I think a team like Illinois needs to at least control the pace of play. Even when they struggled running the ball in the 1st 3 games, they stuck with it and it played dividends in the 2nd half. The poor performance from their defense got the offense out of their strength. Then it snowballed on them.
I know the defense had some injuries and lost a key player to a borderline targeting call, but Indiana so quickly getting the ball to a wide open receivers was should scare Illinois fans