Illinois falls to Eastern Michigan on last-second field goal

CHAMPAIGN — Illinois coach Lovie Smith has been in charge of the defense since former coordinator Hardy Nickerson left last October for health reasons. Smith has said the unit would be his No. 1 priority. But after a last-second, 34-31 loss to Eastern Michigan on Saturday, it’s evident that there’s considerable work to be done.

Led by quarterback Mike Glass, the Eagles totaled 480 yards of offense before Chad Ryland booted a 24-yard field goal as time expired to give EMU (2-1) its third road victory against a Big Ten foe in three years. The Eagles beat Rutgers in 2017 and Purdue in 2018, the latter also coming on a last-second kick by Ryland.

“A lot of people need to do a better job, including me,” Smith said. “We didn’t play our best today, but we have a lot to build on. We’re a 2-1 football team, so we’ve done some good things.

Quarterback Brandon Peters is one of those good things, but he didn’t do enough in this one. He threw for 297 yards and two touchdowns, but he also threw an interception and fumbled twice, losing one. He guided the Illini on two fourth-quarter touchdown drives to erase a 31-17 deficit. But they left too much time for Glass and the Eagles, who marched 68 yards in eight plays in the last 1:44 to set up Ryland. Glass finished with 316 yards and three touchdowns.

“One positive? We were down by 14 points at one point and still managed to get ourselves into a position to win the game,” Smith said. “We have to maintain a sense of consistency, in both halves, whether it’s running, passing or on defense.”

EMU coach Chris Creighton was jubilant in the postgame media gathering.

“I love this team,” he said, smiling. “I mean, wow. What a great bunch of guys.

“Awesome, awesome day for our program. Our defense played well. We knew we weren’t going to shut them out because they are really good, but we did what we needed to. Our guys just executed.”

“They beat us up front,” Smith said. “It’s a one-on-one battle out there, and the losing team doesn’t win that battle. That was us today.”

The teams traded scores in the first quarter, with Illinois taking a 17-14 lead. But the Illini didn’t score again until midway through the fourth.

Illini running back Reggie Corbin returned after sitting out the last game with a hip pointer. He ran 18 times for 144 yards.

Illinois begins Big Ten play next Saturday with a prime-time game against Nebraska in Champaign.