Washington (6-2, 3-2 Big Ten) jumped out to an early 14-3 lead before Illinois (5-3, 2-3 Big Ten) scored the next 14 points to take the lead at 17-14 late in the second quarter. Altmyer found Collin Dixon for a 2-yard touchdown pass before throwing a 5-yard touchdown pass to Tanner Arkin on the Illini's next drive.
The Huskies then scored the next 21 points to retake the lead at 35-17. The Illini's last score came on a 1-yard touchdown rush from Jordan Anderson early in the fourth quarter, with Cole Rusk catching the 2-point conversion. The Huskies capped the game with one final touchdown to win the contest, 42-25.
Altmyer went 22-for-34 passing for 199 yards and two touchdowns. He also added 48 yards rushing on the ground to lead the team.
Washington quarterback Demond Williams completed 26 of his 33 pass attempts for 280 yards and four touchdowns. Denzel Boston caught 10 passes for 153 yards and a touchdown.
The Fighting Illini return to Gies Memorial Stadium next Saturday (Nov. 1) to take on Rutgers. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on NBC. Ticktes are sold out.
QUOTES
Opening statement
Well, first give credit to Washington I thought they obviously came in and executed their game plan. Offense, defense, special teams did some good stuff. I'm disappointed for our football team, our fans. We did a lot of preparation during the bye week in this past week, to get to a better result than what we see today. I always go back to before we can expect to win a game, you got to stop from losing it. We did some self inflicted wounds today, offense, defensively, a little bit in a kicking game, that took away from our success and, it's my job as a head coach to get that corrected. It's especially a little bit frustrating when it's some of our older players, guys that have experienced what we expect here, so really, really big week in front of us, obviously, a Big Ten schedule to be at home in Memorial Stadium and have that going in our favor should be a positive. We got to get ourselves healthy. I know a couple of guys got banged up today. I think the guys did a good job of being resilient, trying to get back out there. I liked our offense, especially in the second half. We're moving along, had a good manageable third down. We're kind of in a four-down mode, and get the big penalty there that took away from anything, and that to come out of that with an interception, just very, very uncharacteristic of our offense and what they do, but again, that was forced by an unforced error for us with the big penalties. So frustrated with the defense, especially, a third and 20. when we're kind of getting together there and feel like we could put ourselves in a good position and can't get off the field, or can't make them exchange the ball, right to a pun or a field goal, whatever was gonna play out there. extremely disappointed, but the week ahead is gonna be a big one, one that I know I'll be excited for and our players will be excited for. Got to get the right guys on the field to do the right thing.
We talked about some of those third and longs for weeks and weeks, why hasn't that been able to be fixed?
Yeah, obviously, I haven't given them the right answers. We'll sit down and evaluate. the part that we have to understand if we're playing zone coverage, then we have to be able to understand where those holes are and because they're finding them, and then when we play man coverage, when our eyes are away from the quarterback, to not be able to get him down when he took off on the scramble was very frustrating, especially for 20 yards.
Five Big Ten games in, given up 40 points a game. I know those points are very difficult, but what do you need to be defensively and what do you want to be defensively?
I think a little bit early down, but again, it just seems like every one of these games will go to a third and very manageable call, and we just can't come up with it. And, you know, it's something that you, I've talked about the protections, I talked about the coverages. I think we got a play to our player's strengths, probably a little bit better, but take away what they do well. I think that the first quarter, we obviously talked a lot about this quarterback and the very first or second play he takes off on a huge scramble. You have to stop them from doing the things they do well, and that was goal number one. We did the whole offense rant through number two, and unfortunately, we weren't able to retain that.
How do you guide Aaron Henry through this?
If I have to get more involved, I will. I think the part that I really struggle with is that it seems like we fix one thing, and something else shows up. I do know we cut a guy loose there at the end on the last drive there, where we got within striking distance and they marched it down. We had a very manageable third and 7, third and 8, and that's when they caught number 12 over the middle there, and he was just running scot free, and then I heard on the headset, I wasn't able to watch play yet, we just cut a guy loose. We were running Man free, and the guy that was covered him just stopped covering him, and it's just inexcusable. And something that we got to figure out why that happened, and then obviously, find out the answers. If he can't do it, then we got to find somebody else who can.
How is the feeling right now in the locker room?
This morning this was a game where we clearly felt we were the winning team going into it, expected to win, at least I did. I can feel that energy from their whole group. So just difficult. Credit to those guys, they played well, scored 42 points, and some of the best corners that I've seen in this league in about three years being here, and they flew around. They played really fast, defensively, and played inspired, played like they wanted to win the game. not saying we didn't, but it's hard to win on the road when two good teams come together and they make more plays than we do. Credit to Washington, good team. They're going to win a lot of games moving forward. I believe we are too. You have a lot of play for. They're a mature group. Again, knows how to pick themselves back up. I know I am, I'll tell you that, I'm gonna play well, I'm gonna play my hardest. And I know my teammates will as well.
How do you refocus?
You see you got four games left and you win all of them. We have a very similar season to last year, and that was a really, really cool season for these fans and for us. We're going to go, you know, do our best. Saturday's coming, Rutgers is going to show up in that stadium come Saturday, and we're not going to pout and mope and hang our heads and think we're not going to go 10 and two and make the playoffs, then the advantage goes to Rutgers in that moment. I got an older group and some guys that are going to be finishing up their last four games with this program, and so you're going to get their best. They're going to get my best. I'm just excited to keep getting better to play the game I love. That's going to naturally come out. I think success will come in suit.
How did you guys regroup and maybe get the momentum back, going down 14-3, and then eventually taking the lead?
Yeah, tell those guys that man, let's go do our job, let's go do a job that we showed up to do regardless. I mean, you go out there, there's 11 guys on defense, 11 guys on offense, and the goal is to score. I tell them every single time, lots of confidence, and let's go do our job. Let's go do a job that we showed up here to do. And so we did that, we took it one play at a time. You can get down on yourself, being down 14 to three, and playing from behind the whole game. But the goal is to go get seven points on a set drive, and we have a group that's confident that we can do it, starting with me and up front and out wide and everybody in between. We try to go do a job, do our job, and see what happens. Washington did a good job today, and in general, just with playing hard and physical. Not saying we didn't, but they matched it, and their ability showed up today, so credit to those guys.
What's your perspective on the defense right now?
Not good enough. I take my responsibility for the set today, I didn't play my very best, and didn't play to my full capability and that starts with me, being the captain on this team. It wasn't good enough.
We talked about the third down and getting off the field on third down, what has continued to make that an issue for you guys?
I feel like the chemistry, us as a D-line, we've got to work on working well together, on third down getting off field. It's important getting on the field and getting the ball back to our offense. Credit to them, they took advantage. Very good team and we've got to work well as a D-line, and capitalize when our name is called.
There were high expectations for this defense. What's been the disconnect with that so far this year?
I don't know, to be honest. Maybe communication, owning our job. There's a lot of dudes not doing their jobs, even me. I've got to be better at doing my job. A team like that there's small room for error. They exemplified it and they showed that today.
Did you sense in the second half, did Washington do anything different defensively in terms of aggression or how they covered you guys?
I'm not sure. You know, they did a good mix of things in the first half and I thought they threw a mix at us in the second half, so I don't know if they did anything different. I think they just executed well.
What was the vibe going down 14-3, but with a minute left to go on the half, make it 17- 14, it felt like you guys kind of shifted?
Yeah, it was good, you know, we went down, we scored a couple times. No one ever flinched when we went down 14-3, no one flinched. We knew what we were capable of and just had to go out there and execute. Morale was good there.
What was the message in the locker room from Coach B after this?
Just go see what we did that we need to fix and then flush it because we have a team coming to our house next week that doesn't care about what we did today. They want to win. So we got to go and get back on track next week.
POSTGAME NOTES
