Chambana Sun

No. 17 Illinois lost to No. 1 Ohio State, 34-16, before a sellout crowd at Gies Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Buckeyes improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the Big Ten, while Illinois dropped to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

Ohio State capitalized on short fields throughout the game, scoring 24 points on drives that began inside the Illinois 40-yard line. Turnovers proved costly for Illinois, with three giveaways leading directly to 21 Ohio State points.

Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer completed a career-high 30 passes out of 44 attempts for 248 yards and one touchdown. Collin Dixon caught four passes for 46 yards and a touchdown, while Aidan Laughery rushed for 50 yards and scored once. Matthew Bailey led the defense with eight tackles.

The Buckeyes started strong with a run of 20 unanswered points. Illinois got on the scoreboard just before halftime with a David Olano field goal from 24 yards out. To open the second half, Altmyer led a sustained drive capped by Laughery’s one-yard rushing touchdown—marking the first rushing score allowed by Ohio State this season.

Ohio State responded by extending its lead to as much as 34-10 before Illinois narrowed the margin late in the fourth quarter when Altmyer connected with Dixon for a four-yard touchdown pass.

After this loss, Illinois enters its bye week before returning to action against Washington in Seattle on October 25.

Head Coach Bret Bielema addressed reporters after the game: "Well, first I want to say thank you to the fans, the community, obviously going into this gameday with big high aspirations and hopes. Unfortunately, our first half performance didn't match that. Offensively and defensively, there were some things we had hoped to capitalize on we just weren't able to do that. But I did think going to the locker at halftime, as bad as that first half was with the turnovers, downing the punt, to give them several possessions inside plus territory and have fewer points. I thought that might give us a little bit of hope, but we just weren't able to ever get anything going, taking into effect the way we turn it over. Then also defensively, we must get off field on third down, that was some concern. So just not a lot of things went our way, but we got to create those moments. I tell them all the time, before you can win a football game, you must stop losing it, and we lost that game. Just too many things that we gave them, a good football team like that you can't spot those opportunities."

Bielema continued: "I give a lot of credit to our guys to put themselves in that position. I know this is a resilient group. We are a 5-2 football team going into a bye week. When I saw the schedule come out the first time, I thought this was going to come out of it, win or lose this game and wherever we're at. I thought this would be a well-timed bye week. So it's going to be important that we get right to get to where we want to be with five games left so we must do a little bit of recovery. We'll do some recruiting this week as coaches and must take a deep breath. I got good coaches that I think I just got make sure we reassess what we must get done win games."

On quarterback play and injuries he said: "Luke played well and did some things that I thought would be advantageous for us... We're pretty banged up... Josh Kreutz... they said he'd be out for three weeks at minimum... Kaden Feagin had small sprain last week... Ca'Lil got rolled up or got banged up with an ankle during game... Aidan Laughery practiced Wednesday Thursday so he's kind coming in... It's really good time for bye week health wise."

Bielema also reflected on missed opportunities: "Well those opportunities don't come around very often right? ... We made it big moment in my opinion memory you don't want have right? But we've got learn from it..."

Assessing his team's position heading into their break: "Yeah I think we've got some good players we've got adjustments on defense when you lose guy like Xavier guy built things around but happened after week three..."

He noted issues during special teams play: "Lane Hansen is out at least probably this week maybe during bye week he hurt shoulder end Purdue game he's been our short snapper punt snapper last three years obviously showed up today..."

Quarterback Luke Altmyer commented after the loss: "We made two mistakes early… They did good job maximizing on them… easily fixable mistakes… move on… take care bodies get ready play." He added about his confidence moving forward: "It's never easy playing from behind especially against number one team early… we're group takes care football plays clean… confident we're going go do some really cool things community fan base group."

Matthew Bailey described playing against Ohio State: "I think it was hard nothing against offense but hard started red area across fifty defensively trying put fire out all game… they're good team took advantage moments…" He added about defensive progress: "As tough as loss was defense took step forward found what we're about guys stepped up when needed..."

James Thompson Jr., reflecting pregame expectations: "Every single game mentality expect win everybody room competitive..." On run defense he stated: "Run defense today got some good highlight play but end day there's plays left table could've been very game changing."

Aidan Laughery spoke about recovering from injury during bye week: "All credit trainers staff everybody helping getting back healthy moving forward obviously bye week's big me keeping it way."

Illinois now stands at .500 (2-2) in Big Ten play after seven games played this season.

Historically,the Fighting Illini are now just three wins against fourteen losses all-time when facing top-ranked opponents. Over their past two seasons under coach Bielema they hold an overall record of fifteen wins versus five losses—including eleven victories as ranked team—demonstrating consistent competitiveness even when facing elite competition.

Despite being held below their season average scoring output (35.7 ppg), Illinois managed sixteen points—the most allowed by Ohio State's defense thus far. The Illini offense also became only one of two teams nationally (alongside Texas) to gain more total yardage than Ohio State's offense in any contest this year.

Altmyer's single-game completion total marked his best yet since joining Illinois.Sophomore running back Ca'Lil Valentine made his first collegiate start but exited early due injury, while junior Aidan Laughery's rushing score represented both his third such tally this year—and notably—the initial ground touchdown yielded by Ohio State’s defense all season.Wide receiver Hank Beatty contributed both receiving yardage (42) and creative playmaking via option pitch.Hudson Clement posted six catches—a personal best—and Collin Dixon recorded his third TD reception of campaign.