Miami (OH) presented Northwestern a perfect opportunity to get its running game back on track. But on Saturday, the Wildcats’ rushing attack was still grounded.
Coming into the game, Miami’s defense was ranked 95th in the country against the run, allowing 172 yards per game. The Cats also had leading rusher Stephen Simmons in uniform for the first time since the Eastern Michigan game.
As it turned out, the Cats totaled 128 yards on the ground, but 53 of those yards came from quarterback Mike Kafka. NU’s longest run of the day was Jeravin Matthews’ 16-yard reverse. Other than Kafka, the Cats’ three leading rushers – freshman Arby Fields, sophomore Jacob Schmidt and junior Stephen Simmons – combined for 59 yards.”It’s an 11-man operation,” Schmidt said. “Sometimes the hole is there, sometimes it’s not. We ran hard when the ball was in our hands. We ran to the best of our ability, and sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”
Against a Miami defense that was allowing 4.7 yards per carry, Schmidt averaged 2.9 yards per carry and Fields averaged 2.5. Kafka rushed for a team-high 53 yards, yielding a concerning trend. Only Fields has rushed for more yards than Kafka this season, but 130 yards worth of sacks have pushed Kafka’s net total to 99 yards.
“It’s simple,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “It’s the plays we were calling that aren’t working in the situations, it’s the execution of the fundamentals and technique, and/or we’ve or the wrong guy in there trying to do it.”
On several short yardage situations, the Cats chose to go to the air, showing the team’s lack of confidence in the rushing attack. On fourth-and-one from the Miami 31-yard line late in the second quarter, Kafka went to the air only to have his pass tipped for the second consecutive play. Kafka did most of the carrying in the second half, when NU was looking to run the clock. He rushed for 50 yards in the fourth quarter.
Fitzgerald said the game plan was to limit Simmons, who was playing for the first time since injuring his leg against Eastern Michigan. The Cats wanted to use Simmons primarily as a returner, but only had the opportunity to do so once.
“He’s really, really close to 100 percent,” Fitzgerald said. “But there were some things (that we saw) in practice that we felt like, ‘Let’s not put the whole burden on him this week.'”
As easy as it is to blame the rushing attack, NU struggled to find the right combination of five offensive linemen. Nine different players saw time blocking up front for the Cats. As a result, Miami’s defense was getting into the backfield more than it usually does – the RedHawks recorded two sacks after notching only four all season.
“(The shuffling) makes it hard on (the offensive line),” senior quarterback Mike Kafka said. “They’ve got to communicate a little better.”
Still, Saturday was the first time NU eclipsed the 100-yard mark on the ground since rushing for 185 yards against Eastern Michigan. Coming into the game, the Cats ranked 85th in the country and 10th in the Big Ten with an average of 121.8 ground yards per game. After rushing for 406 yards and seven touchdowns in their first two games, the Cats have rushed for 331 yards and six touchdowns in their past four contests. Of those six rushing touchdowns, Kafka has four.
For Fitzgerald, the solution lies in coming together as “one heartbeat.”
“Trusting the call, trusting the plan, trusting yourself and then trusting the technique,” Captain Cat said. “When we do that, we are good, we’ve proven that we can be.”
