Illinois punter makes massive blunder, gifts Ohio State field position in pivotal mistake
Things just went wrong for Illinois in the first half vs. Ohio State and punter Keelan Crimmins summed everything up. Trailing 10-0 at the time. Illinois had a 4th and 7 from the Ohio State 48-yard line and elected to punt.
When Crimmins received the low snap on the punt, he accidentally took a knee while fielding the ball. And since this is college football after all, he was ruled down as soon as he touched the ball with a knee down.
It resulted in a loss of 14 yards on the play and Ohio State went on to tack on a field goal to go up 13-0 with 6:43 remaining in the half. You can see the Illinois blunder below.
Illinois didn’t have much semblance of offense to that point. QB Luke Altmyer, one of the better signal callers in the Big Ten, was limited to five-of-11 passing for 38 yards and one interception. Aidan Laughery led the team in rushing with just two carries for 16 yards.
As far as Illinois’ drives were concerned, Altmyer was picked off on the first possession after an Ohio State field goal and then they punted and turner it over on downs. The Buckeyes scored on each possession of the first half to that point.
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As Illinois got the ball back, they turned it over immediately. RB Ca’Lil Valentine was bottled up at the line of scrimmage, but had the ball ripped out by DL Kayden McDonald. Valentine appeared to hurt his leg on the run too, to make matters worse.
Ohio State would go on to score a touchdown on the drive, going up 20-0. QB Julian Sayin swung a pass out to RB Bo Jackson for a 17-yard catch and run.
Coming into the day, Ohio State was 5-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country. Illinois was 5-1 and ranked No. 17 per the AP Poll. The lone loss for the Fighting Illini came at the hands of Indiana, who’s game against Oregon Saturday was on display for ESPN’s College GameDay.