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Williams, defensive stand help Illinois roll

Sep 6, 2008 - 9:56 PM CHAMPAIGN, Illinois (Ticker) -- Once Ron Zook and Illinois got a big defensive stop, the rout was on.

Juice Williams rushed for two touchdowns and threw for another as the 25th-ranked Fighting Illini rolled to a 47-21 victory over Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

Early on, Illinois (1-1) had its hands full with the Football Championship Subdivision squad, leading 13-7 with Eastern Illinois driving for another score midway through the second quarter.

That was when the Illini defense stepped up, stopping the Panthers (0-2) on three straight runs, including a 4th-and-1 at their own 6-yard line.

"It's (was) a power-off tackle play," Eastern Illinois coach Bob Spoo said of the critical fourth down. "It should be one of those plays. It was one of our biggest backs, but I understand we missed a block and somebody knifed right in there and made a play."

Williams, who set a school record with 174 rushing yards, then led Illinois on a nine-play drive that covered 93 yards, running in from seven yards out for a 12-point advantage.

"(Williams) ran well, some of his big runs were scrambling," Zook said. "We're not going to tell him not to run."

Those were six of 40 consecutive points scored for the Illini, giving them a 47-7 lead following a 25-yard TD run by Troy Pollard just over three minutes into the fourth quarter.

"We're happy that we won, but we know that we had some offensive mistakes that we shouldn't have had that could have allowed us to do more than what we did," said Illinois wide receiver Arrelious Benn, who finished with seven catches for 36 yards.

A week after throwing for a career-high five touchdowns in a 52-42 loss to Missouri, Williams completed 16-of-25 passes for 124 yards. However, the junior did have a pair of early interceptions, allowing Eastern Illinois to keep the game close.

"The No. 1 thing we have to work on this week is the turnovers," Williams said. "We had two interceptions and put the ball on the ground. That is something that we cannot continue to do."

However, the Panthers could not hold down the Illini for long, as the Big Ten Conference squad went on to compile 533 total yards of offense, including 399 on the ground.

Desmin Ward's 5-yard TD rush 5:40 into the first quarter allowed Eastern Illinois to tie the score at 7-7. But the Panthers failed to add to that total until there was 8:43 remaining in the contest.

After displaying very little defense in the loss to Missouri, Illinois had two interceptions, a fumble recovery and four sacks in limiting Eastern Illinois to 278 total yards and 11 first downs.

"Things were a little better (than last week against Missouri) but are still not where we want them to be," Zook said of the team's play.

Illinois next will face Louisiana-Lafayette before opening its Big Ten Conference schedule with consecutive road games at Penn State and Michigan.

Overall, the Panthers fell to 4-23 all-time to teams from the Football Bowl Subdivision.