Salukis close season with 28-14 loss at No. 9 Western Illinois

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MACOMB, Ill. - The Southern Illinois football team closed the 2017 season with a 28-14 loss at No. 9 Western Illinois on Saturday afternoon at Hanson Field. WIU (8-3, 5-3 MVFC) built a 28-0 lead before the Salukis scored two late touchdowns.

A 25 mile per hour wind affected both teams throughout the game. Both teams struggled to move the ball against the wind. SIU had the wind to start the game but couldn't capitalize on short fields, including one drive that started on the WIU 25-yard line. In the second quarter, Western opened the scoring to take a 7-0 lead. It looked like that would be the halftime score; but with less than a minute to go, SIU threw an interception, and Western Illinois scored on the next play to take a 14-0 lead into the break.

"We knew it was going to be an ugly game," SIU head coach Nick Hill said. "It was playing like that, and then they were able to get an easy one before half. That should have never happened. That's three weeks in a row when we haven't closed the half well at all."

Southern, which won the toss and deferred to start the game, received the second-half kickoff, and WIU elected to put the wind in Southern's face for the third quarter. The Leathernecks capitalized with another touchdown to push their lead out to 21-0. SIU went into the fourth quarter having gained only two first downs. By the time SIU was able to get its offense moving, Western Illinois already had a 28-0 lead.

"That was smart on their part," Hill said of Western putting the wind in Southern's face in the third quarter. "They made us play into the wind, and they were trying to get a bigger lead. They were able to do that. Then, in the fourth quarter, we were able to score a couple times, but it was just too late."

With the win, Western Illinois made a convincing case for a top-8 seed in the upcoming FCS playoffs. The Leathernecks finished the regular season with six road wins, eight wins overall, an FBS win, and perhaps most impressively, five wins in the ultra-competitive Missouri Valley Football Conference.

Southern finished the season with an identical record to last season (4-7, 2-6 MVFC), but the Salukis showed improvement, particularly on defense. Southern's scoring defense was its best since 2014, and the Salukis forced 24 turnovers, the most for the program since 2012. Perhaps most exciting for the future of the program is the 19 starters projected to return in 2018, including eight on offense, eight on defense and all three special teams players. All eight returning defensive starters were freshmen or sophomores in 2017.

"You can see the improvement, but to the outside world, you won't," Hill said. "Same record and same record in the conference. We're still 4-7, and we have to do something about that. But you saw that we have a trust in the way we're recruiting and the things we're doing. Of course, we'll go back and look at the things we do in this program. Every little thing, every small detail matters. What do we have to do to get those extra wins and be sitting here with seven wins and going for No. 8, which is right there in our grasp? It's a small margin. We have to trust that we recruited well in the more than 60 players that are first and second year guys. We have to develop them. They came on, and our defense played better at times. There are things that we have to get better at, but most of those guys are first and second-year guys. We have to keep developing, and it has to pay off in wins."