What’s going on here?

Is Northwestern coach Randy Walker watching the same games I’m watching? Apparently not, judging from the calls he’s making on the field.

While the Wildcats’ talent and experience certainly isn’t up to par with the rest of the teams in the Big Ten, Walker’s recent calls haven’t helped matters much.

Walker’s team has had some trouble this season, losing two quarterbacks — Alexander Webb for the season to a lacerated liver and Brett Basanez for the time being with a fractured fibula — but that’s not an excuse for making mistakes in play-calling and refusing to continue with whoever has the hot hand on a particular day.

In Saturday’s game, the play-calling was atrocious. With a top Big Ten running back and a less-than-average fill-in quarterback, the logical assumption would be an emphasis on the running game.

Or not — if you’re Walker.

Against Purdue the Cats ran the ball 30 times for 118 yards, with Wright gaining 101 yards on 15 carries. Quarterback Tony Stauss passed 34 times, completing 18 of those attempts for 150 yards and one interception.

Clearly, Wright’s performance has been far superior to Stauss’ this season. So why wouldn’t Walker go with what’s working?

In the second quarter, with the game not yet out of NU’s reach at 21-7, Wright rushed over the left tackle for a gain of 40 yards to the NU 41-yard line. Assuming Purdue’s defense was frustrated after giving up such a large gain from NU’s 1-yard line, a good play call would have been to go at the Boilermakers again, playing a little smashmouth football.

But Walker decided to put the ball back in Stauss’ hands. The sophomore proceeded to throw on six of the eight remaining plays of the drive, going 2 for 6 for 16 yards.

While it wasn’t a certainty that Wright would go for another big gain — or even a small gain — NU’s running back was averaging 5.2 yards per carry before Saturday. That should have inspired far more confidence from Walker than Stauss’ unimpressive performances.

Purdue coach Joe Tiller had the right idea. Though he loves the pass, Tiller went with what was working against the horrible NU defense. The Boilermakers ran and ran and ran, attempting just 10 pass attempts in the game.

NU’s play-calling problem has gotten so bad recently that even Walker’s own players have recognized it.

Noah Herron — who has been mostly ignored and completely misused by Walker this season — weighed in on the issue.

“I think we should have run the ball a little bit more, but I’m not going to argue with the game plan,” Herron said. “I feel we could have run the ball more and opened it up and taken a little pressure off our passing game.”

Exactly, Noah.

That would have been a particularly good move since the Cats are starting an inexperienced quarterback who doesn’t fit into NU’s offensive scheme.

Maybe Walker should start listening to Herron instead of burying him on the bench in key short-yardage situations (think goal-line plays) where he could be effective.

But if Walker is so keen on passing with Stauss — particularly out of the shotgun — he and offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar need to call plays of longer than two yards downfield.

Since the Penn State game, when he took the starting job by default, Stauss has continually thrown short, almost lateral passes that go for no gain, little gain or a loss of yards. Pass completions never should go for no gain. And they certainly shouldn’t go for negative yardage. Ever. (Stauss completed a pass to Kunle Patrick for a loss of one yard in the first quarter.)

Walker may not have confidence in his quarterback’s arm, but any Division I-A signal caller should have the capability to throw a 10- to 20-yard pass — or at least a seven-yard pass. Stauss just needs the right plays to be called.

That’s where Walker comes in.

While the recently stagnant offense can’t be blamed completely on Walker — the players have to take some of the responsibility — much of it can be attributed to subpar play-calling. This can easily be remedied. There are better running plays and longer-yardage passes in the playbook.

The game plan isn’t static. It can be changed.

So, Walker, it’s time to dip into that playbook of yours. Re-evaluate. Maybe with a change in play calling, the team will be more consistent and find a rhythm.

With an 86-minute scoring drought that spanned three games, there’s obviously something wrong. The players have taken responsibility.

Maybe now it’s time to look from the field to the sidelines — at Walker.

Amalie Benjamin is a Weinberg junior. She can be reached at [email protected].