WildcatReport's Tim Chapman, a former high school football head coach, breaks down the Wildcats’ win over Rutgers.

1. The run game has a pulse again. We brought up the point, in a post a couple days before the game, that the Wildcats would be wise to play a wider array of RBs to try and give defenses more to prepare for, and to keep the backfield physically and psychologically fresh.

Coming into this game, the Wildcats did not have any more than two RBs carry the ball in four of their six games, and in those games, their No. 2 back only ran it more than five times twice. To give this rushing attack some life, it would be necessary to divide the carries and be diverse in their distribution. The Wildcats did just that on Saturday and had their second-best rushing output of the season - without their top three backs.

They did it with two promising true freshmen, Isaiah Bowser and Drake Anderson, and a heroic Hawaiian, Chad Hanaoka, who each had at least six carries and averaged better than four yards per carry. They accounted for seven of the team’s 16 first downs, both Wildcat TDs, and, most importantly, a flicker of hope for the coming weeks.

2. The O-Line is still a work in progress; in other news, the sky is blue. Simply put, the offensive linemen, who admittedly get hardly any of the credit when things go well and all of the blame when things don’t, have to start winning more of the “one-on-ones” that head coach Pat Fitzgerald talks about so frequently. Their subpar performance may have been camouflaged by the brilliant running of Justin Jackson and Jeremy Larkin the past several years, but in the absence of those great backs, this group has been exposed.

The outside zone play has been non-existent because these guys haven’t been able to reach the second level. Any success the running game has achieved this year has been more from their inside game. Bowser’s two TD runs came on the inside zone play, where Cameron Green kicked out the end-man on the line of scrimmage and the C/G/T mesh blocked the LBs. Even John Moten’s TDs this year - against Purdue and Michigan - were on an inside zone play and an inside counter, where the backside guard and SB pull to kick out and lead inside against scraping LBs. These quick-hitting blocking schemes, with swift backs that get to the hole rapidly, have been more productive for Northwestern. The outside zone plays need a lot more work; they’re not showing the quickness on the OL or in the backfield to get that corner just yet.

The pass protection has been even worse. Fortunately, Clayton Thorson has done a good job of getting the football out of his hands and to his receivers without a loss. The left side of the O-Line was pushed into the backfield several times Saturday by an active and strong Rutgers defensive front. LG JB Butler did not play most of the third and fourth quarters in favor of Sam Gerak, who started out rough but gained some stability, even drawing specific praise from Fitzgerald after the game.

3. Clayton Thorson was not himself. He missed on 17 throws and too many of them were his fault. He was high, outside, short and low. Fitzgerald used a lot of baseball analogies after this game, so to follow suit, Thorson was like a star pitcher that just didn’t have his best stuff.

There were a couple of second-and-long and third-and-manageable situations where Thorson should have hit his receiver for a key pickup, but he simply missed his target and, thus, an opportunity to continue a drive for some much-needed points.

He also fumbled once. (It may not have been a fumble, but since the call on the field could not be overturned because of insufficient video evidence, the play stood and the Wildcats turned the ball over.) You could see Thorson's frustration at the end of that play, when he held onto that ball for what seemed like an eternity, indignant about the notion of losing the football and not allowing it out of his grasp until the official made him relinquish for sake of the game. We credit him for that competitive fire, but still recognize his turnover.

Throson came up big when it counted - like he’s done more often than not - but still, it was troublesome to see our fifth-year quarterback looking so out of rhythm for most of the game. Even on the game-winning, fourth-quarter touchdown drive, Thorson threw an ill-advised pass that could have easily been intercepted.

Thorson took the blame, saying that he needed to play better but credited his squad for a for a great team win. In hindsight, it was better that his clunker came against Rutgers rather than Saturday against Wisconsin.

1. What does Northwestern need to do to play its A game? We don’t mean health-wise; we mean from a production standpoint. This year, as in recent history, the Wildcats seem to find a way to play either up to their opponent - a narrow loss to Michigan and knocking off Michigan State - or down to inferior competition - the second-half collapse in a loss to Akron.

The same thing happened on Saturday. We’ll agree with part of what Fitzgerald said in his post-game presser: that Rutgers is in the process of rebuilding and came up with a strong, motivated performance. But what we cannot understand is how flat this Northwestern team played on Saturday. As much as Fitzgerald speaks of “one week-at-a-time” and “controlling what’s in front of them,” one has to wonder how the general perception of their opponent seems to dictate the Wildcats’ aggression and approach when they take the field against that lower level of competition.

We get that Northwestern may be far from the blue bloods who simply destroy these lesser foes time and time again. But for this program to actually turn the corner and get to that place where they’re a more recognized brand and a true player for the Big Ten championship, they’ll need to consistently take care of the substandards like Iowa and Wisconsin do.

2. How healthy will this team be for Wisconsin on Saturday? Against Rutgers, the Wildcats were without their top two RBs (Solomon Vault and Moten) and two starters on defense (SLB Nate Hall and CB Greg Newsome II), not to mention their starting placekicker (Charlie Kuhbander) to start the season. On Saturday we saw WR Bennett Skowronek leave the game in the first half with an upper body injury after he was hit following an incomplete pass, but Fitzgerald was positive about his status after the game.

Fortunately, the Wildcats haven’t been too hampered by these injuries. Still, having these players will certainly give them a greater chance at defending their pole position atop the Big Ten West against a tough Wisconsin team that’s won the division crown two straight years.

Northwestern was 1-0 this week. The Cats beat Rutgers, which is what they expected to do. Regardless of how pretty it was, regardless of what the stats looked like, they did it. They beat a team they were favored to beat - something that Ohio State didn’t do, by the way.

They got the running game going; their injured players got a week healthier; they won their fourth conference game of the season (12th in their last 13 games); and they go into the next week with a W that only six other Big Ten teams earned. The car isn’t fixed yet - there may be a lot of parts and tools still on the garage floor - but the mechanics are working tirelessly to get this thing in shape to drive to Indianapolis.

The D-Line. Two of the top four tacklers on Saturday were Northwestern’s starting defensive ends. That means that the Knights were not getting too far past the line of scrimmage. On top of that, junior Joe Gaziano made a monster sack, and really should have had one or two more. Sophomore Samdup Miller led the entire team in stops with eight, making this the second straight week that No. 91 was No. 1 in that category. Backup DE Trent Goens batted down two passes at the line of scrimmage, while the aforementioned Miller had another. Collectively, the front wall made 16 of the team’s 50 stops Saturday afternoon.

RB Isaiah Bowser. In really his first action of the season (only two carries for two yards coming into this game), the first-year back from Sidney (Ohio) delivered when the Cats needed it. With a struggling passing game and injuries ahead of him on the depth chart, Bowser brought his game with him to Piscataway, NJ. He toted the rock 24 times for 108 yards (4.5 per carry) and two touchdowns - the only Wildcat TDs of the game. More than the numbers, though, it was his aggressive, forward-leaning style of running that enabled him to run through tackles and consistently move the pile. This power running style will be needed going forward.

SLB Chris Bergin. In the second straight week, the Cats were without the services of one of their best defenders, Nate Hall. And for the second straight week, the Cats got solid play from “the next man up”, a sophomore walkon. Bergin finished second in tackles with seven (five solos), a sack and a TFL. He was regularly in good position and helped to take away the short-passing game with his presence in the outside and intermediate zones. Northwestern is still hoping that Hall returns, but if he cannot, Bergin has proven himself to be a valuable replacement.

P Jake Collins. There weren’t a lot of special teams opportunities on Saturday, but when No. 49 was on the field doing his job, he did it well. He hit seven punts for his season average of 39 yards per, but once again, they were exactly what they needed to be. Not a single one of his punts was returnable, thus no concern for a big special teams spark by the Scarlet Knights. Two of his seven were downed inside the 20 and one other went for 70 yards, which was a career-high. The senior grad transfer from Western Kentucky continues to help his defense and gets our vote as the special teams MVP to this point of the season.

RB Chad Hanaoka. A repeat winner, Hanaoka stepped his game up even more this week, even drawing animated excitement from Fitzgerald in his post-game presser. The senior walkon from Honolulu carried the ball six times for 26 yards (4.3 yards per carry), highlighted by a pair of seven-yard runs when the Wildcats were trailing. These were not garbage-time, courtesy carries; this was when the team was down and needed some help offensively. The “Flyin’ Hawaiian” punctuated his appearance in the third quarter on a blitz-pickup, when he attacked OLB Deonte Roberts low, launching him head-over-heels and out of the play as Thorson delivered a strike to WR Flynn Nagel. The Cats needed a third back due to injuries, and Hanaoka stepped up and delivered.

Down 15-10 with 12 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats had a fourth-and-4 at the Rutgers 15-yard line. Conventional wisdom says to kick the field goal and take the points with that much time left and your defense playing well. But as we know, Fitzgerald doesn’t always adhere to conventional wisdom, mostly because these Wildcats aren’t your conventional team.

So he kept his offense out there and OC Mick McCall called a shallow crossing route to Nagel - their bread-and-butter, “gotta get it” play under five yards. Thorson took the snap from Jared Thomas, allowed Cameron Green to cross in front of Nagel, allowing Nagel to find open space, get to the sticks and keep the drive alive.

One play later, the bruising Bowser aggressively darted his way to the hole on the left side (on that successful inside zone play we referenced earlier) and into the endzone for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown. But it was this determined display of confidence by Fitzgerald and his staff to take what they know works and convey faith in their two seniors to go out and get it done. And they did.

Tim Chapman is a teacher and former Michigan high school football coach who is currently working on a book titled "ChampioN Underdog" about the 1995 Northwestern Rose Bowl team. Follow him via Twitter: @Champion_Lit. Email him at nufbhistorian@gmail.com.