Illini 38, Northwestern 35: The Land of Lincoln Trophy Stays Where it Belongs

My wife is a Northwestern alum, so I'll have to watch what I say in this post and not put the Wildcats down too much.  If I'm not careful, I might end up sleeping in the garage.  Just kidding - my wife would never do that to me.  The garage has a roof - she'd make me sleep in the driveway.

But seriously, enough about me - how about those Illini!  You might say three is the magic number, as for the third week in a row, the Illini pulled out a three-point victory.   On Saturday, two dramatic comebacks in the second half helped the Illini beat Northwestern 38-35.  Nathan Scheelhaase led the Orange and Blue on a last-minute, 70 yard touchdown drive which allowed the Land of Lincoln Trophy (left) to stay in Champaign with Chicago's Real Big Ten team.  More importantly, the Illini are off to their first 5-0 start since...actually, it's just as long as it's been since their last 4-0 start (i.e. - since 1951).  Here's a look at some key numbers from Saturday's game.

We're Number Three!

The Illini had everything going right for them tonight, and dominated the entire game on their way to an easy 35-3 win over SIU. And everything I worried about in my prediction post - the turnover battle (which Illinois lost 3-2), needing to put the game on the shoulders of Nathan Scheelhaase (who went 14-18 for 231 yards, 2 TDs, no INTs, and a QB rating of 222.2 for the game), SIU being amped for the game - didn't matter. All of which means that we're still (at worst) the third-best program in the state right now. And at least I was pretty close on calling the Illini's point total for the game.

Some might think this is just a win over a cupcake, but even if that's true, it's better than the alternative (as Virginia Tech and Minnesota discovered today). At the very least, this is something to build on, with another winnable game coming up next week at home against Northern Illinois, which had to hold on for a 23-17 win at home against North Dakota today. It would be nice to get out to a 2-1 start before we run into the twin buzz-saws of Ohio State and a trip to Happy Valley after our bye week. While the competition this week may not have been as tough as I anticipated, it was nice to see our freshman QB make big improvements from last week. If that continues, I can see Illini football becoming fun again in the not-too-distant future. And next year, it will be nice to open with a game like this instead of being fed to the Tigers.