Illinois did not make it easy in Saturday’s win over UConn.

After securing a blowout win in Week 1, the Illini appeared headed for disaster to begin Week 2. UConn raced out of the gates with 13 straight points before Illinois even got on the board.

Fortunately, the Illini responded with 24-unanswered points before going on to win 31-23. A big part of the comeback was quarterback Brandon Peters who threw for 227 yards and 4 TDs as the Illini were without star running back Reggie Corbin.

When discussing the performance of his team after the game, head coach Lovie Smith said Illinois certainly did enough to lose the contest. But thankfully, the team battled back and fought through the adversity.

Jeremy Werner with The Illini Inquirer shared Smith’s comments:

Hopefully, it was a nice wakeup call for Illinois. They will move on to take on Eastern Michigan next weekend.