Illini football has won a Big Ten game! Tim Beckman has finally won a conference game! OMG OMG OMG! It’s a Christmas miracle! 5 days before Thanksgiving! Tim Beckman has won a conference game. Before today, Illini football last won a conference game in October of 2011. It was so long ago that Dolphin Tale was the number one movie in the nation, and Grenade by Bruno Mars was topping the pop chart.
And again the victory occurs in the Hoosier state. The Illini football team won at Purdue, 20-16. In typical Illini football fashion, taking a safety. And having the game iced on a late touchdown…which was called back and then made things very tense down the stretch.
Make no mistake, this game was not really “won” it was just not lost as badly as Purdue lost it. The Boilermakers got zero points off four Illinois turnovers. Illini football basically tried to hand it to Purdue but they just wouldn’t take it.
Purdue has 36 yards total in the second half against a terrible defense.
— Travis Miller (@HammerAndRails) November 23, 2013
Broken condom o line strikes again.
— Travis Miller (@HammerAndRails) November 23, 2013
The Illini defense came up with 10 consecutive stops in the second half, and it was ironically the D not the offense that won this game for Illini football. Basically the Purdue offense quit in the second half. And the Illini football team has double the wins (4) as they had last year. With a very winnable 5th game this weekend in the Land of Lincoln trophy game. The LOL will certainly live up to its name. As the new holder of the biggest Big Ten losing streak is……Northwestern!
And Illini football last won a conference home game versus Northwestern. In October of 2011. They can end the streak on Saturday by beating, yes, NU!
So a weight has been lifted for Beckman and Illini football, bu again this is no joyous occasion. Purdue Coach Darrell Hazell doesn’t even have a FBS win yet.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS Catch him Tuesdays talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN 1620 The Zone, Fridays talking Chicago Bears for WAOR 95.7 The Fan