Northwestern’s defense put up its most impressive display of the season on Saturday, holding Nebraska’s star running back Rex Burkhead to 69 rushing yards and limiting mobile quarterback Taylor Martinez to just 53 yards on the ground.
Coach Pat Fitzgerald said after the game that the Wildcats did a better job of fitting their gaps against the Cornhuskers, but Martinez said Monday that there was more to Northwestern’s success than fundamental play.
“I kind of caught on that every time we would look over (at Northwestern’s defense), they were looking at me for the play or at the sidelines for the play,” Martinez said at Nebraska’s Monday press conference. “So during the game we kind of mixed up each signal.”
Asked about Martinez’s accusation that the Cats were stealing signals, Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said the Cats noticed that Martinez was inadvertently revealing the Cornhuskers’ plays.
“There were some things that we saw from our film study of them that (Martinez) gave away that we thought we could take advantage of,” Fitzgerald said. “When they were confirmed I think we took advantage of some of those things.”
Stealing signals is not illegal in football, and Nebraska offensive coordinator Tim Beck said it’s not uncommon for a team to try to decode the opposition’s signs. While Beck admitted he thought the Cats were “trying” to read the Cornhuskers’ signs, that wasn’t what decided the contest.
“It’s not like they’re changing necessarily to stop a specific play,” Beck said. “They may just be changing a coverage or a blitz from one side to another or something. But nothing to a point where we got ‘got’ during a course of a game.”
The Cats have struggled to find an identity on defense this year, and four players have lost their starting jobs due to poor play. On Saturday, though, NU’s defense kept the Cats in the game, holding Nebraska to three first-half points and forcing a pair of red zone turnovers.
“We didn’t do anything different than we do at any other game of the year,” Fitzgerald said. “If we could steal their signals and get lined up, we’d be undefeated. We’d shut everybody out.”
