Illinois keeps playing not to lose — and never to win

It was a beautiful Homecoming weekend in Champaign.

Blue skies, crisp, fall weather, tailgate lots filled to the brim. 54,205 people packed into Memorial Stadium.

They deserved better.

The Illini’s fourth quarter collapse delivered a giant gut punch after what for three quarters felt like the necessary follow-up to their upset victory over Maryland.

All of the momentum that could’ve been had during the bye week, all of the dreaming we could’ve been doing about winning the Big Ten West, all of it was snatched away.

There were many reasons for it, and Illinois simply needs to look in the mirror to find most of them.

In what’s becoming a rather common theme of the last few years, Illinois played not to lose, instead of to win.

On both sides of the ball.

Really, it started on Wisconsin’s final drive of the first half.

The Illini defense had put a big, fat zero on the board up until that point and had held up well in their aggressive man-to-man defense against…