They used to be known as the Cardiac Cats. Perhaps they were revered as such.
They built that reputation on a collection of miracles and upsets that stunned the college football world.
But it’s increasingly hard to call them the Cardiac Cats, in an age when Northwestern has seemingly lost its mojo.
The Wildcats have lost two straight games by seven points or less. They also blow huge leads with alarming frequency. How can anybody think of the Cats as clutch when their propensity for blowing leads has exceeded their propensity for winning close games? Let’s face it, NU has entered an era of cardiac arrest.
Let’s also face this: NU is never the best team. Well, the Cats were once the best team, but that was for a week, and that was more than four decades ago.
When NU has succeeded, it has been as underdogs. The 1995 and 2000 Big Ten Championship teams are the greatest examples of this, media darlings who stunned the oddsmakers by repeatedly coming through in the clutch.
It’s not that the Cats don’t win big games anymore. They eked out wins over Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Central Michigan last season. The year before, they beat No. 4 Iowa and No. 17 Wisconsin in games that went down to the wire.
They still have that cardiac element, but it’s also become increasingly hard to ignore their failings.
How’s this for a stunning fact? According to Lake the Posts, coach Pat Fitzgerald is 2-4 with a lead of 17 points or greater in Big Ten play.
How are these for traumatizing memories? The Cats blew a 21-0 lead to the Nittany Lions and a 17-0 lead to the Spartans last season.
It’s hard to trust this team. NU goes on a 28-3 run behind four touchdowns from senior quarterback Dan Persa, and then surrenders three straight touchdowns to allow Illinois to retake the lead.
It appears all is safe, and then all of the sudden, Nathan Scheelhaase finds A.J. Jenkins on the left sideline, marking the beginning of a defensive implosion.
The sad part is I had a feeling that NU would blow this game. When the Cats took their 28-10 lead, I wondered aloud, well, on Twitter anyway, whether this would be a repeat of last year’s Michigan State and Penn State games. My tweet ended up being all too accurate.
I wish I had faith in this team’s ability to hold leads, but the evidence supports my fears. The offense is too inconsistent, while the defense is too susceptible to big plays to ever be trusted with a big lead.
For some reason, whenever NU takes a large lead, the offense falls into sleep mode, becoming increasingly conservative and dependent on the run. That’s great for some teams, but not for a Cats team which thrives off of the spread offense. They should hold the lead the same way they got the lead, with quick plays and frequent aerial bombardments.
The fact is Northwestern has never had a Heisman winner. The Cats never have the most talked about NFL prospect or the best running back in the game. And their defense never resembles Iowa’s or Ohio State’s. But they have – or at least they once had – a certain tenacious quality that allowed them to win games.
Now, it appears that mojo is gone. And that is a frightening thing indeed.
Sports editor Jonah Rosenblum is a Medill senior. He can be reached at [email protected]
