the ball on the MTSU 20, Illinois missed a 38-yard field goal. However, on the ensuing possession, the Illini defense forced a 3 and out, blocked the punt and recovered it in the end zone. 14-3 Illinois.

The next MTSU drive resulted in a punt, but instead of taking a fair catch, Illinois let the ball be downed at the 1-yard-line. Next play: safety. Two plays later: 63-yard touchdown for MTSU. All of a sudden it's 14-12 Illinois.

Late in the 2nd quarter, the Illinois defense comes up big again. They force and return a fumble to the MTSU 11. Illini offense can't cash in and they settle for a field goal. Halftime: 17-12 Illinois.

With a 3rd and 4 on the MTSU 20, Wes Lunt takes a 17-yard sack, pushing Illinois out of field goal range. They punt instead.

Next possession, Illinois drives to 1st and 10 from the MTSU 12. Three plays later brings up 4th and 2 from the 4, nursing a 5-point lead. Illinois sends out backup QB Chayce Crouch, who had already converted a 4th down keeper earlier in the game. Before snapping it, Illinois calls timeout. This time they send out Wes Lunt...and call another timeout. Then they keep Lunt on the field who throughs an incompletion. Two timeouts burned, no points earned.

Illinois D forces another punt and on the ensuing drive, freshman running back Ke'Shawn Vaughn takes a touchdown and extends the lead to 24-12.

Both teams exchange punts and Illinois heads to the 4th with a 12-point lead.

MTSU gets down to the Illinois 24 with a 4th and 4 coming up. Down 12, they decide to go for it. They complete a 5-yard pass. Three plays later, they're in the endzone only down 5.

On the next drive, Illinois picks up three first downs but punts from midfield. MTSU takes over on their own 19, with 9 minutes to go.

At this point, the Illinois defense had already forced 8 punts on the day. But now the crowd was out of it, the defense gassed. On 3rd and 10, MTSU completed a 22-yard pass for a touchdown. They had their first lead of the game with just over 4 minutes to go. 25-24 MTSU.

Wes Lunt connects with Geronimo Allison for 26 yards, bringing up a 1st and 10 at the MTSU 36. At this point the announcers were talking about Illinois slowing down to not give MTSU too much time on the clock. And then 3-yard run, incomplete, incomplete. And now it's 4th and 6 from the MTSU 32. Just over 2 minutes to go. It would be a 51-yard field goal attempt for the kicker that missed from 38 earlier and struggled last year. Or they could try and convert 4th and 6. Or they could punt, but they only had one timeout, having burnt two on that failed goalline play. What do you do?

Cubit sends out the kicker.

The kick is up, it has the distance, and it's through. Illinois up 27-25 with 2 to play.

Now the crowd is fired up. The defense has it's energy back.

Incomplete. Incomplete. Incomplete. 4th and 10 from their own 25. Game on the line and it's a 16-yard completion. Next set of downs and it's now 4th and 3 from near mid-field. They convert again. 1st and 10 from the ILL 46. About a minute to go. And they're trying to get into field goal range. On first down they try a surprising run, but lose three. On the next play, there it is...a 20-yard completion to the ILL 29. They gain three more yards on the ground and call timeout with 8 seconds left. It's a 43-yard field goal to win it.

Illinois looked in control for most of the game and now they can only watch as this Conference USA team came back double digits in the 4th and lines up to kick the game winner. And then that son of a bitch pushes the kick just wide of the uprights.