EVANSTON-It was the same old story for Northwestern at Ryan Field on Saturday. The opponent changes. The score changes. But the end result stays the same.

This time, it was the Miami RedHawks, like the Duke Blue Devils and Southern Illinois Salukis before them, celebrating an upset win over Northwestern as the Wildcats dropped their third straight game to a non-conference opponent they were favored to beat.

RedHawks kicker Graham Nicholson, who came up empty on two previous field goals, kicked a 36-yarder through the uprights with 36 seconds left to give Miami a 17-14 win, its first over a Big Ten team since 2003 — when they also beat Northwestern.

The RedHawks, from the Mid-America conference, are now 7-3 all-time against the Wildcats.

Nicholson’s kick came after Miami, which had just 137 total yards after three quarters, pieced together a 13-play, 58-yard drive in crunch time to notch the win. The big play was a third-and-3 at the Northwestern 37, when Keyon Mozee, who rushed for a game-high 171 yards, ran for 10 yards and a first down to set up the winning kick.

After the game, NU head coach Pat Fitzgerald gave the same old reasons for the loss. He talked about losing the turnover battle 2-0. He talked about a blocked punt his team allowed on special teams. He talked about making mistakes on defense that allowed an explosive play.

Fitzgerald cited the same culprits for losses the previous two weeks, too. While giving credit to Miami for the latest setback, Fitzgerald said, “We continue to beat ourselves.”

The script is the same every week. The coach said that they have to figure out a way to “flip the script” and get back to the formula that led to so many one-score wins earlier in his career. Now, the Wildcats are losing them: three straight, by a total of 18 points.

It figures to get a lot tougher for Northwestern to turn things around starting next week, when Big Ten play begins in earnest with a trip to Happy Valley to take on 4-0 and No. 14 Penn State.

Despite the losing streak, Fitzgerald said he is staying positive because his team continues to practice well and is giving good effort. He’s not pushing the panic button because, he says, “I don’t believe in that.”

Quarterback Ryan Hilinski, who finished 24-of-42 for 232 yards passing, doesn’t have an answer for why the team isn’t performing as well in games as it does in practice.

"We've gotta study ourselves and figure out what’s going on,” he said. “Because this is not Northwestern football.”

Cornerback Cam Mitchell couldn’t explain it, either, noting that the team is practicing harder than it ever has during his three years in Evanston.

“It’s a mentality,” he said. “Guys just gotta want it more.”

Mitchell, who missed the two previous games with an injury, was back in action on Saturday. So was starting safety Coco Azema, though he went down with an injury in the second half and didn’t return.

The Wildcats still couldn’t get back in the win column despite returning those two experienced defenders and facing a team starting a backup quarterback that was 0-2 against FBS competition on the season.

Miami redshirt freshman QB Aveon Smith, in his third career start, completed just 7 of 19 passes for 62 yards and one touchdown passing. But, to his credit, he made several plays scrambling on the final drive to get Miami into field-goal range.

The RedHawks’ biggest weapon was running back Keyon Mozee, who ran for a game-high 171 yards.

Northwestern couldn't get anything going on the ground against Miami's potent defensive front, gaining just 107 yards on 31 carries.

The first quarter was dominated by Northwestern and looked a lot like a game between a Big Ten and a MAC team is supposed to look. After that, however, it was an ugly tug-of-war that went down to the wire. And it was Miami who scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to earn the first victory for head coach Chuck Martin over a Big Ten foe.

For the second week in a row, Northwestern eschewed its troubles with slow starts and scored first, on a one-yard plunge by Hilinski with 3:36 left in the opening quarter. The Wildcat defense, meanwhile, put the collar on Miami’s offense. The RedHawks managed just four yards and one first down in the first 15 minutes, and that came as the result of a horsecollar penalty against Mitchell.

Northwestern had a golden opportunity to extend its lead early in the second quarter, but Malik Washington fumbled after a catch at the Miami 24-yard line to extinguish a scoring chance.

Luckily for Washington, Miami then blew its chance to get on the board shortly afterward. The RedHawks drove to the Northwestern 12-yard line before holding and illegal-block penalties pushed them back. Nicholson’s 38-yard field-goal attempt then clanged off the left upright, leaving the RedHawks with nothing after a 14-play drive.

The Wildcats’ offense mostly sputtered for the rest of the half, outside of a 27-yard run by Cam Porter. Still, it looked like they were going to take a meager 7-0 lead into the locker room at halftime when disaster struck.

Caiden Woullard busted through the line and blocked Luke Akers’ punt deep in NU territory, and Miami took over at the NU 8-yard line. Fitzgerald said he thought it might have been a problem with their “shield” blockers in front of Akers.

Three plays later Smith hit Mac Hippenhammer for a 12-yard touchdown pass just 53 seconds before the half to knot the game at 7. The score stood after an official review.

The second half slowed to a crawl, and Northwestern spent the majority of the third quarter dodging bullets. A Jacob Gill fumble was overturned after review. A Hilinski pass was tipped at the line and fell to the ground after a RedHawk got his hands on it. Most dangerously, Miami’s Chris Cavalaris came off the edge and somehow just missed blocking Akers’ punt from the NU end zone.

Northwestern finally grinded out a scoring drive in the fourth quarter, covering 58 yards in 12 plays, none of them gaining more than nine yards. The last three were all Porter runs, and he scored from a yard out to make it 14-7.

But all that work was erased just over a minute later, when Mozee turned the corner and sprinted 66 yards down the sideline to the NU 1 for the explosive play Fitzgerald was talking about. Smith scored on the next play to tie it at 14 with 7:23 left in the game.

Northwestern punted on its next possession, just before Miami mounted its game-winning field goal drive.

The Wildcats got the ball back with just 21 seconds left, but their last-ditch effort ended with another Washington fumble that was recovered by the RedHawks.

Northwestern outgained Miami 367 to 278, but, as it has for the last three weeks, the edge in yards didn’t translate to the scoreboard.

Hilinski, on the verge of getting emotional, said that the Wildcats need to get back to having fun and playing loose to get their mojo back. They remain 1-0 in the Big Ten after a season-opening win over Nebraska in Dublin, Ireland, that seems like ages ago.

"We have all our goals in front of us,” he said.

He added that anyone in the locker room that isn’t willing to do what it takes to right the ship can “get the F out of here.”

"This is not what Coach Fitz deserves," he said.

But unless Fitzgerald switches up the status quo and implements the types of changes that turn things around – and quickly – it may be exactly what he deserves.