No. 23 Northwestern beat Purdue 27-20 on Saturday.
Here are our five takeaways:
RCB emerges as Ramsey's favorite target: Peyton Ramsey has done a great job of spreading the ball around during Northwestern's season. He's had his go-to guys like John Raine and Kyric McGowan, but in big spots, Ramsey has tended to look for Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman.
Against Purdue, Ramsey looked for Chiaokhiao-Bowman in all spots. The senior receiver set career highs in catches with eight, yards with 86 and touchdowns with three. On a day the running game averaged just two yards per carry, the Wildcats needed big days from both of them to get by the Boilers.
Ramsey and Chiaokhiao-Bowman have been working on their relationship since the day Ramsey arrived in Evanston, and the results were on full display in West Lafayette. As these two continue to grow together, they will continue to become a major part of Northwestern's offense.
Newsome II comes up big: Greg Newsome II got his 2020 season started a little later than everyone, making his debut in Week 3 against Nebraska due to injury. It didn't take him long to be the center of attention, though.
Newsome II shadowed Purdue star wide receiver David Bell all over the field and used his physical style of coverage to bother the No. 1 receiver in the Big Ten.
Bell had an impressive streak of five straight 100-yard receiving games come to an end against Northwestern, as he posted 78 yards against Northwestern. Bell caught nine of 19 targets and Newsome II contested just about every one.
Newsome II did draw a pair of passiinterference flags, but considering he was targeted 19 times while covering one of the best receivers in America, Northwestern can live with a that. Plus, a couple of them were questionable to put it mildly.
Having a physical corner with the confidence to talk trash to the entire Purdue sideline, as Newsome II did, has given Northwestern's secondary an edge that they missed without him.
"We talk a lot," said Newsome II of the secondary. "We're confident. We're playing at an all-time high right now."
Leota gives the pass rush life: There was a lot of wondering this offseason about who would replace Joe Gaziano and Samdup Miller at defensive end for Northwestern. Eku Leota had the answer to that question, at least against Purdue.
Leota started the season playing with a club on his right hand and has only gotten better the last two weeks now that he can use both his hands. Against Purdue, Leota had the best game of his career. He only made three tackles, but they were all massive.
The first was a third-down sack to kill a Purdue drive. The second was a forced fumble on a scramble from Purdue quarterback Aidan O'Connell, which Paddy Fisher scooped up to set up a Northwestern touchdown. The third came on Purdue's final drive, when Leota chased down and sacked O'Connell from behind on third down to set Purdue up with a fourth-and-long that they did not convert.
Leota did jump offsides on a crucial third down early in the fourth quarter to give Purdue a second chance at converting, and they did; that's an issue Northwestern's entire defensive line needs to work on. Leota becoming a consistent threat off the edge, though, would add a new element to Northwestern's defense.
Northwestern's running game vanishes: Northwestern's offense is built around running the ball. Purdue knew that, and massive defensive tackle Lorenzo Neal made it almost impossible for Northwestern to run the ball.
The Cats finished with an abysmal 80 yards on 40 carries, or two yards per carry. Wide receiver Kyric McGowan was Northwestern's most effective rusher, averaging 3.7 yards per carry, and he had the longest run of the game, a 12-yarder. But a combined 21 carries for 33 yards from top backs Isaiah Bowser and Drake Anderson is not a recipe for success for this offense moving forward.
Bowser's snap count was down from the first two games of the year, likely due to the upper body injury that kept him out of the Nebraska game. Regardless of who is in the backfield, Northwestern absolutely needs to find ways to run the ball effectively in order to keep winning.
Ramsey does what this team needs: Many times in 2019, it felt like Northwestern was fighting against, rather than with, its quarterback. In 2020, it's the opposite.
Peyton Ramsey is doing whatever it takes to make his teammates successful. After leaning on the run for the first three games, Northwestern all of a sudden had no room to run against Purdue. Ramsey took it upon himself to make the offense successful.
Ramsey had his best game of the season, throwing for 212 yards and three scores. He did throw an interception, but it was on a tipped pass that appeared to slip out of his hand. Had the pass been on target, Riley Lees might have taken it into the end zone.
After the game, Ramsey said that leadership isn't shown through stats, but through communication. His ability to keep the offense believing in itself has one of the biggest reasons Northwestern has been able to win three straight one-possession games.
