Illini Inquirer’s Jeremy Werner and Joey Wagner are at the more Memorial Stadium for Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. kickoff between No. 16/14 Illinois and Michigan, which will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
We will provide frequent updates before and during the game here in our live updates, so refresh frequently!
Michigan State 23, Illinois 15; final: That was disappointing for Illinois.
The Illini came into Saturday’s game against Michigan State on a six-game win streak, ranked in the College Football Playoff rankings and riding high with a chance to take a big step in winning the Big Ten West.
Instead, special teams gaffes, red zone issues and untimely struggles on offense derailed the Illini in a loss to Michigan State.
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Michigan State 23, Illinois 15; 3:43 left 4Q: The Illini are going to get the ball back trailing by eight points and with inside four minutes left in the game. Illinois is 0-for-4 on fourth-down attempts and is 1-for-4 inside the red zone today.
Illinois will have one timeout left.
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Michigan State 23, Illinois 15; 14:27 left 4Q: Illinois needed that one.
After falling behind by 16 points, the Illini scored on a seven-yard shovel pass to Isaiah Williams and Tommy DeVito found Tip Reiman in the end zone for a two-point conversion. This is a one-possession game early in the fourth quarter.
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Michigan State 23, Illinois 7; 2:57 left 3Q: The Illini are officially in the danger zone.
After a turnover on downs to give Michigan State the ball at their own 41-yard line, the Spartans capitalized with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Payton Thorne to Jayden Reed to take a 16-point lead late in the fourth quarter.
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Michigan State 16, Illinois 7; 5:45 left 3Q: This has been a truly miserable start to the second half for the Illini.
The first offensive possession ended with a punt and the second offensive possession ended with a punt that bounced off an Illinois blocker and gave the Spartans the ball at the Illinois 29-yard line, which Michigan State turned into an 11-yard touchdown run by Jarek Broussard.
Special teams have not been good for Illinois this game.
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Michigan State 9, Illinois 7; halftime: Illinois is trailing at the half for just the second time this season. Though the Illini are out-gaining 251-162, red-zone issues and penalties have held Illinois to just seven points.
Head coach Bret Bielema elected to go for it on fourth-and-19 from the Michigan State 29-yard line on the final possession of the half, but the pass attempt was incomplete.
Illinois gets the ball to start the second half.
HALF: Michigan State 9, #illini 7 pic.twitter.com/IPN22cF7Oz
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Michigan State 9, Illinois 7; 10:21 left 2Q: Michigan State is finding some success through the air. The Spartans had a big pass from Payton Thorne to Jayden Reed for 34 yards and finished the drive with a one-yard touchdown pass from Thorne to Tre Mosley, though the point after missed.
Thorne has 113 passing yards.
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Illinois 7, Michigan State 3; 1:36 left 1Q: Michigan State made its second field goal of the season, capping off a 14-play, 72-yard drive with a 21-yard field goal.
The Spartans took advantage of two Illinois penalties (and had two penalties of their own) on the drive.
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Illinois 7, Michigan State 0; 8:03 left 1Q: Isaiah Williams in open field remains dangerous.
The Illini wide receiver took a pass from quarterback Tommy DeVito and turned it into a 60-yard touchdown pass on the second drive of the game. Williams’ play was heavily aided by outstanding downfield blocking by Pat Bryant and Chase Brown.
The touchdown came after Illinois stalled out at the Michigan State 2-yard line on the first possession of the game. Michigan State has struggled to get anything going on its two possessions. Payton Thorne’s first pass of the game, intended for former Illinois tight end Daniel Barker, was intercepted by Sydney Brown.
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CHAMPAIGN — Good afternoon from a blustery Memorial Stadium in Champaign.
The wind is whipping outside ahead of the 2:30 p.m. kickoff between No. 16/14 Illinois (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) and Michigan State (3-5, 1-4 Big Ten). The Spartans come to town reeling. Eight defenders, including a few key starters and multiple more rotation players, so far have been suspended indefinitely after several Spartans attacked Michigan players in the tunnel following a 29-7 loss in Ann Arbor.
Five of those suspended defenders make significant impacts: LB/DE Jacoby Windmon (49 tackles, 10.5 TFLs, 5.5 sacks), DB Angelo Grose (53 tackles, four PBUs), DE Brandon Wright (14 tackles, 1.5 TFLs), DE Zion Young (21 tackles, 2.0 TFLs) and DB Justin White (19 tackles).
Four suspensions were handed out Sunday while four more, including Windmon, came down on Tuesday.
“It’s been a little bit of an evolving,” Illinois coach Bret Bielema said. “…Obviously, there was that second wave that got suspended late Tuesday. All the prep we’ve done on Sunday and Monday for the players we thought we were going to see is still good prep. I don’t think they’re going to change anything schematically, but we kind of just play who plays on Saturday and figure it out from there.”
The weather and suspensions don’t necessarily paint a great picture for Michigan State heading into the game. Illinois is No. 1 in the Big Ten in rushing defense during conference play (57.6 yards per game), while Michigan State is No. 13 in the Big Ten during conference play in rushing offense (56.2 yards per game). Illinois is No. 2 in the Big Ten in rushing offense during conference play (192.0 yards per game), while Michigan State is last in the Big Ten during conference play in rushing defense (216.0 yards per game).
We’ll have more thoughts coming up. In the meantime, here’s some pregame reading.
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