Illini defense erases WIU
CHAMPAIGN -- A member of the Fiesta Bowl's board of directors, replete with canary yellow jacket, flew in from Phoenix to witness Illinois' home opener.
While the Fighting Illini haven't been a candidate for any bowl in five years, much less a Bowl Championship Series participant, perhaps their defense scored a few points with Mr. Matt Winter.
Any points would be more than Western Illinois managed Saturday night in its first meeting with the state's flagship school.
Though Illinois' offense struggled, particularly quarterback Juice Williams, the defense smothered the conservative Leathernecks as the Illini gradually creaked away for a 21-0 triumph before 48,301 at Memorial Stadium.
"We have to be a little bit cautious about what we do against a defense that is as good as Illinois'," said WIU coach Don Patterson. "To begin with, we didn't want to mess up on offense and turn it over."
Illinois forced just 1 turnover, yet earned its first shutout since Oct. 14, 2000. The Illini limited Western Illinois, a Football Championship Subdivision school, to just 4 first downs and 152 total yards.
The Leathernecks ran 55 plays, but only three of them went for more than 6 yards as they rarely tried to move vertically down the field.
"As a defense, we go as our defensive line goes," said Illinois senior middle linebacker J Leman. "They played lights-out."
But it was Leman (game-high 11 tackles) who provided the third-quarter play that turned out the lights on the Leathernecks.
Leading just 7-0 at halftime, Illinois (1-1) tried to hand Western Illinois (1-1) the momentum at the outset of the second half.
Walter Mendenhall fielded the short kickoff and then fumbled it upon impact to Anthony D'Astice, a true freshman from Addison Trail.
The Leathernecks took over at Illinois' 36 for their best field position of the game to date. WIU went for it on fourth-and-1, but Leman fired in on a stunt and stopped Herb Donaldson for a 2-yard loss.
"(Linebacker) Brit Miller calls it 'Calling Card,' " co-defensive coordinator Dan Disch said with a laugh. "It's just a short-yardage blitz. We happened to guess right, get lucky. That's kind of how it's drawn up."
Perhaps inspired by its run defense's dominance at the line of scrimmage, Illinois took the ball out of Williams' hands and focused on its run offense.
The Illini marched 71 yards in 9 plays for a touchdown -- and only a 16-yard screen pass to Rashard Mendenhall interrupted the ground assault. Williams wrapped it up with a 9-yard scramble just inside the left pylon to give Illinois a 14-0 lead with 9:37 left in the third.
Mendenhall, who registered 139 yards on a career-high 23 carries, blasted in for a 16-yard score in the fourth quarter to wrap up the game.
Backup Dan Dufrene chipped in 51 yards, including the tackle-busting, 32-yard touchdown run that opened the scoring with 9:14 left in the first half.
Illinois' 277 rushing yards steered some of the spotlight away from Williams' struggles. Pressing to make up for missing most of last week's opening loss to Missouri, Williams hit on just 12 of 24 passes for 123 yards and 1 interception.
"I kind of had problems as far as my reads and hitting the open guys. I left a bunch of plays out there," Williams said. "(The win) feels great, even though I'm down on myself a little bit. But I'm going to wash it off and you probably won't be able to tell I had a not-so-good game by tomorrow."