EVANSTON-This was supposed to be a defensive struggle between two similar teams. Turns out, the struggles were all on Northwestern’s side.
Michigan State scored 24 straight points to run away from the Wildcats in a 31-10 thumping at Ryan Field to open the Big Ten season.
The Wildcats missed some opportunities for scores in the first half, but Michigan State just plain outplayed them for most of the afternoon. Northwestern’s offense continued to look feeble, while the defense got shredded like it rarely does by an MSU offense that had problems scoring points all season. Until Saturday.
The win made Mark Dantonio Michigan State’s all-time winningest coach and also snapped a three-game losing streak to the Wildcats. The loss sends Northwestern back to the drawing board with an 0-1 Big Ten mark.
Here are our five takeaways:
The Cats blew their best opportunity in the first half: Trailing 7-0 early in the first quarter, Northwestern had a second down at the MSU 1-yard line after Isaiah Bowser was ruled down before he crossed the goal line on first down. No problem, right? The Wildcats would get three more shots from the 1.
On second down, Bowser slammed into the line. No gain. On third down, they called on their power back again. Stopped cold. So on fourth down, instead of maybe calling for a play-action pass off of a fake to Bowser, NU ran an option to the left side. Head coach Pat Fitzgerald said that they were trying to get outside against a MSU defensive line that was crashing inside. Whatever the reason, it didn’t work: quarterback Hunter Johnson was tripped up by a penetrating Mike Panasiuk behind the line of scrimmage. MSU ball.
That sequence was a critical blow to the Wildcats, who never had another chance to tie the game as good as that one. Plus, the drive started on a short field as MSU’s Cody White fumbled a punt return to give the Wildcats the ball at the MSU 27-yard line. That failure showed that Northwestern’s weakness is still in short-yardage situations, where they can’t seem to get a push from the offensive line.
Michigan State exposed Northwestern’s defense: The Spartans found their offensive magic formula near the end of the first half. To that point, MSU had one scoring drive, on their first possession, when they went 75 yards for a touchdown. Their next four drives ended with punts and totaled just 23 yards.
After that, however, a Michigan State offense that scored just seven points against Arizona State the week before, found its mojo. Mixing in the run and pass, the Spartans’ next four drives ended with two touchdowns, a field goal and a missed field goal. They ran 40 plays and gained 198 yards, and the vaunted Northwestern defense was on its heels. In the third quarter alone, the yardage total was 135 to 22 in favor of MSU, and the Spartans had nine first downs to NU’s zero. By the end of the third, the score was 24-3 and the game was over. Fitzgerald said that Michigan State didn’t do anything differently schematically against the Wildcats; they just executed better.
Hunter Johnson didn’t get the job done: Northwestern’s quarterback again showed some improvement, making a few impressive throws and runs. But he was inconsistent and unproductive, finishing 15 of 26 for 88 yards with an interception and a pitiful 3.4 yards per attempt. How bad did things get? Fitzgerald, looking for a spark offensively, pulled Johnson for backup Aidan Smith on the last play of the third quarter – and Smith promptly threw two interceptions.
Johnson was at his best on a late first-quarter drive, when he threw three straight completions, including a slant to Ramaud Chiaokhia-Bowman for 18 yards, his longest pass of the day by nine yards. He looked comfortable and confident.
He threw a few passes that were dropped, including a third-down strike to Berkeley Holman inside the MSU 10 that would’ve given the Wildcats a first down; instead, they had to settle for a 39-yard Charlie Kuhbander field goal. But Johnson was inaccurate, too, even on short, underneath routes, throwing too far in front of Riley Lees and too far behind Skowronek on consecutive plays. He had his first game above 50% passing, but his lack of production continues to disappoint.
Northwestern’s No. 2 corners weren’t ready for prime time: Northwestern went into this game without injured starting cornerback Trae Williams, and the fifth-year senior captain was missed dearly. The Spartans continually targeted his replacements – Alonzo Hampton and, later, Cameron Ruiz – and had consistent success testing the inexperienced corners.
It started right off the bat as Brian Lewerke completed his first two passes, for 12 and 29 yards (and a declined pass interference penalty), to Cody White, who was being covered by Hampton. At the end of the first half, Northwestern called two consecutive timeouts to set its defense for a third-and-10 play from the 11-yard line with 29 seconds left. The Spartans were still able to isolate White on Hampton on a double-move for an easy touchdown to that increased the lead to 14-3 and dealt a devastating blow to a Wildcat offense struggling to move the ball, let alone score.
This team has a long way to go: Maybe fans should be used to it by now because Northwestern starts slowly just about every year, but these Wildcats have yet to look like a team that can contend in the Big Ten West – or anywhere else, for that matter. The offense turned in its second clunker in three starts and the defense looked worse than it has at any point of this young season.
In two games against Power Five teams, the Wildcat offense has put up a grand total of 17 points, with the last seven coming in garbage time against the Spartans. They turned the ball over three times on Saturday and generated just 245 yards of total offense. More troubling, though, is that the defense played its worst game since Nebraska put 31 points on them in a 34-31 overtime win in Week 6 last season. The Wildcats had no answer for MSU’s offense for the middle stretch of the game – and keep in mind the Spartans aren’t exactly Oklahoma when it comes to explosiveness.
The Wildcats have flipped the switch before, overcoming a 1-3 start last season and an 0-2 start in 2016. It’s time to turn it around because next week they travel to Madison to take on No. 13 Wisconsin, who are 3-0 after ripping No. 11 Michigan, 35-14, on Saturday.
