The Illini had 533 yards on offense compared to Eastern’s 278. They gave us what they had and they put up a good fight.” “They tried to come out and make a statement for their program. “They came out, you know, looking to knock us off, a double-A school, who’s pretty good at that,” Williams said. Eastern failed to score again until almost midway through the fourth quarter. Not to be outdone, the Panthers scored just four plays later to tie the game at seven. In the first two-and-a-half minutes of the game, Williams threw his first interception, immediately followed by EIU’s Bodie Reeder’s first pass and only interception of the game, which sailed into the arms of senior linebacker Brit Miller.Īfter regaining possession with 12:31 left to go in the first quarter, Williams connected to Chris Duvalt for a 16-yard touchdown pass. “That’s something that we cannot do if we want to be successful.”Įven though the final score was impressive, Illinois started out the game slowly with Eastern holding its own throughout the first quarter. “We had a couple balls on the ground, I had two interceptions,” Williams said. He added another 124 yards through the air to his receiving unit by game’s end.Ĭompleting 16 of 25 passes, Williams still gave up two costly interceptions compared to Eastern’s one interception. The 6-foot-2 junior gained 100 yards in the first half alone. Williams was so effective carrying the ball in the home opener that the signal caller broke Illinois’ single-game rushing record by a quarterback, a record he had previously set in 2006 against Purdue. “That was something we was able to do out there today and it felt good.” “You establish a running game early that opens up everything else,” Williams said. Totaling 174 running yards and two rushing touchdowns, Williams exhibited a more balanced offensive attack against the Panthers than he did when facing No. 24 Illinois accumulated 399 yards with a bulk of the yardage coming from quarterback Juice Williams. Now, a week later and with a win under his belt, Zook emphasized that the running game improved, but the number of turnovers and again, the lack of tackling, need to change. Louis, all things are correctable.”Īfter the loss to Missouri, Zook felt the running game and the defense – namely tackling – both needed to be improved. “Obviously, you want to play and you want everything to be perfect, and it wasn’t perfect and I think that’s probably a good thing … once again like I said last week in St. “Football games are hard to win,” said head coach Ron Zook. Nearly 10 months had passed since the Fighting Illini football team last tasted victory.Īfter a lopsided 47-21 win against Eastern Illinois on Saturday, Illini coaches and players are doing all they can to make sure the taste lingers.
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