Bret Bielema put it perfectly in the postgame: “We did about everything we could do to mess this up.”
Illinois had every chance in the world to walk out of Bloomington with a road conference victory, and yet, in unfortunately familiar fashion, their bus ride home was a somber one.
Penalties, drops, turnovers, special teams failures — and yes, some HORRIBLE officiating — got in the way of what should have been a 2-0 start to this promising 2022 season.
Let’s break down what exactly went wrong Friday night.
Well, first let’s start with the good stuff, because there were still plenty of positives.