10 Points: Illinois 30, Central Michigan 9 | Sports

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Illinois beat Central Michigan in front of a homecoming crowd at Memorial Stadium to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2011. Reporter Joey Wright offers 10 quick thoughts on the blowout win.

Start slowly

Things haven’t always been easy for Illinois, who racked up 171 yards of total offense in the first 30 minutes and led 13-6 by halftime. An 11-yard pass from Luke Altmyer to Pat Bryant was the opening highlight of Illinois’ offense.

“The determination our guys showed in the second half was great,” Illinois coach Bret Bielema said in a post-game radio interview. “Obviously, we can bounce back. The outside world thinks we’re 3-0, but we’re just trying to get to 1-0 every week, and our guys did that.”

Move the backfield

Illinois struggled to get its rushing attack going in the first half, racking up just 53 yards on the ground, but Josh McCray ignited the backfield with a 24-yard gain midway through the third quarter and Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond graduate Caden Feagin scored a 2-yard rushing touchdown with 9:34 to go.

Illinois ended up with 137 rushing yards (McCray 54, Khalil Valentine 53, Fagin 25, Altmyer 6) compared to Central Michigan’s 133 in the division.

The Bryant Factor

Bryant scored another touchdown on a 20-yard pass from Altmyer with 13:05 left in the third quarter. It was Bryant’s third multi-touchdown game, a feat he had accomplished two weeks earlier when he scored two touchdowns against Eastern Illinois.

Bryant had seven catches for 102 total yards, while Zachary Franklin added 66 yards on five catches.

“I think this is probably the first time in my career that we’ve had (two impact receivers),” Bielema said. “Especially on early downs, it plays out differently. You saw (Franklin) gain 10, 12, 13 yards on early downs. That’s demoralizing for a defense.”

Altmaier has another strong game

Altmyer finished the game with two touchdowns, no interceptions and 242 yards, completing 19 of 29 passes.

Special teams, special players

Ethan Moczulski kicked a 59-yard field goal late in the first half, tying the Illinois record by two yards, to give Illinois a 13-6 lead at the half. Moczulski, a Spokane, Washington, native who played his first and second collegiate seasons at Texas A&M, played alongside David Olano, who also made two field goals, from 49 and 34 yards out.

“In practice, (Moczulski) kicked it for 61 yards and probably had another five or 10 yards to spare,” Bielema said. “I think him and (Olano) together will provide a pretty good one-two punch in the kicking game.”

Winning the turnover battle

Xavier Scott’s third interception of the season came with 2:25 left in the third quarter, forcing the Illinois defense into a third straight turnover. Illinois forced four turnovers each against EIU and Kansas, but the offense has only committed one turnover this season. Defensive coordinator Aaron Henry enters the Big Ten opener at Nebraska on Sept. 20 with a plus-8 turnover differential.

Flying laundry

Penalties piled up for Illinois, with eight penalties totaling 60 yards, four of which came in the third quarter, blunting a promising offense that ended with Olano’s second field goal of the day with 4:43 left in the game.

Healthy Crowd

Illinois’ homecoming game was somewhere between its first two games in terms of attendance, with a reported attendance of 51,498 fans for the 11 a.m. kickoff at Memorial Stadium. The attendance was up from 43,849 for the Aug. 29 game against EIU and 60,670 for the Sept. 7 game against Kansas, but tapered off after Illinois led 13-6 at halftime.

A sharp-looking lid

For the second straight game, Illinois wore retro helmets, this time sticking to the design worn from 1971-1987.

Can they be ranked?

Will Saturday’s results be enough to propel Illinois into the AP Top 25? Leading up to this weekend’s games, Illinois received more votes than any unranked team.