[NU Sports] WILDCAT WRAP: Purdue 31, Northwestern 10

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

WILDCAT WRAP – PURDUE 31, NORTHWESTERN 10

Someone scripted a perfect first few plays for the
Northwestern Wildcats on their first offensive series
against Purdue on Saturday. Unfortunately, it didn’t
appear to be the same person who called the rest of
the offensive game for NU, as the same tired script
failed again and again to generate offense in a 31-10
defeat to the Boilermakers that was actually much more
lopsided than the score.

It was a familiar story for Wildcat fans this year –
the Cats actually were in the game at halftime, just
like they were at Penn State and Wisconsin the
previous Big Ten games. But the second half saw
virtually zero offense and a tired defense that
eventually crumbled as the floodgates opened and routs
ensued to lead to an 0-3 Big Ten start. The defense
looked frustrated, the receivers who kept running
routes downfield for naught showed frustration and the
fans became downright furious – and rightly so – at
offensive playcalling that basically seemed to
alternate between quarterback draws and screen passes
all day. And while I never condone booing amateur
student athletes and have preached patience with this
young coaching staff in this transition year – the
chorus of boos for the offensive offensive series from
the second quarter on was well deserved.

The beautiful, crisp autumn day in Evanston actually
began promising despite a couple of lackluster tackles
by the defense on Purdue’s opening drive. The Boilers
moved the ball in small chunks downfield as they would
all day, but a chip-shot field goal attempt went
further vertically than horizontally and missed,
giving the Cats life and the ball.

Our first offensive series was a thing of beauty – it
may have been scripted, but it certainly didn’t seem
to be scripted by the same coaches who called the rest
of the game. It effectively different types of runs, a
screen pass and even featured a beautiful deep ball
from Andrew Brewer to Shaun Herbert to set up the
opening touchdown by Brandon Roberson. 

But that would be it for the NU offense on the day.
The second possession ended on an interception where
Brewer was asked to roll out against his body, then
twist around and throw and it sailed away. An
interception generated by the Cats defense led to an
impressive 43-yard field goal by Joel Howells into the
same windy end zone where Purdue’s kicker missed a
chip shot, but after getting the ball in Boiler
territory, we should have scored six.

As for the defense, they gave up huge amounts of
yardage in small chunks as Purdue consistently nickel
and dimed down the field 
 sometimes missing scoring
chances with bad kicks or turnovers, but converting
enough to head into halftime with a 17-10 lead. They
added another touchdown in the third and wrapped up
the scoring with a flea-flicker bomb with six minutes
remaining to rub a bit of salt in the wound. It wasn’t
the best day tackling or yardage wise 
 or covering
slant routes over the middle, but the defense did show
a few blitz packages and covered the fade route well.
The time of possession wasn’t big in Purdue’s favor
because they went out of bounds a lot, but as far as
time on the field, the NU defense had to have been on
the field more than two-thirds of the game and the
fatigue showed at the end.

But it was the offense that drew the ire of the fans
and showed little signs of progressing after that
opening drive. The offensive line continued to be the
biggest disappointment of the year, failing to block
downfield on a couple of well set up screens and
allowing constant pressure and a blindside hit
untouched on Brewer. But it was the playcalling that
was particularly maddening. The screens would not work
– Purdue’s defense is somewhat fast, but not
Buckeye-fast, yet we kept going to that well long
after it became obvious that our linemen couldn’t
block the Boilers on the play. And there were so many
quarterback draws today that it was reminiscent of the
Ron Meyer era – Brewer is a tough kid and has a lot of
guts, but if he keeps taking the beating he’s getting
game after game, he won’t last until November. Some of
the fault may lie with Brewer pulling it down early
under pressure, but most seemed to be called. And
there were no deep passes (or even medium passes)
after that first drive. Receivers looked upset that
they were constantly working against single coverage
and open downfield but never getting a chance.

A series that typified the day for the Cats offense
was their final one of the first half. It seemed like
after long drives in the first quarter both ways (and
no punts), each team had the ball 20 times in the
final 10:00 of the second quarter. Despite having
field position around midfield thanks to kick
interference and all timeouts left, the Cats tried
draws on 2nd and 9 and 3rd and 5 and punted. Purdue
got it back on their own 14 with a minute left but
didn’t sit on it. A few passes later, they had a field
goal. They wanted it more and they got it. I’m not
saying throw all the time, but we didn’t even seem to
try a throw after the first drive except those screens
that just were not working. As a friend of mine
sitting next to me said, “is John Schoop back and
calling the plays?” If the definition of insanity is
trying the same thing that fails again and again and
expecting different results, then our playcalling on
Saturday was utterly insane.

It got worse from there. After being down 17-10 at
half, the Cats came out of the locker room with the
ball and ran a pitch, a QB draw and then failed to
even touch Purdue’s top pass rusher on 3rd and 5 as he
blindsided Brewer in what could easily have been a
fumble. And down 24-10 heading into the fourth, the
Cats were still miraculously in the game despite a
huge day of yardage for Purdue and a 54-yard run by
Sutton set up the Cats at the Purdue 25. The Cats
followed with two straight runs up the gut for nothing
and then ran a painful 3rd and 10 play that combined
not only the failed screen pass idea of the day but
also had Brewer roll out and throw against his body
for a loss of four. And what was a 1st and 10 at the
25 turned in to a 42-yard field goal attempt 
 that
turned into a 47-yard attempt after a delay of game 

that turned into a 52-yard attempt that was nixed for
a punt after a SECOND straight delay of game. WAKE UP
COACHES!

And Tyrell Sutton was again sorely underused. I don’t
know if he’s been in Fitz’ doghouse or there’s another
reason, but he’s just not getting the carries this
year. And as he showed with that 54-yard burst where
he single-handedly seemed to fight off the Purdue
team, he’s still a threat to go all the way on every
carry. So in the words of some SC flunkie we’d rather
forget in Evanston, just give Tyrell the bleepin’ ball
already! If anyone’s gonna get 20 carries up the gut
in purple, better #19 than a quarterback.

GAME BALLS
* Joel Howells. Not many options today, so the one
game ball goes to the guy who shocked me and kicked a
43-yard field goal into the swirling wind that caused
Purdue to miss two gimmes at that same goalpost.
Overall, not a bad day for special teams as our kick
and punt coverage made tackles right away and kickoffs
were deep. The one bad spot – and it was BAD – was the
punting game. These were knuckleball quacks with the
hangtime of an elephant on a trapeze wire. Yes, one
was downed at the 3, but that was more the coverage
than the kick.

THINGS TO WORK ON
* Play calling. Play calling. Play calling. If they
put nine in the box, you need to pass. And a screen
for –2 does not count. And a draw may catch the
offense by surprise once or twice, but not on EVERY
second-and-long or third-and-long. A play action fake
or a fake draw-to-pullback and pass down the middle
would have been BIG since every Boilermaker seemed to
be heading toward the line of scrimmage at the snap.
Sooner or later the training wheels have to come off
and you have to let the freshman QB throw. The midway
mark in the season might be a good time for that.
* Where’s Tyrell? Get the reigning freshman of the
year the ball. Jordan may make for a good breather or
short-yardage back, but there’s no way that we should
keep neglecting this fine talent for quarterback draw
after quarterback draw. Yes, we have three
quarterbacks, but if you keep feeding them to the
wolves, we’ll be down to one in a hurry.
* Offensive line play. This is the biggest
disappointment of the year so far. And they’re not
getting better at run blocking or pass protecting 

and it didn’t even look like they had practiced
blocking on the screen. Someone’s gotta protect our
young quarterback and that’s SUPPOSED to be the line.
Get together and start working as one.

AROUND THE LEAGUE
* It should be pretty clear now that the Big Ten has
the top two teams in the land. Michigan wins without
Manningham in a frenzied Happy Valley and the Bucks
take care of business against the nose-diving
Spartans. Unless there’s a major upset, that November
game should be 11-0 vs. 11-0 and #1 vs. #2 and
possibly the biggest Big Game in history.
* Iowa looked like they were a threat to Michigan, but
they were just looking ahead to Michigan and got
ambushed by Indiana. With MSU, Minnesota and Purdue
left, the Hoosiers may even begin to utter the B-word
in a couple weeks.
* While Iowa has fallen, the biggest darkhorse left is
the one in Badger clothing. Wisconsin rolled over a
reeling Gopher squad and could run the table with no
OSU on the schedule to finish 11-1. They played
Michigan tough but have been forgotten since – but
don’t overlook them in the title talk if the big two
stumble and they’ll certainly be a BCS contender if
they win out and the hordes of Cheeseheads – trying to
forget a dismal Packer season – wave big ticket sales
in front of the bowl officials.
* So much for Illinois’ rebirth 
 a heartbreaking loss
to Indiana followed by a loss to Ohio? Ouch.

I saw a lot of effort on our defense and special teams
today 
 and a lot of heart from some members of the
offense, especially Brewer and Sutton 
 and a lot of
promise from that opening drive. But the Cats were
really let down by the O-line and coaching staff
today. Homecoming is winnable with MSU in turmoil 

but we have to get a big-time change in the coaching
calls to give the team a chance. No more kid gloves –
let the frosh try and fail or try and succeed, just
let ‘em try something other than a draw or screen that
DID NOT WORK ANY OF THE TWENTY FIVE OTHER TIMES IT WAS
CALLED TODAY! I don’t blame the receivers for their
frustration, nor the fans. This was a frustrating game
that we were still in for most of the second half but
never seemed to try to win. Granted it would have been
tough to repeat the Iowa game last year without Baz,
but the setup was similar to that game except we
didn’t try and snatch it away at the end and it seemed
like our players’ hands were tied by the coaches.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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

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