RECAP: Illinois buries Northwestern to reclaim The Hat

Here are our takeaways from the disappointing season finale in Champaign:

The Illini took advantage of early Northwestern mistakes, avoided early turnovers themselves and controlled the line of scrimmage. It is a formula that should sound familiar to Northwestern fans; it's what the Wildcats used to win six straight Hats in this series.

Now, that trophy goes to Bret Bielema and Illinois.

"On our end, [we lost opportunities]," head coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "We turned the ball over early, gave up explosive plays, and had opportunities but they get off the field. Today was kind of a microcosm of the season."

It was a stalemate on the first three drives of the game. Northwestern had one drive for six plays, 16 yards and a punt, Illinois had two drives for seven total plays, 35 yards and a pair of punts. Then quarterback Andrew Marty had an unforced fumble on his own 8-yard line that the Illini recovered. They punched it in on the next play, and scored a touchdown or field goal on their next seven drives.

It was an all too familiar refrain for Northwestern. An initial stand, cracks in the foundation from an offensive miscue, and then the floodwaters from a healthy dose of "here we go again". Illinois scored four unanswered touchdowns in under 13 minutes, and when the Cats finally punched one in, it cut the lead to 28-7 with 6:58 in the second quarter.

Illinois outgained Northwestern 459-241, outrushed Northwestern 217-118 and beat the Cats through the air 242-123. From the fumble to the end of the game, it was all Illini.

Marty got the start again this week, but was pulled for Ryan Hilinski quickly, after a fruitless pair of series from Marty that ended in an unforced fumble and a punt. The choice to go with Marty as a starter since his return from injury four weeks ago has been scrutinized, and now that the season is over can almost unequivocally be declared a misstep.

Albeit against undeniably easier competition, Hilinski took over for Hunter Johnson, and then Marty and went 2-2, two times throwing for more than 250 yards, with three touchdowns and an interception. A rocky first half against Minnesota led the Cats to turn to Marty, and the senior started all four games afterwards.

Hilinski had limited appearances in the games against Wisconsin and Iowa, but the home stretch of this season has been Marty's. While he opened up the quarterback running game in the playbook, it never made a serious impact on the scoreboard. In his three starts, against Wisconsin, Iowa and Purdue, the Cats averaged 11 points a game.

Over this stretch, Marty threw two touchdowns (four if you include his stint in the Minnesota game), six interceptions and rushed for zero touchdowns. The spark that the coaches liked in his game failed to ignite anything within the offense or put points on the board.

In order to give Marty a go, the sophomore Hilinski had to sit. Hindsight is always 20-20, but some foresight would have been welcome when the Cats chose the fifth-year senior gamer over the sophomore transfer who was .500 on the season and delivered the team's only Big Ten win.

Unless the Cats get another transfer quarterback, Hilinski is the presumed starter for 2022. There was valuable opportunity, even in a losing season, to find Hilinski opportunities to play and learn in Bajakian's offense and in the Big Ten. Instead, he'll finish the year neck-and-neck with Marty in the final pie chart of Northwestern's quarterback play this season.

Despite the inconsistent playing time, Hilinski's fire and focus headed into next season was evident in the post game press conference.

"I think you can look obviously at it from a football perspective, and you could say [the season] was up and down like a roller coaster," Hilinski said. "And of course it was, there's some things we want to do better, some things we can improve on.

"But this is the most fun I've had playing football," he said, choking up. "Throughout playing football my whole life, 'cause these guys are awesome."

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There are a lot of similarities between the disappointing 2019 season and this year's dismal result: rotating quarterbacks, a 3-9 record and a 1-8 conference record. But 2021 is even worse when you look under the hood.

The most glaring difference? 2019 ended a tough year with a strong 29-10 win in Champaign to end an eight-game skid in Big Ten play. 2021 ended with an embarrassment in Champaign, with the Illini putting the Cats away in the first quarter.

Fitzgerald answered for his now infamous "this will never happen again" claim after the 2019 season in the press conference after today's loss. He started out pointing towards last season, before cutting to the chase and acknowledging the road ahead to improvement.

"I'd say that we won the Big Ten West championship and Outback Bowl last year," Fitzgerald said. "So that was positive. And that was fun. And I believe that we'll continue to keep growing and keep building. You know, we had from probably my most veteran team, and now probably my youngest, and those are excuses. We have just got to work and get better."

In 2019, the 'Cats lost eight Big Ten games by an average of a little under 19 points; only two games were decided by more than 21 points, and they lost three games by 10 points or less. Basically, the Cats went down swinging when they were not outmatched by a team like Ohio State.

In 2021, the Cats lost eight Big Ten games by an average of 25,8 points. Five games were decided by more than 21 points and only one game finished with Northwestern within 10 points.

The offense failed to score more than 21 points in a Big Ten game all season, and failed to gain more than 250 yards four times this season. The defense held Big Ten opponents below 30 twice and allowed more than 400 yards eight times this season. It was a frustrating season for the program, and reevaluation of the coaching staff should be on the way.

After posting five or more wins ever year since 2007, the Cats have gone 3-9 twice in three years. 2020 was arguably the program's best team this century, and captured a Big Ten West title. This year, Northwestern finished last in that same division.

Such extreme variability between seasons should be out of the question in any head coach's 16th season, let alone Pat Fitzgerald's. We just saw where this program can, and should, be. Fitzgerald needs to reevaluate and put this team back on track in 2022.

Just about the lone bright spot from today was Evan Hull, a theme on offense this season.

When Cam Porter went down with a season ending injury, the starting running back spot was Hull's, but the 'Cats were looking to give significant snaps to Andrew Clair and Anthony Tyus III as well. But Hull made the position his own. After the first several weeks, he became the lead back and established himself as a reliable bell cow in an otherwise unpredictable offense.

Playing through an ankle he sprained on the first drive, Hull had 32 carries for 101 yards and a touchdown. On the season, he finished with 196 carries for 1,009 yards and seven touchdowns.

"It was an obviously successful night [for Hull]," Fitzgerald said. "But to see the toughness and the grit, he got rolled up on in the first series. [He] sprained his ankle pretty bad in the first series of the game, and [continued to] fight.

"And [running backs coach] Lou [Ayeni] and I talked him on the boundary, asked him what he thought and he said, he wanted to go get 1,000, and so did the offensive line. To their credit, they got that done."

Both Hull and Porter will be an exciting tandem next season. It was a tough 2021, but Northwestern fans should look forward to Hull and Porter running behind an offensive line led by junior left tackle Peter Skoronski next season.