CHAMPAIGN – Fifteen tackles, an interception and maybe what some would call a respectable score.

Seymour Loftman, who put up those impressive individual numbers, was asked if he and his Eastern Illinois team felt good after Saturday’s 47-21 non-conference football loss at the nation’s 20th-ranked Illinois.

“Mmm,” the junior safety said taking a couple of seconds at the podium of his postgame press conference before giving a firm answer: “No. We could but I don’t think so. The score says we lost.”

Numbers also show that Illinois scored the most points in Ron Zook’s four seasons as the Illini’s coach Saturday.

The numbers also include 399 rushing yards with Juice Williams setting an Illini record of rushing yards for a quarterback by getting 174 including two touchdowns on 16 carries while adding 124 yards on 16-for-25 passing with another TD.

“He ran well, some of his big runs were scrambling,” Illinois coach Ron Zook said. “We’re not going to tell him not to run.”

Eastern, getting 183 yards on 15 rushes plus a 40-yard pass reception by Travorus Bess, had its moments but now stands 0-2 with its second straight loss to an NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision team that may or may not drop the Panthers Nos. 18 and 19 national rankings in the Football Championship Subdivision with the rest of their schedule against teams from their own level.

“I told our team just now that we paid our dues,” EIU coach Bob Spoo said. “By that I mean we have played our bowl subdivision teams. Now we get back to our level.”

For a while, the Panthers were playing near Illinois’ level.

Trailing 13-7 in the second quarter, Eastern seemed to have its golden chance at holding the Big Ten Network audience for a major upset bid when Quintin Ponius recovered Miami Thomas’ muff of Kevin Cook’s 43-yard punt.

That gave the Panthers the ball on the Illini 15-yard line and an opportunity to go ahead.

Travorus Bess’ 8-yard run on first down even brightened the prospects.

But Desmin Ward managed just 1 yard on the next play and failed to get a gain when Brit Miller and Rodney Pittman stopped him on the next play.

Eastern called a timeout to set up its fourth-down-and-1 play of the year to this point.

Fullback Chip Keys has come through so often in those scenarios during his career but this time the senior was stopped for no gain by Miller and Tavon Wilson at the 6-yard line.

“It’s a power off the tackle with one of our backs,” Spoo said. “But as I understand we missed block.

“We get two downs to make a yard and we can’t do it. If we take advantage of it we were up 14-13 and who knows what happens.”

Bess said: “We didn’t get it done point blank. The defense gives us the ball; we have to make plays.”

Of course, Illinois rising to the occasion had something to do with this.

“Emotion is that X-factor,” Miller said. “Football is one of those games if someone knew how to bottle up emotion and sell, they would be the richest man in the world. We had it at times today. When we made that fourth down stop, that’s Illini football.”

Illinois not only burst EIU’s bubble but stomped on it with a nine-play, 93-yard touchdown drive capped by Juice Williams’ 7-yard quarterback keep.

“We’re coached not to get involved with what the offense does,” Loftman said. “Since they didn’t make it, we had to stop them point blank. It kind of hurts when you think about it in the back of your head, but you have to stop then and not even think about it.”

By halftime it was 26-7 and many television watchers were probably flipping for a closer game.

The Panthers did match Illinois’ first-quarter touchdown.

After Miller’s 15-yard interception return to the EIU 34 led to Williams’ 16-yard touchdown pass to Chris Duvalt, Eastern answered on its second possession.

Bess found a huge hole and ran 55 yards to the Illinois 15.

The freshman Ward ran 6 yards up the middle and then for a 5-yard touchdown.

Tyler Wilke’s extra-point kick tied the game with 9:20 left in the first quarter.

However, after Andre Arrington’s interception and 22-yard return to the Illinois 37, three EIU plays netted just 2 yards and Wilke missed a chance at giving Eastern the lead over the big neighbor when his 52-yard field goal attempt missed wide left with 6:55 left in the first quarter.

Eventually, those what-if plays became forgotten by most as Illinois pulled away to even its record to 1-1.

“Football games are hard to win and obviously you want everything to be perfect and it wasn’t perfect, but all the things are correctable,” Zook said. “We can’t turn the ball over and need to improve our tackling. Things were a little better (than last week against Missouri) but are still not where we want them to be.”

Daniel Dufrene added 99 yards on 13 rushes and Arrelious Benn caught seven passes for 36 yards and also ran for two touchdowns for the Illini.

“I took some pretty good hits today, but I’m big enough to take them,” Benn said. “You just have to get back up and keep moving. Football is a physical game, so you just have to get up and keep fighting.

“We’re happy that we won, but we know that we had some offensive mistakes that we shouldn’t have had that could have allowed us to do more than what we did.”

Eastern          7           0           0           14 – 21

Illinois           7           19         14         7   - 47

First quarter

I – Chris Duvault 16 pass from Juice Williams (Matt Eller kick), 10:31

E – Desmin Ward 5 run (Tyler Wilke kick)

Second quarter

I – FG Matt Eller 21, 6:58

I – FG Eller 42, 3:35

I – Williams 7 run (run failed), 2:44

I – Williams 1 run (Eller kick), :20

Third quarter

I – Arrelious Benn 4 run (Eller kick), 7:28

I – Benn 13 run (Eller kick), 5:42

Fourth quarter

I – Troy Pollard 25 run (Eller kick), 11:52

E – Lorence Ricks, 15 pass from Bodie Reeder (Wilke kick), 8:43

E – Irvin Jean-Charles 9 fumble recovery (Wilke kick), 8:24

TEAM STATISTICS

         EIU      Ill

First downs    11         29

 by rushing     7           19

 by passing     4           9

 by penalty     0           1

Rushes-yards  37-176    53-399

Passes attempted        17         27

Passes completed        7           17

Had intercepted           2           2

Yards passing            102        134

Total offense   278        533

Punts-avg.      5-42.2    2-38.0

Fumbles-lost   2-1        4-3

Penalties-yards           3-34       3-30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

E – Travorus 15-183; Desmin 9-18; Ron Jordan 4-10; Chip Keys 3-2; team 1-(-1); Luke Hockaday 1-(-6); Reeder 4-(-30)

I – Juice Williams 16-174, 2 TDs; Daniel Dufrene 13-99; Mikel Leshoure 10-49; Arrelious Benn 5-48, 2 TDs; Troy Pollard 3-36, 1 TD; Eddie McGee 2-7; Jason Ford 4-(-14)

Passing

E – Bodie Reeder 7-12-2-102, 1 TD

I – Williams 16-25-2-124, 1 Td; Eddie McGee 1-2-0-10

Receiving

E – Charles Graves 2-36; Bess 1-40; Ricks 1-15, 1 TD; Sean McGrath 1-6; Quinten Ponius 1-3; Keys 1-2

I – Benne 7-36; Chris Duvault 2-31, 1 TD; Michael Hoonanawani 2-12; Alex Reavy 1-10; Ford 1-10; Will Judson 1-9; Dufrene 1-2