Here's Bill Lynch's final assessment of Saturday's 43-13 loss at Illinois.

"The game didn't change over the weekend. The turnovers and mistakes, you can't win a Big Ten football game playing like that. Turnovers that led directly to scores and field position was dramatically in their favor because of our mistakes both with the turnovers and the kicking game. It overshadowed some really good performances.

"I thought defensively we played very solid. We gave up very few big plays, we limited our missed tackles, and our assignment mistakes have dramatically gone down over the last few weeks. A loss is a loss, and that's the way we look at it. It's a team win and a team loss, but certainly I think they should be pointed out that they made good improvement. I think the fact that we stayed pretty healthy on defense and solidified who plays where over the last couple of weeks has really helped.

"Offensively, that's where the turnovers came from. Give Illinois credit, they are very good defensive football team much like we knew while preparing for them and watching film all week. You guys follow statistics, but when we really analyze who they had we knew they were a very good defensive team. I think the biggest thing they were able to do, much like Ohio State, was put pressure on (quarterback) Ben (Chappell) without blitzing. Therefore, they could play different coverages, and I think that led to some of the turnovers. That aside, we did some good things on offense, but it is totally overshadowed by the turnovers and the final score."