Chambana Sun

No. 23 Illinois lost to Washington 42-25 on Saturday at Husky Stadium in Seattle. The defeat brings Illinois' record to 5-3 overall and 2-3 in the Big Ten, while Washington improves to 6-2 and 3-2 in conference play.

Washington started the game strong with a quick 14-3 lead, but Illinois responded with two consecutive touchdowns late in the second quarter. Quarterback Luke Altmyer connected with Collin Dixon for a short touchdown pass, followed by another scoring pass to Tanner Arkin, giving Illinois a brief lead at 17-14.

The momentum shifted back to Washington as they scored three unanswered touchdowns, moving ahead 35-17. Illinois' final score came early in the fourth quarter on a one-yard run by Jordan Anderson, capped off by Cole Rusk’s two-point conversion catch. Washington finished the game with another touchdown.

Luke Altmyer completed 22 of his 34 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns while also leading his team in rushing with 48 yards. Hank Beatty was the top receiver for Illinois with six catches for 73 yards; Collin Dixon added three receptions for 29 yards and a touchdown.

Washington quarterback Demond Williams threw four touchdown passes and totaled 280 passing yards. Receiver Denzel Boston had ten catches for 153 yards and one touchdown.

After the game, head coach Bret Bielema addressed the loss: "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..."

Bielema discussed defensive struggles: "Yeah, obviously, I haven't given them the right answers...if we're playing zone coverage...we have to be able to understand where those holes are...when we play man coverage...to not be able to get him down when he took off on the scramble was very frustrating..."

He also commented on defensive performance over five Big Ten games: "I think a little bit early down...it just seems like every one of these games will go to a third and very manageable call...I think we got a play to our player's strengths..."

Regarding guidance for defensive coordinator Aaron Henry: "If I have to get more involved, I will...I do know we cut a guy loose there at the end on the last drive there...it's just inexcusable..."

Quarterback Luke Altmyer shared his perspective after the loss: "This morning this was a game where we clearly felt we were the winning team going into it...Credit to those guys [Washington], they played well..."

On refocusing after defeat Altmyer said: "You see you got four games left and you win all of them. We have a very similar season to last year...I'm just excited to keep getting better..."

Altmyer described regaining momentum after falling behind early: "Yeah tell those guys that man let's go do our job let's go do a job that we showed up here regardless..."

Defensive captain Gabe Jacas accepted responsibility for defensive shortcomings: "Not good enough. I take my responsibility for the set today..." He noted issues getting off field on third downs stemmed from chemistry among defensive linemen.

Collin Dixon addressed whether Washington changed its approach defensively after halftime: "I'm not sure...they did a good mix of things..." He added about morale during comeback efforts before halftime: "Yeah it was good you know we went down we scored couple times no one ever flinched when went down fourteen-three no one flinched."

Coach Bielema's message after defeat focused on correcting mistakes quickly ahead of next week's home matchup against Rutgers: "Just go see what we did that we need fix then flush it because have team coming house next week doesn't care about what did today."

Among notable performances:

- Luke Altmyer became only fifth quarterback in program history with at least fifty career touchdown passes.

- Collin Dixon caught his fourth career touchdown reception.

- Jordan Anderson recorded his first career rushing touchdown.

- Cole Rusk has nine catches for124yards over last two games after limited production earlier this season.

- Kicker David Olano made his twelfth consecutive field goal; he is now one shy of tying school record (thirteen).

Illinois returns home next Saturday (Nov.1) against Rutgers at Gies Memorial Stadium; kickoff is set for11a.m.Central Time on NBC.