Isaiah Williams racked up 134 yards from scrimmage, a receiving touchdown and a rushing touchdown, and Illinois cruised to a 47-14 win over visiting Northwestern in a Big Ten matchup Saturday afternoon in Champaign, Ill.
Brandon Peters completed 14 of 23 passes for 242 yards, one touchdown and one interception for Illinois (5-7, 4-5 Big Ten). Chase Brown had 14 carries for 112 yards and a touchdown as the Fighting Illini beat their in-state rival for the first time since 2014.
Evan Hull had 101 rushing yards and a touchdown to lead Northwestern (3-9, 1-8). Ryan Hilinski completed 12 of 23 passes for 123 yards and an interception.
Illinois sprinted to a 37-7 lead at the half.
The Fighting Illini opened the scoring on an 8-yard rushing touchdown by Daniel Barker with 8:26 to go.
Less than three minutes later, Illinois struck again. Peters connected on a 39-yard touchdown pass with Williams, a former signal-caller who switched to wide receiver during the preseason.
Brown punched in a 1-yard rushing touchdown to make it 21-0 with 12:50 left in the second quarter.
Williams scored on another big play -- this time a 21-yard run -- to increase Illinois' lead to 28-0 with 11:22 to go in the half. It was his second rushing touchdown of the season to go along with four receiving touchdowns.
Northwestern snapped the shutout to pull within 28-7 with 6:58 to go before halftime. The Wildcats had the ball at the Illinois 1-yard line when Hilinski tucked the ball and pushed across the goal line.
The Fighting Illini finished the half on a trio of field goals by James McCourt from 28, 37 and 25 yards.
McCourt added a 49-yard field goal to make it 40-7 with 8:22 remaining in the third quarter.
Backup Illinois running back Josh McCray took advantage of his fourth quarter playing time with a 6-yard rushing touchdown with 7:59 left in the fourth quarter. That pushed Illinois' lead to 47-7.
Hull capped the scoring for Northwestern with a 1-yard run with 24 seconds to go.
--Field Level Media
Northwestern | Illinois | |
Evan Hull | Player | Chase Brown |
32 | Attempts | 14 |
101 | Yards | 112 |
3.2 | Avg Yards | 8.0 |
1 | Touchdowns | 1 |
0 | Long | 0 |
Northwestern | Illinois | |
Malik Washington | Player | Isaiah Williams |
6 | Receptions | 7 |
74 | Yards | 113 |
12.3 | Avg Yards | 16.1 |
0 | Touchdowns | 1 |
0 | Long | 0 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
Northwestern | 241 | 118 | 123 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1.0 | 0 |
Illinois | 459 | 217 | 242 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3.0 | 1 |