Illinois 47, Northwestern 14; final
Illini Inquirer’s Jeremy Werner and Joey Wagner are at Memorial Stadium for Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. kickoff between Illinois (4-7, 3-5 Big Ten) and Northwestern (3-8. 1-7), which will be televised on the Big Ten Network. The Illini need a win and more than a handful of breaks around the college football world to sneak into a bowl game.
We will provide frequent updates before and during the game here in our live updates, so refresh frequently!
Illinois snapped its six-game losing streak to Northwestern.
Illinois 40, Northwestern 7; :49 left 3Q: Well, Brandon Peters’ flawless day ended after an interception where he tried to force the ball to Daniel Barker, but the ball careened off Barker and into the arms of Troy Hudetz.
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Illinois 40, Northwestern 7; 8:15 left 3Q: Let the good times keep rollin’ for the Illini. James McCourt hits his fourth field goal of the game and completes Illinois’ eighth straight possession with a score. McCourt hit a 49 yarder to give Illinois 40 points and counting.
Running back Chase Brown is 27 yards away from a 1,000-yard season.
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Illinois 37, Northwestern 7; halftime: Well this is a blowout. Illinois has scored on seven straight possessions, the last three by way of James McCourt field goals. Illinois is going out with a bang on its home game of the season — and maybe it’s last game?
HALF: #illini 37, Northwestern 7
Illinois scored on seven straight drives to end the half. pic.twitter.com/kNoEPyifGa
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) November 27, 2021
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Illinois 34, Northwestern 7; 3:09 left 2Q: Illinois has scored on six straight possessions, the latter two on field goals from kicker James McCourt (28 and 36 yards, respectively) and will take a commanding lead into halftime against Northwestern.
The Illini had 284 yards of offense in the first half: 180 passing and 104 rushing. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Tip Reiman likely cost Illinois four more points, but who is counting in a blowout?
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Illinois 28, Northwestern 7; 6:58 left 2Q: Northwestern put together a strong, 11-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Ryan Hilinski to get on the board for the first time today. That drive included one fourth-down conversion and the 75 yards were more than the Wildcats had all day prior to that drive.
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Illinois 28, Northwestern 0; 11:22 left 2Q: This is a blowout. Northwestern began its last drive with quarterback Ryan Hilinski tripping over the feet of either himself or one of his offensive linemen and on a third-and-22 pass, he was intercepted by Illini nickel Quan Martin. On the very next play, Isaiah Williams ran a wide receiver reverse for a 21-yard touchdown, his second score of the day.
Illinois looks like its in pretty good shape to beat Northwestern for the first time in six years.
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Illinois 21, Northwestern 0; 12:50 left 2Q: This Illinois offense is rolling right along and Brandon Peters has a ton of confidence. He did the swimming dance move twice on the last drive, that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Chase Brown. Peters hit Casey Washington on a 56-yard pass — the longest pass play of…
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