Big Ten Roundup (Oct. 7): Nebraska 20, Illinois 7

Coach Matt Rhule and the Nebraska Cornhuskers advanced to 3-0 on Friday night in a 20-7 win over coach Bret Bielema and the Illinois Fighting Illini.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Scott Frost went 0-6 in the first half of his inaugural season as the head coach at Nebraska. Six games into the Matt Rhule era, the Cornhuskers already sit at 3-3.

Friday night was a great step forward for Nebraska, which won 20-7 on the road against Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. In a West division that is cluttered with not so great teams, there's now a very reasonable path one can lay out for Rhule's team to reach bowl eligibility in year one.

Whereas for coach Bret Bielema and Illinois, it doesn't get much lower than this. In 2022, the Fighting Illini started the season 7-1, and looked like they were cruising to the Big Ten Championship. Since then, Illinois is 3-8 over its last 11 games, and 1-8 vs Power Five opponents. 

Here's everything you need to know in today's Big Ten Roundup:

Nebraska 20, Illinois 7

Heinrich Haarberg — Nebraska's starting quarterback — finished Friday night's game having completed only 12 of 24 passes for 154 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception.

And the Cornhuskers still won by two scores, and were never threatened at any point in the game. 

The tone of the match was set on the first drive, when Nebraska forced a goal-line stand at the one-inch line to keep Illinois out of the end zone.

STOPPED AT THE GOAL LINE. ❌@HuskerFootball gets a fourth down stop and takes over.

📺: FS1/@CFBONFOX pic.twitter.com/415DjbsumZ

— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) October 7, 2023

Leading 3-0 for most of the first half, Nebraska scored 14 points in 10 seconds of play based on the following sequence: 

• Running back Anthony Grant punches in a one-yard touchdown. 10-0 Nebraska.
• Kicking into a 25 miles per hour wind, Nebraska's kickoff fell well short of the intended returner, and down near the Illinois 25-yard line. The Fighting Illini were so baffled by the kick, that not a single man wearing a blue uniform attempted to even grab the ball before it was too late. A Cornhusker had fallen on it, giving Nebraska 40-yard onside kick, essentially.
• First play of the next drive, Haarberg kept the ball on a read option and ran 25 yards to the end zone. 17-0 Nebraska.

The game was finished from that point onward. Illinois got on the board right before half thanks to a spectacular one-handed touchdown catch from Pat Bryant, but there was never any chance that Bielema's team was winning this game. 

Nebraska's next three games are against Northwestern, Purdue and Michigan State. Those are three extremely winnable matchups. Even if Rhule and Co. drop one of those games, their other three matchups against Maryland, Iowa and Wisconsin are not lost causes either. There's a very real chance Nebraska could finish with a .500 or better record in Rhule's first season.

As for Illinois, its now dropped back-to-back discouraging losses to teams that were supposed to be worse than the Illini in the Big Ten West. It's a three-team race to the bottom of the division with the trio of Illinois, Minnesota and Northwestern. 

With Maryland and Wisconsin as the next two games for Bielema and his squad, there's a very real chance Illinois could drop to 2-6, and need a four-game win streak to reach a bowl game in 2023. 

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