EVANSTON-Maybe it should go down in Northwestern lore simply as “The Drive.”

It’s difficult to overstate just how far the Wildcats seemed from victory when they took possession at their own one-yard line, trailing Nebraska 31-24, with 2:02 and no timeouts left. It certainly seemed to be a lot further than 99 yards.

At one point, when a false start penalty put Northwestern at its own 27 with 1:13 left, ESPN calculated that Northwestern’s win probability was 1.3 percent. That means that if they played that situation out 100 times, the Wildcats would win once.

That must make Saturday the 100th time because Northwestern drove the field and tied the game 12 seconds left before winning it in overtime, 34-31.

“That was pretty cool, wasn't it!” said Pat Fitzgerald after the game. “Ninety-nine and half yards with no timeouts. That's just as good as you can get.”

Just getting to that point of having one final shot at a win, no matter how long it was, was a feat in itself. The Wildcats trailed by 14 early in the fourth quarter. They trailed by 10 with less than three minutes left.

Yet somehow, someway, it all came together and gave Northwestern its first home win of the season.

More than the 99-yard drive, quarterback Clayton Thorson said that he will always remember the scoring drive that preceded it, a 15-play, 62-yarder that included two fourth-and-10 conversions and running back Chad Hanaoaka’s first career reception and ended with backup kicker Drew Luckenbaugh’s first career field goal.

“I'll remember, I think, going down by 10, and looking around, talking to the guys, and seeing the life in their eyes, knowing we can move the ball,” said Thorson, who accounted for 455 of Northwestern’s 481 yards of total offense. “Seeing [wide receiver Flynn Nagel] tell the guys 'we're going to win this game, there's nothing that's going to stop us, we're going to win this game.' That long drive was pretty special.”

Still, all that drive got them was within a touchdown with 2:27 left. There was still a long way to go.

Northwestern tried an onside kick that failed – and really, how often does a team that fails an onside attempt end up winning the game? Nebraska took possession at the NU 47 with 2:26 to go. One Husker first down and the game was over.

Nebraska ran the ball three straight times and Northwestern called all three of its timeouts. On fourth-and-7 Isaac Armstrong hung a perfect sand wedge of a punt that died inside the 5 and would get touched down at the one-yard line. And that’s where the Wildcats took over, in the shadow of their own goal post.

“I think if you go back and look at the past few years, our two-minute offense is really good,” said Thorson. “When we got the ball on our own half-yard line, we're just thinking we need to get the ball out and get a little breathing room, and then we just go into our normal stuff.”

Nebraska’s Carlos Davis supplied that breathing room on the first play when he was called for roughing the passer. Thorson’s pass to Cameron Green sailed into the boundary, but Davis hit Thorson in the head with his hands after the ball was gone. The result was an automatic first down at the 16 with 1:59 left.

After an incompletion, Thorson caught fire, completing his next six passes in a row. He hit Riley Lees for five yards on a shallow cross. He hit Nagel, with Marquel Dismuke draped over his back, for 11 to the 32.

Then Blake Hance was flagged for the false start, moving them back five yards and lowering their win probability to its lowest point. It was Northwestern’s first flag of the day, but it was a costly one.

Unfazed, Thorson went back to work, and he continued to look for Nagel, his favorite target. He hit the senior wideout for 9 and then again for the biggest play of the drive: a 32-yarder on a fade down the sideline. Nagel got behind Aaron Williams, who was called for a holding penalty that NU declined. First down at the Nebraska 32 with 32 seconds left.

Thorson then floated maybe his prettiest pass of the game, a 27-yarder to Bennett Skowronek, who had found open grass between the linebacker and safeties in the middle of the field. Thorson dropped it into Skowronek’s hands right before Dismuke arrived to deliver the hit. First down at the Nebraska 5.

Thorson spiked the ball to stop the clock with 17 seconds left. On the next snap, JJ Jefferson faked an in route and broke toward the sideline. Thorson delivered the ball high. Jefferson stretched for the pass and then stretched across the goal line for the touchdown. Tie game, 12 seconds left.

Thorson had masterfully driven his team 99 yards in 1:50. He was went 6-for-7 for 89 yards, hitting four different receivers.

After that, the overtime seemed almost anti-climactic. Nebraska had been hit with a haymaker and Northwestern wasn’t about to let the Huskers off the canvas.

Nebraska got the ball first and turned it over when Adrian Martinez threw an interception to JR Pace in the end zone on a fourth-and-1 at the 16-yard line. Northwestern got the ball back, ran three plays for six yards, and Luckenbaugh – the backup walkon who was playing only because Charlie Kuhbander was injured – drilled the 37-yard game-winner.

Luckenbaugh was carried off the field by his teammates, but Thorson deserved the hero treatment. He set three career highs, for completions (41), attempts (64) and passing yards (455). He also tied his career high with three passing touchdowns, to go along with two interceptions. On a day that its running game produced just 32 yards on 23 attempts, Northwestern put the game on Thorson’s shoulders – and he delivered.

Nagel also had a career day, with 12 catches for 220 yards, the third-most in school history.

As usual, Thorson tried to deflect credit and praised his teammates.

“Our receivers were getting open the whole game and our offensive line was doing a great job,” he said. “I mean, we threw the ball 64 times and we only had two sacks, and on one of those I was trying to escape up the middle so that one's on me. To drop back 64, 66, 68 times, and only have one sack really, that's pretty impressive by those guys.”

The guy throwing the football was pretty impressive too.

“To have the guys be resilient and find some ways to make huge plays down the stretch was amazing,” said Fitzgerald. “[Thorson's] performance and Flynn's receptions were absolutely spectacular.”

Suddenly, a Northwestern team that looked dead in the water after a 1-3 start has won two straight conference games and, at 3-1 in the Big Ten, now controls its own destiny in the West division race. After a road game at hapless Rutgers next Saturday, the Wildcats return to Ryan Field to host Wisconsin in a game that could decide who goes to Indianapolis for the Big Ten title game.

Northwestern may not have a running game – the Wildcats’ 32 yards rushing is the most they’ve had in their last three games, and it came against the No. 109 rushing defense in the nation. But they have a fifth-year senior gunslinger with 45 career starts and counting under his belt and the No. 1 receiver in the Big Ten in both yards and catches. That just might be enough to win the watered-down West.

“Clayton and I hugged it out after the game and told each other we loved each other,” said Nagel. “I think that’s a moment I’ll never forget the rest of my life.”

There may be more moments like those yet to come.