There was a play, early in the fourth quarter, where Brendan Sullivan showed what kind of quarterback he can be for Northwestern.

On second-and-9 at his own 42, and trailing 14-7, the redshirt freshman took the snap in the shotgun. Almost immediately, Ohio State defensive tackle Taron Vincent beat his block and knifed through the line, forcing Sullivan to move up in the pocket. Then, Sullivan jump-cut to his left to dodge defensive end Zach Harrison and continued rolling toward his left. Seeing there was nowhere to go, he quickly reversed field, and ceded yardage to elude Jack Sawyer. He finally got some daylight at the hashmark and zipped a bullet on the run to Cam Porter for 10 yards and a first down.

It was a magical play, a shining moment in a season of darkness. ESPN play-by-play man Sean McDonough compared Sullivan’s scrambling to NFL Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton. Analyst Todd Blackledge called the play unbelievable. It was the kind of athletic play from a true dual-threat QB that Northwestern hasn’t seen since the days of Kain Colter or Dan Persa.

And it came just a few plays after Sullivan made a tight-window throw to Malik Washington for a first down, and then smartly threw the ball away before going out of bounds under a heavy rush. Fans were seeing Sullivan, making his third start as a college quarterback, grow up before their eyes.

Alas, there would be no happy ending for Sullivan and the Wildcats. Northwestern’s drive died at the Ohio State 36-yard line, where Sullivan's pass sailed over the head of Donny Navarro and they gave up the ball on downs. The No. 2 Buckeyes would score more one more touchdown to claim an ugly 21-7 win and send the Wildcats to their eighth straight loss, their longest in 33 years.

Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald, who has praised the toughness and grittiness of his new starting quarterback all season, said that he likes the strides Sullivan is making every game.

“Sully’s learning a lot, each and every rep,” said Fitzgerald during his Monday press conference. “I think he’s embraced the role. Coming out of training camp, we thought the competition going into this year was close and tight, and he stayed the course when he wasn’t named the starter to start the season. That’s a credit to him.”

Sullivan battled Ryan Hilinski for the starting job in both spring and fall camp. Hilinski won the job and started the first six games of the season. But with the offense struggling, Fitzgerald decided to pull Hilinski during the Wisconsin game. Sullivan has been the starter in the three games since.

Sullivan has shown some flashes of his ability to make plays with both his arm and his feet. On the season, he has completed a remarkable 72.9% of his passes for 495 yards, with four touchdowns and three interceptions. His completion percentage and quarterback rating are better than Hilinski’s, though the bottom line is that the Wildcats are 0-3 in his starts.

“He’s learning a lot of incredibly valuable lessons each and every rep, each and every game,” said Fitzgerald. “They’ve all been a little bit different, but at the end of the day I think he’s shown great promise. I think he’s shown great toughness. I think he’s executed, at times, the way we need our quarterback to play. I think there’s been some plays that, like all of us as a team -- it’s not a game of perfect -- that he’d like to have back.”

Senior running back and captain Andrew Clair calls Sullivan’s skill set “special” and notes that his dual-threat abilities put stress on a defense.

“He expands the game with his feet and he’s able to throw the ball really well,” said Clair. “You combine those two things, you open up the playbook a lot more and people have to respect him, defenses have to respect him. That’s a hat that people don’t usually account for.”

While Fitzgerald likes what he’s seen so far, he stopped well short of anointing Sullivan as “the guy” to lead the program moving forward. He will have to earn that designation with his play.

“I don’t get into hypotheticals about future stuff. I never have,” said Fitzgerald. “We’ve got to play each play and attack each day, and you see where things go.

“When your record’s at where ours is at right now, you’ve got to evaluate everything and you’ve got to influx competition in the roster. That’s every position, from long snapper to quarterback, from punt returner to placekicker and everything in between.”

While Sullivan has had moments, he’s still very much a work in progress. He’s as inconsistent as you’d expect a first-time starter to be. The fourth-quarter drive against Ohio State displayed both the highs and lows: he made they brilliant play on the throw to Porter, but then missed Navarro to end another drive into enemy territory without any points.

Northwestern’s offense is still as weak as a Coors Light on the rocks. After scoring an impressive 24 points against Maryland in Sullivan’s first start, the Wildcats have scored just 20 points combined over the last two games – albeit against two of the best defenses in the nation in Iowa and Ohio State, as well as horrendous weather conditions on Saturday against the Buckeyes.

Northwestern’s offense now ranks 126th out of 131 FBS teams in scoring at 16.7 points per game. The road doesn’t get any easier as the Wildcats will face the No. 7 defense in the country on Saturday at Minnesota.

But Sullivan has given fans some hope that the Wildcats may be figuring out the game’s most important position. Northwestern hasn’t started the same quarterback for two seasons in a row since Clayton Thorson in 2018 – a big reason they’ve posted losing records in three of the four years since their all-time leading passer graduated.

Sullivan started this season as a backup, but he will have every chance to nail down the QB1 job and give the Wildcats some stability behind center.

“Do I anticipate that he’ll fight his tail off to help us win games and be successful not only here to finish the year but moving forward? Absolutely I expect him to fully do that,” said Fitzgerald. “He’s got every opportunity to be the guy of the future, but he’s going to have to earn that just like everybody else has to earn it.”