Illinois looked improved over Week One, but still a tad rusty and inexperienced in Saturday night’s 34-14 win over the Western Illinois Leathernecks. The Illini again were missing several players due to injury and had even more players get injured in the game and two ejected.
Despite the missing pieces, Illinois found a way to a reasonably comfortable win and stay undefeated against FCS opponents. Most of the areas I critiqued after week one saw improvement, but some other issues did pop up.
Let’s get to these grades.
When you win the turnover battle by three or more, you have a fantastic chance to win.