Asked to sum up his team’s first four games, Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald simply said the Wildcats have done what good teams do: find ways to win.
They did so again Saturday, finishing off a perfect non-conference season by topping Ohio 16-8 at Ryan Field to reach 4-0. This is no small feat for a program that last achieved a 4-0 mark in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Putting Fitzgerald’s coach-speak aside for a moment, there is more to NU’s season than its record. Yes, the Wildcats have “found ways to win.”
But at times, the team nearly has found ways to lose.
This was certainly true against the Bobcats. Despite getting another fantastic performance from its new-look defense and some big plays on special teams, NU failed to put away its opponent.
For the second consecutive game, the Wildcats struggled to convert red zone opportunities into touchdowns, settling for three Amado Villarreal field goals in the first half. In the second half, with star running back Tyrell Sutton out with an injury, NU failed to even get the ball into the red zone.
Quarterback C.J. Bachér was off-target all game, completing just 18 of 35 passes and tossing four interceptions. The Wildcats also fumbled four times, although they were fortunate enough to recover two and have another one negated by a facemask penalty. As Fitzgerald said, the Wildcats “almost gift-wrapped the game” for Ohio.
So, yes, NU earned the victory. Sure, style points have no affect on the standings. But Big Ten play begins next Saturday when the Wildcats travel to Iowa City to take on the Hawkeyes, and without some significant offensive adjustments, finding ways to win will become appreciably more difficult.
That difficulty could be magnified if Sutton is not ready to go, although both Bachér and linebacker Malcolm Arrington said they thought NU’s offensive spark plug would be ready for Iowa. Even with Sutton, there are issues to address.
Bachér, who managed to stay interception-free for 11 straight quarters heading into Saturday’s game, needs to avoid trying to do too much. Offensive coordinator Mick McCall has to figure out a way to make the offense function as smoothly in the red zone as it does between the 20s. And the Wildcats absolutely cannot put the ball on the ground like they did against Ohio.
If they do not make those adjustments, they are not going to get off the hook against Big Ten opponents. Where Duke or Ohio failed to capitalize on NU mistakes, Iowa or Michigan State likely will succeed.
“We want to be a lot better next week if we even want to compete with Iowa,” Fitzgerald said.
The good news is that if the Wildcats are able to improve in these areas, they have the potential to put together their best season since 2000, when they went 6-2 in the Big Ten to earn a share of the conference title. That’s because for the first time in the last several years, NU’s defense represents an asset rather than a liability.
In fact, it’s the defense that has kept the team afloat this season when the offense has scuffled.
New defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz has come in and altered the attitude of a unit that had grown accustomed to being maligned. This season, there’s no more sitting back, waiting to get picked apart. As every defensive player raves about, Hankwitz has brought aggressiveness and confidence to that side of the ball, and the results have been obvious.
If the defense continues to create turnovers and keep points off the board and the offense irons out its deficiencies, the Wildcats will keep finding ways to win. After all, that’s what good teams do.
Assistant sports editor Andrew Simon is a Medill senior. Reach him at [email protected].
