EVANSTON-For a Northwestern passing game lacking a spark, Clayton Thorson’s performance in Saturday night’s 24-13 win over Duke qualifies as a bonfire.
The quarterback more than doubled his yards-per-game average and threw three times the number of touchdowns that he did in the first two contests, both losses. But Thorson’s box score doesn’t quite tell the whole story, and the news wasn’t all good for the redshirt sophomore signal caller, who still has quite a bit of room for improvement.
Let’s start with the positives. Thorson threw for a career-high 320 yards and connected on three touchdown passes. On the opening drive of the game he threaded the needle to find Garrett Dickerson in the seam for a 26-yard touchdown pass, the first of Dickerson’s career and the second of the season for Thorson. He later hit Solomon Vault on a 44-yard fly route for a touchdown in the third quarter and a wide-open Austin Carr for an even longer 58-yard score in the fourth to seal the win.
Northwestern fans are painfully aware of the lack of explosiveness in the passing game the past couple of years, so it was a breath of fresh air to see Thorson connecting with Wildcat receivers for 25-plus-yard gains.
“That’s something in the passing game that we didn’t have a year ago is those explosive plays,” Thorson said after the game “That’s something we’ve worked hard on. Credit those receivers getting open.”
On those plays in particular, Thorson looked like a bona fide star. He surveyed the field, hung in the pocket and found the open man. When he is given time and is decisive, Thorson can throw the ball with the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten.
Furthermore, Thorson connected with seven different receivers in the game, including Macan Wilson three times for 57 yards and Garret Dickerson four times for 42. The Wildcats’ aerial attack yielded major dividends on big plays, and it also was balanced in its targeting.
Now on to the negatives. Thorson completed less than half of his passes, going 18 for 39. He also threw two interceptions and took five sacks. After the brilliant first drive by the Wildcat offense, they did not score again until the third quarter despite crossing the 50-yard line five times. A great number of those drives stalled because Northwestern's passing offense failed to take advantage of Duke putting eight or more in the box, and one ended with a Thorson interception.
“They’re going to bring one more than we have, then you have to make them pay,” head coach Pat Fitzgerald said in the post-game press conference. “How many times were balls just slightly overthrown? How many times did we just barely miss those types of throws?” He added, “We’ve got to make people pay for putting 25 people in the box.”
Some specific plays come to mind when thinking about the negatives. Northwestern tried to execute multiple speed-option plays that resulted in a loss of yards or Justin Jackson taking a hard hit. Thorson certainly threw some highlight-reel passes, but there were also overthrows and missed targets mixed in.
Thorson’s production deserves praise, as he threw for 64 more yards than his previous career high. His timing couldn't have been better for a breakout game. Duke effectively shut down Jackson after the first quarter, holding him to a total of seven yards in the middle two quarters and just 25 over the last three. It was up to Thorson and the passing attack to win the game for the Cats, and they responded with a series of big plays to win the game.
Not all of the mistakes can be blamed solely on Thorson, either. On one of his two interceptions, the receiver slipped on Ryan Field’s patchy turf, turning what would have potentially been a completed pass for a first down into an easy pick for Duke’s Breon Borders. Though Thorson took five sacks, he was under almost constant pressure due to a combination of poor pass protection and Duke bringing blitzers on almost every play.
“I think he saw just about every pressure he’s going to see in his career,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve got to do a better job helping him. We had some route running we have to get cleaned up.”
Thorson himself was balanced in his evaluation of his performance. Though he was under siege for most of the game, he took blame for the offensive miscues and took ownership of the fact that Northwestern had trouble getting into the end zone throughout the first half. He was also quick to praise the wide receivers and superbacks for creating the opportunity for those explosive plays.
“I think I could’ve stayed in there a little bit (more),” he said. “I was throwing off my back foot at times when I didn’t have to.”
As for the missed scoring opportunities, he said, “We have to capitalize more. It can’t just be the first drive of the game.”
If anything, Saturday’s game was evidence for progress in Thorson’s development. In his first two games of the year, Thorson failed to break 200 yards passing and he only had one touchdown combined. In fact, he had broken 200 yards just once previously in his career, against Ball State last September, when he threw for 256 yards.
The next step in Thorson’s development will be developing his accuracy and improving his completion percentage. He has completed more than 50 percent of his passes only twice in his last 11 games, an unacceptably low number. (Northwestern is the only team in the Big Ten that has completed less than half of its throws on the season; nine of the 14 conference teams have completed 60 percent or more.)
Northwestern knows that its upcoming opponents will follow Duke’s blueprint and focus on shutting down the running game. They can also expect a variety of pressure packages. In those circumstances, the Wildcat offense may be forced to put the ball in the air more than 40 times per game. If Northwestern is going to upset a team like Nebraska or Iowa in the next couple weeks, Thorson will likely have to complete over half of those passes.
For now, though, it is important to recognize Thorson’s growth from game two to three, from struggling to score against an FCS opponent to throwing three TDs against a Power Five team. It’s also clear that Thorson still has quite a bit of room to grow as a passer.
The quicker that growth occurs, the better. The Wildcats’ next six games – against, in order, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Indiana, Ohio State and Wisconsin – will make or break their season.
