Cats crumble in Bloomington
With an offense playing like Northwestern’s is right now, the Wildcats have to be just about perfect in all other phases to have a shot at a victory.
They were far from that on Saturday night in Bloomington.
The Wildcats committed six penalties and three turnovers in the first half to dig themselves a 24-3 hole that they could never crawl out of in a brutal 34-3 loss to Indiana.
The defeat was the sixth in a row for the Wildcats, who lost their seventh game of the year to ensure that they will not be bowl-eligible for the first time in five years. They are also still searching for their first Big Ten win and haven’t scored more than a field goal in three consecutive games.
Here are our takeaways from the loss that dropped Northwestern’s record to 1-7 overall and 0-6 in the Big Ten:
The Wildcats’ turnovers were costly…: It started right off the bat for Northwestern. On the Wildcats’ first play from scrimmage, Aidan Smith ran for 22 yards and then fumbled to give the Hoosiers the ball at the NU 47-yard line. Indiana eventually scored a TD to take a 10-0 lead.
Then, after Northwestern got on the board to close the gap to 10-3 and the defense forced a punt, Drake Anderson fumbled, again on the first play from scrimmage on a drive. The Hoosiers recovered at the NU 18 and capitalized with a touchdown to take a just-about-insurmountable 17-3 lead in the second quarter.
The Wildcats had one more turnover on the last play of the half as they tried to lateral the ball several times, but that one didn’t really matter.
Here’s a sobering stat from WGN’s Dave Eanet: that second touchdown gave Northwestern’s opponents a 66-6 edge over the Wildcats in points off of turnovers. That’s an astounding gap that says a lot about how this season has gone.
…and so were their penalties: Last year, Northwestern was the least penalized team in the nation. This year, they rank in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten, and on Saturday night the yellow flags were falling like leaves.
Northwestern had six penalties in the first half for 67 yards. Again, with an anemic offense like the Wildcats’, those are 67 yards the team can’t afford.
Most incredibly, the Wildcats were called for four pass-interference penalties in the end zone. Each of them gave the Hoosiers an automatic first down on drives that ended in IU touchdowns. They were also a couple holding calls that washed out positive offensive plays.
Even Pat Fitzgerald got into the act – he received a 15-yard penalty for arguing a call with officials in the second quarter and then stayed on the field at the end of the half to continue his harangue.
The Wildcats finished with nine penalties for 97 yards.
The Wildcat offense was typical: Northwestern actually had some success moving the ball in the first half against Indiana. They mounted a 58-yard field-goal drive in the first quarter and, even though they were plagued by turnovers and penalties, they showed some signs of life, ending the half with 155 yards – a modest number, but pretty good for a team that has averaged just 201 in their last two outings.
But the second half was a horror show as the Cats had just three first downs and 44 total yards as Indiana held the ball for most of the half.
Northwestern has now scored a total of six points over its last 13 quarters and hasn’t crossed the goal line for a touchdown since the third quarter against Nebraska on Oct. 5. They came into the game with the worst scoring offense in the country at 10.7 points per game, and now that number will sink further.
Northwestern hasn’t scored more than 15 points in a game for six straight games.
Northwestern’s defense wasn’t up to par: Wildcats’ games generally follow a familiar pattern: the defense stands tall and keeps them in the game, until a combination of terrible offense and turnovers does them in. That wasn’t the case on against the Hoosiers.
Indiana went up-and-down the field on the Wildcats, who surrendered 414 total yards and 34 points, more than anyone but Ohio State put on the board this season. Michael Penix and Peyton Ramsey combined to go 17 of 25 passing for 270 yards and a touchdown, while Stevie Scott III rushed for 116 yards and two scores.
The Wildcats also uncharacteristically gave up several big plays: Scott got loose for a 27-yard run early, and Penix hit Whop Philyor on consecutive passes for 35 and 47 yards to set up Indiana’s last score of the first half.
Hunter Johnson returned and was mediocre: After being sidelined for three weeks as he supported his mother’s battle against breast cancer, the transfer quarterback from Clemson came into the game in the second quarter – even though Aidan Smith to that point was 3-for-3 passing and had 34 yards rushing, as well as that costly fumble.
Johnson completed his first four throws – three of them to Riley Lees – for 32 yards and seemed to be in a bit of a rhythm. He even ran the ball once for nine yards.
But he followed that hot start with five straight incompletions and didn’t look very sharp with the ball. (For what it’s worth, Johnson also lateraled the ball to Indiana’s Alfred Bryant on that ill-fated final play of the half.)
Johnson was injured in the third quarter after getting tossed to the ground on a sack by Allen Stallings well after the whistle should’ve been blown. Johnson seemed to hurt his leg on the play, which should have resulted in a personal foul on Stallings.
Johnson’s final stat line: 7 for 17 passing for 65 yards and four carries for 15 yards. He looked much like he did in his starts in the first four games of the season.
Fitz should now be focused on getting Johnson reps: Now that a bowl game is out of the picture, Fitzgerald should use the rest of the season with an eye on the future.
His first job is to give Johnson as many reps as he can get over these last four weeks. If playing experience is what Fitzgerald and Johnson and everyone else says is what he needs to improve, that’s exactly what he should get.
The bottom line is that the coaches need to find out if they can get Johnson to play like the five-star QB he was out of high school. He is undoubtedly the quarterback with the highest ceiling; he needs to get snaps, read defenses, make mistakes and build some confidence.
By Week 12, Fitzgerald needs to know if Johnson is going to be "the" guy, or just "a" guy.