Ray Whitehouse/The Daily Northwestern
On first-and-goal with less than three minutes left in the game, the Wildcats found themselves in a familiar place – parked in the Purdue red zone. At the tail end of a nine-play, 59-yard drive, senior gunslinger Mike Kafka took it upon himself to put the ball in the end zone.
Kafka took the snap and rushed to his right, shedding several tacklers and laying out for the pylon. The initial ruling was a touchdown, and the NU sideline erupted, but replay showed Kafka had stepped out of bounds at the 3-yard line. After two weeks of disappointment and near-success, the Cats had come up short once again.
Unwilling to be denied, Kafka took the snap on second down and rushed straight ahead, this time making sure he crossed the goal line. It was just enough to give the Cats a much-needed 27-21 win at Ross-Ade Stadium.
“We’re all proud of him,” senior wide receiver Zeke Markshausen said. “We knew he could do it, we had confidence in him the whole time. It’s good to have that guy on your side.”
After stumbling on two game-ending drives in the past two weeks, Kafka’s breakthrough represented an even larger step forward for the team.
As was the case in the last two weeks, the Cats (3-2) came out flat in West Lafayette, Ind. On the first play from scrimmage, freshman running back Arby Fields put the ball on the ground, and Purdue recovered at the NU 34-yard line. Purdue (1-4) had no trouble capitalizing on its first possession, scoring less than one minute later to take the early lead.
On their second drive of the game, the Cats methodically marched down to the goal line but were unable to execute when it mattered most. Fields couldn’t find paydirt in three tries, and NU settled for a field goal.
Purdue answered with two quick scores – both on passes from quarterback Joey Elliott to wide receiver Aaron Valentin. The NU defense’s tackling woes were made painfully evident on both scoring drives.
“I don’t have a solution for that,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said of the tackling. “If they can’t do that, then we’ve got to find guys that can.”
Down 21-3 with 12 minutes left in the half, the Cats roared back to score 13 points in the final 91 seconds before intermission.
NU’s comeback started when Sherrick McManis picked off Elliott’s pass at the Purdue 18-yard line. Two Zeke Markshausen catches landed NU on the Purdue 5-yard line, where Fields punched it in for the Cats’ first touchdown of the game.
While Fields received the majority of NU’s carries, the freshman could never find his rhythm, and he ended the day with 18 carries for 43 yards.
Purdue’s next two drives were cut short by fumbles deep in its own territory, but in both instances the Cats were forced to settle for field goals.
Overall, the Cats’ offense ran 55 plays in the first half, eating up more than 21 minutes of clock. In contrast, the Boilermakers ran 19 plays and only held the ball for eight-and-a-half minutes. In the locker room, Fitzgerald reminded his team of what they had been unable to do its past two games.
“I told them to keep fighting and to finish,” he said. “If you put points on the board, it gives us a chance later in the game to win, and that’s what happened.”
The Cats’ defense came out strong in the second half, forcing Purdue to punt on its first two drives. Senior safety Brad Phillips and junior linebacker Quentin Davie forced one fumble apiece on the Boilermakers’ next two drives. The Cats forced six turnovers overall, one fewer than they had in their first three games combined.
Davie’s forced fumble gave NU the ball with six-and-a-half minutes left. For the fourth week in a row, the offense had the ball late in the contest with the game on the line. This time, Kafka took matters into his own hands, converting 4-of-6 passes for 53 yards. When Kafka scooted into the end zone with 2:09 remaining in the game, NU had its first lead of the day.
But the Boilermakers weren’t done. Elliott led a 13-play, 79-yard drive to NU’s 5-yard line. That was as far as Purdue would get. After coach Danny Hope called a timeout with 15 seconds left, two Elliott passes sailed incomplete, and NU escaped with its third victory of the season.
“We’ve been working our tails off to find a way to win here in the last two weeks and to find a way to get the job done is huge for your confidence,” Fitzgerald said. “Now we’re five games in – it’s not a yellow brick road – but we got a big win today.”
Read more on our liveblog at Cats’ Corner.
