[NU Sports] WILDCAT WRAP: #25 Michigan 33, #21 Northwestern 17

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

As the lights went on at Ryan Field Saturday night,
the crowd was ready. The students were in a frenzy.
The weather was perfect for an autumn clash between
ranked teams. The sky-cam of ESPN prime time national
football was whizzing by overhead. And everything was
in place for the Northwestern Wildcats to make a
statement. Just one thing was missing.

The offense.

Brett Basanez, Tyrell Sutton and the rest of the
purple-powered attack that had carved up defenses the
last month was not ready for prime time and had their
worst game of the year at the worst time as
Northwestern fell to Michigan, 17-33.

The game started like a shootout, with Basanez looking
every bit like the best quarterback in the league,
perfect on his first 7 attempts, eclipsing 100 yards
with ease and making several “wow!”
needle-in-a-haystack throws. Early turnovers, however,
slowed the Wildcat momentum.

A late surge before half gave the fans hope that the
shootout would resume, but both teams came out of the
locker room to play perhaps the most boring second
half of football in the last decade at Ryan Field. The
Cats were hampered by penalties on offense while
Michigan was hampered by Lloyd Carr’s usual
conservative play calling. After scoring a combined 21
points in the first seven minutes of the game, there
were a grand total of two field goals in the last 30
minutes as NU’s homecoming limped to a disappointing
finish.

The story of the first half was turnovers by the
offense – a key fumble on the Cats’ first drive by
Sutton turned what was about to be a 7-7 game into a
14-0 Michigan lead. And a mixup of communications on
the route by Shaun Herbert and Basanez led to an early
interception. The Wolverines did their best to even
things out with a few turnovers of their own, but the
early miscues clearly shook the confidence of the NU
offense – one that had come out of the locker room on
fire and electrified by a purple-frenzied crowd.

The story of the second half was penalties by the
offense – each of the five drives in the third quarter
contained a crucial holding call to turn a first down
or 2nd and short into 2nd and 20 or 3rd and long. Some
were earned, but some of those whistles sure seemed
suspicious in their timing. After a first half where
literally anything went and nothing was called (even a
late hit on Baz that brought Coach Walker 15 yards on
to the field to protest a shot on his star senior),
the refs came out of the locker room and seemed intent
on killing any momentum the Cats got going in the
third. Was it the difference in the game? I know we
didn’t deserve to win, but I also know we weren’t the
only ones committing penalties in the second half. And
the way it came once on each drive just destroyed any
attempts to find a rhythm.

But the story of the game overall was the NU offense.
It was almost as if someone had swapped Mike Dunbar’s
playbook from last year with his one from this year
before the game, We never established a running game.
We seldom threw it downfield (and the times we did
resulted in two big touchdowns) or over the middle.
And the second half was chock full of 3-yard outs that
Michigan’s defense was jumping on all day, miserably
executed screen attempts and strung out runs that went
laterally but not vertically.

We just had the wrong game plan for Michigan’s quick
linebackers and defense. We didn’t punch it up the
middle or pass over the middle deep. We played right
into their strength. A typical groan-inducing call
came late in the game when we were still in the game
and had 3rd and long and proceeded to run a backwards
pass on another failed screen attempt.

The amazing thing is that Northwestern was still in
the game until midway through the fourth quarter. The
defense didn’t play a good game, but they did get a
few stops (but credit much of that to Michigan’s
conservative play calling) and forced their usual
amount of turnovers – including a dazzling
interception by Marques Cole and a gritty pick by Tim
McGarrigle in the second half that should have ignited
a rally. But as much as the purple-clad crowd wanted
to get back into the game, the offense just sputtered
and fizzled. The special teams did a good job of
keeping Wolverine Steve Breaston in check despite
numerous punts from the shadow of our goal post.

The one bright spot for the O aside from Baz’ sizzling
start was Mark Philmore. He came to play Saturday,
making some great catches and did everything in his
power to spark the team. After Sutton’s early fumble
and Michigan’s defensive touchdown made it 14-0, Baz
quickly spotted a mismatch and hit Philmore for a long
pass (one of our few deep throws on the day) to cut
the deficit in half. And after the D held Michigan to
a field goal before half with the score 27-10, Baz hit
Philmore again on a perfectly thrown ball and
incredible catch to cap a 50-second scoring drive and
make it 27-17 heading into the locker room.

But the 3-and-out as we came out of halftime was just
the start of the miserable final 30 minutes. Michigan
got two field goals and the NU defense kept it within
striking distance, but we never had a chance with our
dink-and-dunk play calling against Michigan’s
linebackers. We never stretched the field vertically
or got Sutton and the ground game going in the second
half.

By the time the lights went out, the Cats had let a
big opportunity slip away and were held to under 20
points for the first time all season.

After the ASU and PSU losses, expectations sank for
this team and they were clearly not as bad as feared.
But after the last three weeks and two wins over
ranked teams, expectations soared just as quickly and
the Cats were not as good as we hoped. At the end of
the day, the loss hurts 
 but I think at the start of
the season, most NU fans would have been encouraged to
see the team at 5-3 at this point. 

We need to bounce back in a hurry to catch a rested
Iowa team at home next week in the Dyche Stadium
finale for the season. I hope that the fans who showed
up in purple and made all the noise for Saturday’s
game don’t take the loss too hard and jump off the
bandwagon, because #14, #41 and the rest of our
seniors deserve to be saluted and thanked for their
years of play in purple on Senior Day. We’re still one
win from a bowl (and from our third straight 6-win and
non-losing conference season) and it would be sweet to
get that postseason-clinching victory over the hated
Hawkeyes who have had our number lately.

One other note on the crowd last night – they wore
purple, the stood on third down and they created an
electrifying atmosphere for the recruits, alumni and
national audience. WELL DONE! We kept waiting for a
second half spark to bring them back in, but it never
came – still, the effort was appreciated. And Michigan
brought more fans than I remember them bringing to
Evanston before (which is odd because a 3-loss season
is a big disappointment for them, yet they still came
so they deserve credit) – they were vocal yet
courteous and classy for the most part and it was just
a great atmosphere for college football and great to
see that environment in Evanston (of course, I’d have
preferred if Michigan had played that way against
NOTRE DAME instead!).

GAME BALLS
* Mark Philmore – He may have had a clash or two with
the coaches earlier in the year, but Philmore’s
stepped it up lately and really showcased his skills
for the prime time audience. His leadership and
example can only benefit our deep group of receivers
for next year.
* The secondary – I’ll give this much-maligned group a
game ball for a solid game. Whether it was by gameplan
or not, Michigan never hit the deep backbreaker on us
that PSU did in their game, and Avant and Breaston are
two of the more talented wideouts in the nation. They
tried once and Cole made them pay by using his speed
to simply want the ball more and come up with the
pick. And there was one play in the first half down by
the goal line on third down where one of our backs
(didn’t catch the number) got an amazing jam on Avant
at the line. Chad Henne and Lloyd Carr cried foul for
a flag, but it was such a strong jam (and within 5
yards before the ball was thrown) that it just stunned
Avant.
* The fans – Great atmosphere and great energy. Sadly,
the offense couldn’t feed off of it and get back in
the game in the second half. Ryan Field was one play
away from exploding in pandemonium all night and you
could feel the anticipation, but no one ever got that
spark. Still, watching the ESPN rebroadcast and seeing
that sea of purple haze still gives me goosebumps!

THINGS TO WORK ON
* Mental attitude – The early turnovers and the
second-half zebras really affected our offense more
than any maize and blue scheme. We were supposed to be
tougher than that and overcome that – bounce back next
week, gentlemen!
* Offensive play calling – After near flawless game
plans the last month, the coaching staff laid a giant
egg with the Michigan game plan – feeding into their
defensive strengths and never adjusting once they took
our short outs and screens away to spread the ball
vertically or get the ground game going forward and
not strung out laterally.
* Turnovers – When the defense forces four turnovers
and only allows two touchdowns despite Michigan
enjoying great field position all day, we should win
with our offense. But we turned it over almost as many
times and even worse, allowed Michigan to score off of
the turnovers.

AROUND THE LEAGUE
* WISCONSIN struggled a bit with the defenseless
ILLINI and PENN STATE didn’t exactly crush PURDUE, but
it’s gonna be a dandy of a showdown in Happy Valley
next week as the Badgers and Lions (who both hold
tiebreaks over Ohio State) battle for what very well
could be the Big Ten title and BCS berth.
* Speaking of OHIO STATE, their offense exploded 
 but
how did they allow 31 to MINNESOTA?
* MSU kept Motor City hopes alive by beating INDIANA,
but the Hoosiers just need to win those home dates
with Minny and Purdue to get themselves into a bowl.
∑ So only Purdue and Illinois are eliminated
from the bowl chase and since the next lowest team has
only 4 losses, no one will be next week. Thus, with
two weeks left in the season in mid-November, the Big
Ten will 3-4 or more teams within a game of first and
nine teams with legitimate shots at a bowl. What a
league!

Well, if we were comparing this run to 1995 and 2000
where the Cats came into homecoming off a big 2-game
roadtrip and with momentum to prove itself nationally,
then homecoming 2005 felt much more like the 2000
disappointment against Purdue than the 1995 shutout of
Wisconsin. It was a shame to waste such a beautiful
night and amazing atmosphere with our worst offensive
game of the year.

Yet, we still need to keep things in perspective and
remember that the Cats are 5-3. The big game now
becomes Iowa. Nothing’s a given in the Big Ten for
sure, but it’s going to be tough to win in Columbus on
Senior Day and it’s also tough to see Illinois’
defense stopping the Cats. So our home finale with
Iowa becomes what could be the difference in a 7-4
season that could see a bowl trip to Texas (perhaps as
high as a return to beautiful San Antonio? Though I
still think Nashville may be our destination with the
reps of other teams ahead of us) 
 and a 6-5 campaign
that could end with a Motor City rematch with Bowling
Green. Beating the Hawkeyes alone should be motivation
enough, but the big difference in bowl placement is a
factor as well. Bounce back Cats! Shake it off O!

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!


		
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