IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Nate Stanley threw for 247 yards and three touchdowns and Iowa rolled past Illinois 45-16 on Saturday, snapping a two-game losing streak.

Safety Brandon Snyder added an 89-yard interception return for a score in his first game back from a knee injury for the Hawkeyes (4-2, 1-2 Big Ten), who outscored Illinois (2-3, 0-2) 28-3 in the second half.

Snyder's pick-six came with 6:40 left in the third quarter and made it 24-16 Iowa, and Stanley found Matt VandeBerg for a 39-yard TD reception to push the lead to 15 early in the fourth quarter.

Akrum Wadley put the game away on an 18-yard touchdown run with 8:49 left.

Wadley finished with 115 yards, surpassing the 100-yard mark for the third time this season, and he added a 2-yard TD reception.

Jeff George Jr. threw for 246 yards in his first start of the season — but he also threw three interceptions without finding the end zone.

MORE: Photo gallery | Box score | Highlights

Nate Stanley connected on slant route to Matt Vandeberg for a 39-yard touchdown on the second play of the fourth quarter. Illinois was hanging on to hope at that point, but the strike to Vandeberg gave Iowa a 31-16 lead. The next Illini drive stalled at the Iowa 34-yard line when a deep throw from George to Malik Turner fell incomplete on 4th and nine. The game got away from Illinois after a competitive first half.

Jeff George Jr. gave the offense a spark early on, but it proved to be fool’s gold. You can’t give the ball away four times, as George did. Two of his three interceptions came on good Illinois drives when they had a chance to punch it into the end zone. The pick-6 by Brandon Snyder in the third quarter was a game changer. The Illinois offensive was more wide open with George playing quarterback and it freed up some space for the running game. Still, games are often determined by which teams has the fewest negative plays. George feels pressure and throws off his back foot at times, and he tries to squeeze the ball into tight spaces. George finished 22-45 for 246 yards, zero touchdowns, and three interceptions. To be fair, George's fumble on his first pass attempt of the game was a bad call by the officials. How do you review a play and still get it wrong? That was one of several missed calls by the refs in the first half.

Illinois out-gained Iowa 446 yards to 441 and won the time of possession. Turnovers and failure to finish drives were killers. The Illini came away with just 13 points on four red zone chances, the only touchdown coming on a 2-yard plunge by freshman Ra’Von Bonner. Settling for field goals isn’t going to get it done when you’re trying to pull an upset. The offense showed life. Now the ability to finish is the next big step for a rebuilding team like Illinois.

With four freshmen in the starting lineup, the Illinois offensive line had its best game of the season. Iowa came into the game averaging 2.5 sacks. George was pressured at times, but was sacked just once. Illinois averaged 6.7 yards per rushing attempt and rushed for 200 yards overall. Vederian Lowe had two costly penalties, but otherwise played well in relief of injured tackle Christian DiLauro. Other freshmen starters included Larry Boyd, Alex Palczewski, and Doug Kramer. Offensive line play has been a problem area for Illinois, but they took some steps against a physical Iowa defense.

Until the game this week, the Illinois youth movement looked like it was going to yield more growing pains than positive signs for the future. The final score doesn’t reflect it, but with a closer look you can see signs of growth. Freshmen led Illinois in receiving (Louis Dorsey) and rushing (Mike Epstein). Wide receiver Ricky Smalling had an acrobatic grab. Defensive back Nate Hobbs had his best game with five tackles including a sack, and free safety Bennett Williams had an interception and a pass break-up. In two years, the Illinois offensive line will be one of the best in the Big Ten. Lovie Smith is playing almost all of the freshmen from the 2017 recruiting class, and its going to play big dividends down the road.

In the first quarter, an Illinois penalty for a late hit in the end zone on an Iowa touchdown resulted in the Hawkeyes kicking off from mid-field. That's an obvious situation where you want your hands team on the field, but Illinois didn't and Iowa recovered an onside kick. With time running out in the first half, Iowa had 4th and five at the Illinois 41-yard line. Again, that's a situation where you should be guarding against a trick play and have your regular defense on the field. Sure enough, Iowa faked the punt, picked up a first down, and went on to score a touchdown that gave the Hawkeyes the lead at halftime, 17-13.

Illinois head coach Lovie Smith

“When you get the same results at the end, it’s tough. It’s all about who wins and who loses. Iowa scored more points than we did today, but where we are right now, we still need to see some improvement. I didn’t think we played as hard as we needed to the past few weeks. I’m not saying that today, though. I thought our guys battled throughout. We turned the ball over too many times and had some big plays go against us. In the passing game, we had our moments, we just weren’t consistent enough.”

On the onside kick and fake punt: “It was a good play by them on the onside kick. We just didn’t have it covered well enough. With the fake, we had a group out there that we thought would put us in the best position for them not to be able to convert on that fourth down. It was a good call, and if they hadn’t made it, we had great field position going the other way. They were two critical plays at the time, but we still had opportunities after that.”

“We had an excellent week of practice. When you do some things well at the end of the week, you have to look back at the practice. We had good practices and changed up the routine a little bit, and if you keep practicing hard from week to week, you are going to see some changes.”

On trusting the process: “You have to look at it day-to-day, week-to-week, game-to-game. We have to ask ourselves if there was improvement from the Nebraska game to this one. And, yes is the answer. So you do have to trust the process, and we are. We believe in the process, and we eventually will see more and more of the benefits from it.”

Illinois safety Bennett Williams

“As you can tell, we have a lot of talent and we play well at times, but it is about consistency, and that is what the really good teams have. So we have to stay consistent, learn how to finish, stay with it all game, and we will get the results we want. I don’t think the score reflected how we played today, but they made some more timely plays. We have to make more plays, get the ball out more, and just find a consistency all game.”

On trusting the process: “It is tough at times. We definitely know we are a young team and still trying to rebuild, but it can be tough going through these losses at times. But we know we have a lot of talent, and we know we can steal a couple games this year. I have a lot of trust in my guys and the coaches, and I think we’re going to end up doing really well.”

Illinois quarterback Jeff George Jr.

“We can definitely move the ball. Iowa is a tough defense, so being able to show that we can make plays and get first downs was definitely a positive for us. We just have to build off that going into next week.”

On whether his turnovers hurt the offense’s ability to finish: “I would say so, especially with that interception for a touchdown. I felt like it took some life out of us when it happened. But we just have to be able to bounce back, and when we get down into the redzone, be able to punch it in.”

On his mentality after a turnover: “Playing quarterback, you have to have a quick memory and get rid of those bad plays pretty fast, because when (a pick-six) happens, you are right back on the field the next play. So you have to get rid of it, move on, and realize it’s a long game.”

“The o-line played phenomenal. The entire line as a group played unbelievable. They were giving me plenty of time, and they were making holes for the running backs to run through. They definitely played their butts off.”

Illinois running back Ra’Von Bonner

“Jeff is very confident, and he just brings a little swagger to the offense. He definitely helps to build my confidence as well, and I really appreciate that.”

"(The offensive line) really opened up some huge holes today. Coach really got on them this week, and got on us too, because once we see the hole, we have to make a play.”

“We played better. The scoreboard doesn’t show that, but we played better. If we were to finish all of those drives, this game probably could have gone to overtime for all I know. But (finishing) is one thing we really do need to work on. But we definitely played better today.”

Illinois offensive lineman Nick Allegretti

“I loved the ways our guys played today. Obviously the score didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but the five guys we had out there - four of them being freshman - played their butts off. We played hard and communicated well, and I like that five. Those young guys, they are inexperienced, but they are going to get great experience for the future. And as long as we play hard and physical, we can build off that.”

On the young guys: “The sky is the limit for them. They are great athletes, and they are, obviously, very large freshman. But they can continue to grow because they’re just young kids right now. They’ve played maybe five games at the most, they’re all about 18 years old, and they’re getting great experience that is going to help us build for the future.”

Illinois kicker Chase McLaughlin

On his experience at Illinois: “It’s definitely been a ride. It’s been an experience coming up from Texas and being a walk-on and earning a spot, but it’s something that I don’t really look back on very much. It’s nice to look back and definitely appreciate it, but it’s something that just lives inside of me and drives me to do my best every day.”

On his kickoff improvement: “Obviously, the strength and conditioning coaching staff did a great job this offseason helping us get stronger and faster. But I am just trying to stay smooth and hit the ball as clean as I can.”