ANN ARBOR - Northwestern was kept out of the end zone entirely and suffered a 50-6 loss to Michigan that magnified the troubling themes of the latter half of the season and marked the biggest loss since David Braun took over as head coach.
"Dominant performance today [by Michigan]," Braun said. "It was poor, it was embarrassing [for us]. We got dominated in all three phases of the game tonight."
The Wildcats' offense struggled. Quarterback Jack Lausch fired an interception into traffic on the opening drive and the Wolverines capitalized on a short field to take a 7-0 lead and wouldn't need to score again. Braun said the mistake unsettled his quarterback, and he never recaptured his groove.
"He's probably affected by the interception on the first drive," Braun said. "He was scrambling, trying to make a play with a ball that should have been thrown away. It turns into an interception.
"Not the end of the world on the other side of the 50 and he had an opportunity to flush it, but I just felt like after that, we didn't see the same Jack we've seen in other games. I continue to believe in that young man, he's the ultimate competitor and he'll bounce back."
While Northwestern would reach the Michigan 10 or closer on two separate drives, they settled for chip-shot field goals each time.
The levee broke after the Wildcats cut the deficit down to 10-6 with 1:57 left in the second quarter. Wolverine quarterback Davis Warren had been largely ineffectual but expertly piloted a touchdown drive to score with eight seconds left and extend the lead to 17-6, it was the fifth straight game where Northwestern allowed a touchdown in the final minute of the second quarter.
Michigan wasn't done, though. They would score on all six drives in the second half while holding the Wildcats offense effortlessly at arm's length.
Here are our takeaways from the rout on the road.
Bend and then break: Northwestern's defense has had a grace period in the face of all-too-apparent offensive struggles, and the Wildcats' offense is averaging 11.2 points per game in their last five games. The defense can't be expected to pitch shutouts, but they've been getting shelled.
Any remaining grace came to a sharp close in Ann Arbor as the Wildcats allowed 50 points to one of the worst offenses not just in the Big Ten, but in the FBS. Michigan's previous season-high was 30 points on Fresno State, then 28 on Arkansas State.
A particularly brutal stat is the five straight games allowing a touchdown in the final minute of the first half. Northwestern won their early games with dominant defense holding opponents to anemic numbers and creating opportunities for the offense. But they've suffered in their late games under a toxic cycle of abrupt, turnover-prone drives on offense and lengthy, mistake-laden drives on defense.
"We have to do something. We practice two-minute operation every Thursday," Braun said. "We talk about winning the middle eight...everything has to be evaluated but especially that. Our performance in two-minute drill defensively has really hurt us.
Braun's teams these past two seasons have been marked by their resiliency but they've faded down the stretch this season, allowing roughly 35 points per game over their last four, and that includes a 26-20 overtime win over Purdue, the worst team in the conference.
There has been hope that Illinois could be a tossup but the defense hasn't shown anything in the second half of the season to prove they can create the rivalry environment that throws out the records pregame, especially against a ranked opponent.
The offensive rebuild will be extensive: Michigan's defense is still strong with plenty of talented players and pro prospects. They just held a high-powered Indiana team to 20 points. But this level of anemic production on offense cannot be allowed to become the team's standard. They have now failed to score an offensive touchdown in four separate Big Ten games and a team that is typically stoic in defeat has started to let its frustration show with players and staff.
Braun made it clear that Lausch missed Kirtz for a touchdown early in the game when he bounced a fade off a defensive back rather than put it high and away for the captain to go get it.
"He has to get the ball to the back pylon," Braun said. "Bryce is wide open. I think Jack wishes he had that throw back."
Kirtz, in turn, expressed frustration about the team's red zone personnel and execution.
"I think it comes down to execution," he said. "Everybody has to win a one-on-one matchup and everybody has to know what they're doing. I think it comes back to really prepping in practice and emphasis on the red zone.
"Maybe come up with a different package that gets bigger guys in there. But we have to execute there against a team like this."
When Lausch has thrown for 200+ yards, Northwestern is 3-2 and the only two losses are to highly-ranked opponents Ohio State and Indiana. Yet, he's now 3-6 as a starter with a 5:6 TD:INT ratio. The frustration is not just his performance, it's, by the coaches' own decision making, how barren the cupboard is behind him.
The only other two quarterbacks to play this season are Week 1 starter Mike Wright, who has not seen action since mop-up duty against Eastern Illinois, a week after the double-overtime loss to Duke that triggered the switch, and sixth-year senior Ryan Hilinski, a pocket passer that has struggled mightily in sporadic garbage time stints in relief of Lausch.
Redshirt freshman Aidan Gray has not traveled with the team for road games, instead it's true freshman Ryan Boe as QB4, and the staff opted to give the final two drives of the game to Hilinski instead. Hilinski was flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone for a safety and then ran out the clock on the second possession rather than giving the young gun, whose redshirt is preserved, his first action.
If Northwestern wants to get their offense back on track they need one of two things: extraordinary patience or extraordinary investment.
Memories can be short and Zach Lujan's struggling unit left this game averaging 16.9 points per game, that's still better than the Wildcats under Mike Bajakian in 2021 and 2022, but it's hard to see the Wildcats getting out of this unless they drastically change their approach to the portal.
Kirtz finished with 67 yards this game, grad transfer AJ Henning had 16. The best mark for a receiver who projects to still be around in 2025 came from walkon freshman Drew Wagner, who had one catch for seven yards.
Frustrations are running high on the roster and in the fanbase, and rightfully so, but a change should not be made idly. Even if Northwestern loses to Illinois, 4-8 would be the second best record of the last three seasons, and the third best in the last six.
By this point of the season, it's clear that there's been a steep learning curve for Lujan as a play caller. There are still lessons to be learned and gains made in that space. But, it's even clearer that the issues run deeper than that. To parrot Lujan's preseason motto, this is a matter of players, not plays.
There has been some returning consternation about the decision to swap Wright for Lausch. Even if the staff made the change prematurely, if Wright's experience gives him a steady hand and he pilots the offense to 10 more points in each game since he was benched...the results are the same, Northwestern is 4-7. Wright would need to have been +18 vs. Indiana compared to Lausch to flip a result.
The Wildcats need an extensive influx of talent on offense that supersedes roster development if they want to compete in the Big Ten moving forward.
Don't hold your breath for the Hat: Last season, the Wildcats were triumphant in Champaign with an electric 45-43 win to knock Illinois out of bowl contention and recapture the Land of Lincoln Trophy. This season, they haven't scored 45 points in their last three games combined.
While the Wildcats have fallen back on bad habits and suffered some roster turnover from top players, the Illini have brought plenty of talent back and surged forward. Now, it will be the Illini looking to put the final nail in the coffin as Northwestern hopes to pick up their fifth win and sneak into a game on Academic Progress Rate.
It's extremely doubtful the Illini will oblige. While the Wildcats have lost four of their last five games, the Illini have won four of their last six, and the Wildcats are yet to beat a ranked opponent under Braun, who is now 12-12 as head coach.
"[Michigan] absolutely snowballed on us. It was a humbling experience," Braun said. "We're going to find out about me, our staff...we don't want to send this group out like that."
While Braun's sentiment is admirable, the snowball has already gained an awful lot of momentum.
