Northwestern looking for answers after lethargic start
Things couldn't have started much worse for Pat Fitzgerald's Northwestern Wildcats. The Cats were thoroughly beaten by the Michigan State Spartans, 38-21, on Friday night and, for the most part, didn't look like a team that was ready to play its season opener.
That has been a problem early in the season in recent years for Fitzgerald-coached teams.
Going back to the 2014 season, Northwestern looked lethargic in losses at home against California and Northern Illinois; in 2016, there were home losses to Western Michigan from the MAC followed up by one of the most embarrassing days in program history, scoring seven points and losing at home to FCS foe Illinois State.
In 2017, Northwestern got hammered by Duke in Week 2. The 2018 campaign brought more of the same, as Northwestern slept-walked through losses at home to Duke and Akron and started 1-3. Even the tremendous 2020 team fell behind, 17-0, to Iowa in the second game of the season before coming back to win.
Fitzgerald doesn't have the answers for why the same problem has plagued his program throughout multiple different groups of players.
"If I could see it, I would change it," he said.
Change is going to be what Northwestern needs this week. A change in attitude, a change in execution and a change in anything else to avoid repeating what happened on Friday under the lights at Ryan Field.
The change in attitude was apparent on Monday at the Wildcats' weekly press conference. A Northwestern program that was confident all offseason that they were going to prove their doubters wrong and "had everything (they) need to win the Big Ten," no longer was radiating confidence and smiling.
Fitzgerald didn't break out his patented "Chuckles the Clown" routine that he did after disappointing NU performances two years ago. Even though the availability was held on Zoom, everyone could feel the more serious tone.
One thing became clear through the mumbled, short answers: the Wildcats know that their performance last Friday was unacceptable.
"We put some things on film that we aren't proud of," Fitzgerald said. "We need to grow up, and do it in a hurry."
Fitzgerald commented on the defense's effort, or lack thereof, on Friday, after the game. He talked about about missed fits and missed tackles allowing Michigan State to take a 14-0 lead before most people had even found their seats.
But actions speak louder than words, and Fitzgerald took an action on Monday that said everything there is to know about how he feels his defense played on Friday: he declined to award a defensive player or big playmaker of the week. No one, in his eyes, deserved it.
Northwestern's defense, playing its first game under new defensive coordinator Jim O'Neil, while old defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz watched from the stands, looked nothing like the top-five unit from a year ago.
MSU running back Kenny Walker III, who won the Big Ten offensive player of the week award after running for 264 yards and four touchdowns, took the first snap of the game and raced down the left sideline 75-yards to the house. Fitzgerald said that play was a result of three separate players making a mistake.
How can that happen after a whole offseason to prepare? That is the kind of question that Fitzgerald is trying to answer.
Missed tackles played a central role in the Spartans racking up 511 total yards, whether it was Walker running through ankle tackles or both Coco Azema and AJ Hampton failing to bring down Connor Heyward as he converted a third-and-7 on the way to the Spartans' second TD of the first quarter.
When asked how to improve the defense going forward, junior defensive end Adetomiwa Adebawore had a simple answer.
"We just have to tackle better; that's it," he said. He elaborated later, talking about fundamentals such as getting off the ball, hand placement and communication.
Losing the season opener isn't a death sentence for the Wildcats. Northwestern still has all of their goals in front of them -- though, if you watched Iowa play on Saturday, the program's first goal of winning the Big Ten West seemed a lot less realistic than it did before kickoff on Friday night. It feels like a pipe dream if they continue to play the mistake-filled brand of football they demonstrated against the Spartans.
One more question Fitzgerald will hope to find the answer to this week: Does this team and coaching staff have what it takes to pick themselves up off the canvas, work harder than they did before and beat FCS foe Indiana State on Saturday, or will this season start the exact same way that 2016 did, when the Wildcats made a bad situation emphatically worse by losing to Illinois State?
That's one question that Fitzgerald knows will be answered on Saturday.