Buckeyes, Illini roll; ’Cats, Irish rocked
Are they turning it around? Brown, Adams excel in rain, pave way for 2nd straight win
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Dre Brown kept Illinois grounded Saturday. Cornerback Tony Adams scored all the points the Fighting Illini needed. That combination helped Illinois mop up at Purdue.
On a soggy afternoon, Brown splashed his way to a career-high 131 rushing yards, Adams returned an interception 13 yards for a touchdown and Illinois pulled away for 24-6 victory to claim the Cannon Trophy for the first time since 2015.
“It’s nice to leave the place a little better than we found it,” Brown said. “It’s such a small cannon, but it’s cool to celebrate and take pictures with it.”
The rain chased thousands of fans from their seats at halftime and turned the game into an ugly quagmire. But there was no dampening the postgame celebration.
The Fighting Illini (4-4, 2-3 Big Ten) continued building momentum following last week’s upset over then-No. 6 Wisconsin.
They matched the highest singleseason win total in coach Lovie Smith’s four-year tenure.
All that was missing: completing the first shutout in Smith’s tenure.
Purdue avoided its first scoreless game since November 2013 by capping a 99-yard fourth-quarter drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Aidan O’Connell to Payne Durham with 5 minutes, 49 seconds remaining. Otherwise, it was all Illini.
“I thought we’d come ready to play. I’ll take the blame for that,” Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said after his team finished with 271 total yards. “But it was a bad performance. We got exposed in many areas, and it’s a bad day.”
And the Boilermakers never really had a chance.
Brown’s 44-yard first-quarter run set up James McCourt for a 38-yard field goal, and when Adams jumped the route early in the second quarter, the Illini lead 10-0.
Brohm responded by pulling starting quarterback Jack Plummer for two series, and by the time he was back on the field, Brandon Peters had made it 17-0 on a 1-yard touchdown plunge late in the first half.
Plummer was yanked again after losing a fumble in the third quarter, and Stanley Green’s 29-yard return set up Reggie Corbin’s 20-yard scoring run to seal it for the Illini. Corbin ran 12 times for 47 yards and moved into 12th place on the school’s career rushing list with 2,211 yards.
Brown needed only 10 carries in the first half to record the first 100-yard game of his career. Peters threw only six times, completing three for 26 yards. He threw only four passes in the first half with the one completion — 17 yards to Donny Navarro.
Plummer was 8 of 20 for 71 yards and the two turnovers.
“We didn’t have to look at the past week to get ready for Purdue,” Smith said. “They embarrassed us on homecoming last year. Most of our guys were there. The Cannon has been here for a lot of years.”
Smith insisted the Illini were on the verge of a breakthrough before playing No. 6 Wisconsin last week. Now they have a signature win — and momentum. Saturday’s victory was Illinois’ first on the road since Oct. 15, 2016, at Rutgers — and Smith’s first back-to-back conference wins in his four-year tenure.
Illinois will try to make it three straight Saturday when Rutgers (2-6, 0-5) comes to Champaign.