Rutgers is billed as the birthplace of college football. On Saturday, it was almost a cemetery for Northwestern’s 2018 season.

But, for the second week in a row, the Wildcats rallied in the fourth quarter to eke out a 18-15 win over Rutgers. While Northwestern (4-3, 4-1 Big Ten) won’t win any style points for its fourth consecutive win, it was enough to keep them in the Big Ten West race with Wisconsin coming to Evanston next Saturday.

Northwestern trailed by five at the half and saw Rutgers (1-7, 0-5) open a 15-7 lead in the second quarter. But the Wildcats scored the last 11 points of the game on a field goal, a touchdown and a two-point conversion to claim its sixth straight Big Ten win on the road, going back to last season.

Here are our six points on an ugly Northwestern win that will ultimately look as good as any other in the standings:

NU came up with a game-winning fourth-quarter drive – again: It wasn't as dramatic as the 99-yarder in last week’s win over Nebraska, but for the second week in a row the Wildcats produced a big fourth-quarter touchdown drive. This one was 63 yards in 11 plays and included two big fourth-down conversions and the big blow, a 29-yard pass to Riley Lees. The first fourth-down was a no-brainer, a fourth-and-1 at the NU 46 that Clayton Thorson easily picked up with a sneak. The second one, though, took some guts. With broadcaster Glen Mason advising to kick the field goal, Northwestern opted to roll the dice on fourth-and-4 at the Rutgers 15-yard line. Thorson found Flynn Nagel on a cross and he cut upfield to the 5. On the next play, Isaiah Bowser ran it in for the touchdown and their first lead since the second quarter. The Thorson-to-Nagel two-point conversion gave the Wildcats the 18-15 lead that stood for the rest of the game.

Isaiah Bowser emerged as the hammer for the Cats: Unbelievably, it was the running game that brought Northwestern back from a 12-7 halftime deficit. And it was the true freshman Bowser who led the way. Bowser finished with 24 carries for 108 yards and two touchdowns, and 17 of those carries and 90 of those yards came in the second half, where he powered his way through the Rutgers defense time and again. In the fourth quarter, Bowser was the go-to guy, lugging the rock four times on the touchdown drive that turned out to be the clincher, and eight more times on the final drive that killed the clock for the Wildcats. Solomon Vault was out with an injury and banged-up veterans John Moten and Jesse Brown did not play. So Northwestern was forced to go with Bowser, walkon Chad Hanaoka (six carries, 26 yards) and true freshman Drake Anderson (7 for 24) to gut out the victory. The Wildcats’ 128 rushing yards – which was reduced late in the game when NU was deliberately losing yardage to eat up the clock – was the most they’ve gained since the season opener and almost double the 68 they gained in the last three games combined .

The defense stepped up in the second half: Northwestern’s offense scored a touchdown on its first drive of the game and then seemed to go into hibernation. While the Wildcats were foundering around trying to find some consistency, the defense held down the fort. They stiffened in the red zone to hold Rutgers to a field goal after Thorson lost a fumble on the first drive of the second half. After that, the Scarlet Knights didn’t get another first down. They went three-and-out on four consecutive possessions to close out the game. The yardage totals for those four drives: minus-five, six, five and three yards. Northwestern finished the game with two sacks, five PBUs and a quarterback hurry. Samdup Miller led NU with eight tackles, while Chris Bergin and Joe Gaziano each recorded a sack. Really, except for a 44-yard touchdown run by Isaih Pacheco in the second quarter — when Blake Gallagher missed a tackle in the hole — Rutgers couldn’t do much offensively all day.

The second quarter was a horror show: Northwestern had a 7-0 lead after the first quarter when things went haywire. Rutgers – a team riding a six-game losing streak that included defeats to Kansas (55-14), Buffalo (42-13) and Illinois (38-17) – completely dominated the second quarter. Look at these numbers: Rutgers outscored Northwestern 12-0. They outgained NU 114 to 14, including a shocking 73 to -13 in rushing. Rutgers had six first downs while NU could muster just one. Thorson, after a white-hot start that saw him finish the first quarter 6-for-6 passing, went ice cold, completing just 3-of-10 passes. Rutgers scored all manner of points, on a field goal, a touchdown and a safety. And it could have been worse – the Knights drove to the Northwestern 29 on their final drive, but Justin Davidovicz missed a 47-yard field goal try.

Thorson had an off day: Coming off of a career-best 455-yard, three-touchdown day last week against Nebraska, Thorson was not nearly as sharp against Rutgers. He completed just half of this throws – 17 of 34 – for 150 yards through the air, without a touchdown or an interception. He also had one costly fumble, on the first drive of the second half, to kill a drive near midfield that Rutgers turned into a field goal to recapture momentum. The fifth-year senior also uncharacteristically missed a couple open receivers. On one play in the first half, he stepped out of what looked to be a certain sack, rolled out to extend the play, and then just overthrew an open Nagel on a crossing route that the two have completed dozens of times over the years. On the game-winning fourth-quarter touchdown drive, Thorson nearly threw it away – literally – when he passed into double coverage near the goal line on a play in which he had more than enough time to throw. Thorson wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t the poised leader we’ve seen the last two weeks.

Northwestern is banged up going into a critical three-game stretch: The next three weeks will make or break the Wildcats’ season. They host Wisconsin and Notre Dame the next two weeks and then travel to Iowa. Those two Big Ten contests will likely decide the West division title. Northwestern is 4-1 in the league, while Wisconsin and Iowa are both 3-1, with the Badgers holding a win over the Hawkeyes in hand. Defensive starters Nate Hall and Greg Newsome II did not play against Rutgers and their status is uncertain going forward. The running back position is a M*A*S*H unit, as the Wildcats are missing the top three runners going into the season: Jeremy Larkin (retired), Moten and Vault (both injured). Fitzgerald survived with Hanaoka and a pair of true freshmen in the backfield today. Maybe resting those players this week will enable a few of those injured Wildcats healthy enough to return for the coming showdowns.