Champaign - Illinois had an opportunity to steal a win on Saturday night, but they couldn’t muster enough to grasp it.

A missed Nebraska field goal gave Illinois the ball on its own 10-yard line with 2:06 left in the game. The Illini defense did enough to deny the Huskers a touchdown on their final possession, and the offense, facing a 42-38 deficit, had a chance to rectify the disappointment of last week’s loss and set the season back on course. Instead, what ensued was the same thing head coach Lovie Smith uttered first at his post-game press conference last week.

“Disappointment,” Smith said. “No other way to put it.”

Four straight incompletions are what followed from the Illinois offense on its make-or-break drive. This final possession was on-brand for Saturday night’s game as quarterback Brandon Peters threw for only 78-yards on 9-of-23 passing. The Illinois passing offense disappeared completely in the second half and Peters aired out only three yards in the final frame.

“Passing game wise, we have to have more production,” Smith said. “A night like that, we got to be able to do some things. I thought we had some favorable matchups, but it didn’t end up that way.”

No offensive player could give an answer to what happened in the fourth quarter when the Illini scored only three points. They all said they needed to see film first before they can understand what went wrong.

Wide receiver Josh Imatorbhebhe cited complacency when his team led the Huskers by 14 points at one point in the second half.

“We didn’t really finish the game because we didn’t really express all that we were in a way,” Imatorbhebhe said. “It’s not having this desperate mentality of ‘man, we just got to hold on to this win.’ No, we’re still trying to score every time we touch the ball, you know what I’m saying? We’re not just trying to hold on to a win. So, it’s really just the mentality change.

“That’s what it just felt like. When we had a lead, we got kind of comfortable opposed to being like ‘let’s put the foot on the gas.’ That’s just the energy I felt. I don’t know if that’s really true or not, but I felt like if we had put the foot on the gas more so, and I’m not talking about anyone in particular, receivers included and myself included, and not had gotten comfortable with the lead and looked up and saw 28-14 and were like ‘ha, yeah we got these people in the bag.’ This is a good football team that could come back from any deficit, so we got to make sure we’re doing what we can in order to put it away.”

Cite complacency, sure. Cite a lack of a passing game, fine. Cite an offense not moving the ball a single yard on the final, game-deciding possession, fair. But throughout this game, it became more and more clear that the early Illinois lead was fragile, and the bubble could burst at any time.

A bubble formed around the fact that Nebraska’s biggest threat to winning the game was Nebraska, and as soon as it realized this the Huskers would be able to score at will against Illinois and put the game away.

Four turnovers, 11 penalties for 119 yards, a missed PAT and field goal kept slamming the door on the Huskers getting into any sort of rhythm throughout a majority of the game. This is what actually allowed the Illini to hold a lead until late in the game.

When Nebraska did get out of its own way, it hung up a ridiculous number of yards. The Huskers tallied 690 total yards of offense. Adrian Martinez had a field day with a non-resistant Illinois defense, throwing for 327-yards and three TD’s, while, rushing for 118.

On the ground, Nebraska rushed for 363-yards as Maurice Washington and Wan’Dale Robinson each recorded 89-yards.

Saying this Illini defense broke when it needed to bend is an understatement. It completely snapped in half.

Running lanes were wide-open. Martinez and his wide receivers picked apart the Illinois Cover-2 zone with ease down the seams and in the middle of the field. Missed tackles were sprinkled throughout the game as well.

“I blame that somewhat on me. The middle of the field, they hit the seams a lot,” safety Tony Adams said. “I don’t know. I feel like we could’ve done a better job reading the quarterback and when they do catch the ball, just making the tackle and getting them down.

“We got to buy into what Coach Smith is preaching. He’s giving us the recipe, we just got to execute. We got to wrap up tackles. We got to try and get that ball out every time we can. When we got somebody down, we got to put our foot down on their throat and finish them.”

Illinois had no business having a chance to win this game, but Nebraska handed it several chances. Yet, when the game came down to the final Illinois drive, the offense couldn’t grasp ahold of the opportunity.

It further shows that this Illini football team is desperately trying to establish an identity that match’s Lovie Smith philosophy.

“Our identity is already established in terms of what our beliefs are and who we think we are really,” linebacker Dele Harding said.

“What is that?” a reporter asked.

“That’s a good question,” Harding said. “We’re just a hard-nosed team, I believe. We got a lot of playmakers. Going individually down the bar, we got a lot of playmakers. We just have to home in as a unit. It’s one thing to be an individual but it’s another to play as a team and get away with a win.”

At some point, Illinois must put things together, come away with a signature win, and flip the script. It wasn't Saturday night.

Senior RB Reggie Corbin ran 20 times for 134 yards and one touchdown. It was his sixth career 100-yard rushing game and second in a row. Corbin became the 18th Illini in history to gain 2,000 career rushing yards, as he sits at exactly 2,000. Corbin broke a 66-yard touchdown run on Illinois' second snap of the game. The run was the Illini's longest play from scrimmage this season.

linois had four fumble recoveries, tied for the second-most fumble recoveries in a single game in FBS this season (South Florida had six vs. South Carolina State 9/14/19). Illinois recovered four fumbles for the first time since at Rutgers 10/15/16.

Oluwole Betiku, Jr. added to his FBS-leading sack total with his seventh of the season Saturday. He also added 3.0 tackles for loss to bring his Big-Ten leading total to 10.5. The Illini recorded a season-high 13.0 TFLs on the night.

Nebraska tallied a season-high 690 yards of total offense, surpassing the 525 yards last week against Northern Illinois. This marks the second straight year Nebraska has tallied more than 600 yards against Illinois. The 690 yards of total offense is the most for Nebraska against a conference opponent since rolling up 710 yards against Kansas State in 2007.

Nebraska sophomore quarterback Adrian Martinez completed 22-of-34 passes for 327 yards and a career-high-tying three touchdowns. Martinez also rushed 18 times for 118 yards and totaled a career-high 445 yards of total offense. Martinez’s 445 yards of total offense marked the third-highest individual total offense game in school history.