In Illinois’ (presumably) final game of the 2017 season where the Illini (2-4, 0-3 Big Ten) were the favorites, the home team got thrashed by bottom-feeder Rutgers in a game that wasn’t as close as the 35-24 score indicated.
The Illini couldn’t stop the run on defense and couldn’t establish the run on offense, which is the exact opposite of Lovie Smith’s coaching philosophy. Let’s take a look at how each position group fared in the loss:
Quarterbacks
Grade: D
Much like the score of the game, starting quarterback Jeff George Jr.’s numbers look much better than he played, thanks to some late garbage time stat-padding.