After their 27-24 win over Purdue, Rutgers will return to the Midwest to take on the Illinois Fighting Illini, which is set for a noon EST kickoff on NBC (11 AM Central/local time). The Illini are 5-3 on the season but are coming off back-to-back losses, falling to the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes 34-16 at home before losing at Washington 42-25.
Some of Illinois’ top offensive players are quarterback Luke Altmeyer, running backs Kaden Faegin and Ca’Lil Valentine, wide receivers Hank Beatty, Cole Rusk, and Collin
Dixon, and tight end Tanner Arkin. The other star running back, Aidan Laughery, is out for 4-6 weeks with an injury. On defense, linebackers Dylan Rosiek and Gabe Jacas, as well as defensive backs Matthew Bailey and Miles Scott, as well as defensive lineman James Thompson Jr., are some of the big names to watch out for. On special teams, kicker David Olano has made 12 field goals in a row, so the Illini will have him as a weapon to put points on the board.
Before getting into the Washington film breakdown, one play from the Ohio State game stands out. The Illini scored the first rushing touchdown of the season against the Buckeyes, needing every yard and a creative pitch call on fourth down to get into the end zone.
With teams hardly able to score in the red zone against OSU, this was a memorable moment, and it brought Illinois within striking distance after a sluggish first half. The Rutgers defense should watch out for creativity, as they often get baffled by much simpler concepts and were lined up incorrectly on multiple occasions last week.
After Washington took a 14-3 lead against the Illini in the first quarter, Illinois rallied back, with Luke Altmeyer finding Collin Dixon on this goal-line slant. Altmeyer was quick to fire off the pass after the snap, which is something else the Scarlet Knights defense should be aware of on Saturday.
That trend continued on the next Illini touchdown, with Altmeyer finding tight end Tanner Arkin in the back of the end zone for the lead. Luke executes the play-action quickly, faking the handoff to Kaden Feagin before zipping the ball over the Washington defender and into Arkin’s hands for six points.
However, the Huskies used some trickery, with Denzel Boston completing a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jonah Coleman before halftime to take the halftime lead 21-17. Washington dominated the third and early fourth quarter, pushing the lead to 35-17 before Illinois could respond.
With about eleven minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Illini needed points, and they turned to tight end Jordan Anderson for his first touchdown of the season. Using the I-formation, they handed off to the “up man” instead of the usual second back, which is another interesting wrinkle for Greg Schiano to plan on countering.
The two-point conversion was more straightforward, with Altmeyer finding second-leading wide receiver Cole Rusk in the soft spot of the coverage to cut the deficit to ten. Unfortunately for the Illini, that is as far as they would bring it, with Washington proceeding to go down the field and score on Decker DeGraaf’s first touchdown catch of the year.
The Illinois defense was susceptible to the passing attack, with Demond Williams Jr. having a near-perfect day with 346 yards and four touchdowns, while Denzel Boston was the Co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week with 10 catches for 153 yards, with a passing and receiving touchdown. Rutgers fans have every right to be upset that KJ Duff did not win the award for his six-catch, 241-yard performance against Purdue, which also included a 72-yard receiving touchdown, although Jai Patel earned Co-Special Teams Player of the Week instead.
As good as Altmeyer has looked leading the Illini offense, he has not been exempt from turnovers. The Scarlet Knights came up with a pivotal turnover last week, as well as a few the week prior, and will need some more turnover magic here to pull off the road upset.
This one came on a particularly bad throw from the Illinois quarterback, with Altmeyer lofting the ball into tight coverage, where safety Rashawn Clark reached up to grab his first career interception. With the Huskies already up 17, this pick essentially sealed the game; neither team scored in the game’s final six minutes.
One very important thing about Illinois is that it tends to perform much better at home than on the road. Although the Fighting Illini have road victories at Duke and Purdue, they also got demolished by Indiana 63-10 and lost to Washington handily in Seattle (another team that plays much better in their friendly confines).
At home, however, Illinois has a ranked win over USC, a 34-16 loss to Ohio State (yes, that is a very respectable loss when playing the #1 Buckeyes), and blowout victories over Western Illinois and Western Michigan. Although the last two may not say a lot, the first two results paint the picture. Rutgers is somewhere in the middle in that wide diversity in talent, although a bit closer to the top end; they are also not exactly USC or Ohio State.
The Scarlet Knights had their shot to take down Illinois last year and came agonizingly close to snapping their skid against ranked opponents, but this year, Rutgers will be in Champaign, where Illinois tends to play much better. With Illinois being a 12.5-point favorite, the Scarlet Knights will look to play spoiler once again, but the continued coverage breakdowns have me thinking that the Illini win a high-scoring game to start November.
To support me and my work, please follow @arnavsarkar100 on X!
