EVANSTON-The thud you heard on Saturday afternoon at Ryan Field was the sound of Northwestern falling flat in its season-opening 22-21 loss to Western Michigan.
Mistakes were made on both sides of the ball and there is plenty of blame to go around for the loss that saddled head coach Pat Fitzgerald with just his second loss in 11 season openers and second in 11 tries against a MAC team in his tenure. That being said, there were some positives to take away from the game.
Without further adieu, here are this week’s six points:
1. The defense could not get off the field today. Some of the stats are simply eye-popping. Take a look for yourself. Western Michigan:
- Racked up 27 first downs
- Possessed the ball for 39:04
- Was 4-for-4 on fourth-down conversions
- Ran 84 plays for 416 yards.
Defense was supposed to be the strength of Northwestern’s team but the unit did not show it in any way, shape, or form today. Western Michigan gashed NU at line of scrimmage. The Broncos specifically had success with runs off tackle and quick passes. To make matters worse, NU’s fundamentals were atrocious. They frequently missed tackles and their linebacking group looked slow responding to plays sideline-to-sideline.
A telling statistic is the number of tackles recorded by safeties Kyle Queiro and Godwin Igwebuike, the last line of defense. Igwebuike had 12 total tackles while Quiero had 6, meaning the front 7 was failing to bottle things up at the line. The only shred of positivity from this group was that cornerback Matt Harris held top receiver Corey Davis to seven catches for 70 yards.
2. Man, is Justin Jackson good. With the Northwestern offense struggling to sustain drives, Jackson put the team on his back and led them down the field for multiple scores. He finished the day with 23 carries for 124 yards and three touchdowns. He added another 47 receiving yards on two catches.
What is more impressive about these statistics is he was often getting first contact behind the line of scrimmage and turning plays that should have been losses into four- to five-yard gains. His most impressive play of the day was his 46-yard touchdown run, where he made one cut and displayed the breakaway speed that he had lacked in previous seasons.
3. On the other hand, Anthony “The Franchise” Walker was nowhere to be found. One had to check the stats to make sure Walker played today. Okay, he wasn’t that bad, but compared to last year, he looked a step slower and like he may have put on a little too much weight in the offseason. He did run down WMU QB Zach Terrell on one scramble, but besides that, he was slow recognizing and finishing plays. His lackluster play is one of the biggest reasons why Western Michigan was able to account for 198 yards on the ground.
4. The special teams looked spectacular. The was a definitive bright spot for Northwestern. Hunter Niswander punted three times and averaged 51 yards. Solomon Vault had four returns for 115 yards, an average of 37 yards. Even Harris fair-caught a tough punt, which is more than usual for Northwestern’s punt returners. The coverage teams also downed some balls close to the endzone and largely contained the Western Michigan return teams.
5. Schematically, NU was disappointing on both sides of the ball. It is easy to be an armchair coach and criticize playcalling, but it is also clear that there are glaring issues with the way NU approached today’s game. For example, Terrell had all day to throw and the Wildcats failed to recognize that three- or four-man rushes were not getting the job done and rarely brought blitzes. On the offensive side of the ball, vanilla play calling was the name of the game for every drive with the exception of the first and last one. When they spread the ball out, the field was open and it led to multiple scoring drives. Northwestern coaches may have intended to keep their game came conservative against a “lesser” MAC opponent, but at some point something drastic needed to be done.
6. Today was a mixed bag for Northwestern’s quarterback Clayton Thorson. He looked incredibly sharp in his opening drive, spreading the ball around and leading NU down the field for an early touchdown. Then the offense absolutely shut down for the rest of the half. His final line didn’t look that bad, as finished 15-of-22 for 196 yards passing. Another key positive with the passing game was Thorson’s solid connection with Austin Carr, as they hooked up on five passes for 75 yards. But, at the end of the day, you have to hold on to the football and it was Thorson’s fumble at the 1-yard line that ended up costing Northwestern the game on a bizarre play that wound up being reviewed and upheld as a Western Michigan touchback.
