In hindsight, coach David Braun would have run the ball.
Down 7-0 and on Northwestern’s eight-yard line, the head football coach decided to be aggressive with 47 seconds left in the first half.
Following a false start penalty, redshirt sophomore quarterback Jack Lausch, whose completion percentage sat under 29% for the half, dropped back to pass on first and 15. He was hit on the play, the ball trickled out and the Badgers jumped on it.
One play later, Wisconsin doubled its lead.
“I think being self-reflective and honest with myself,” Braun said, “probably should have changed our tune and at least handed the ball off after that five-yard penalty.”
Coaching decisions like these kept the Wildcats from gaining any momentum in their 23-3 loss to Wisconsin on Saturday. In a game where points were hard to come by and NU’s offense struggled to move the ball through the air, the ’Cats were unable to overcome gifted points and offensive giveaways.
Braun flip-flopped between being too conservative and too aggressive throughout the first half.
Late in the first quarter, NU’s offense stared down a fourth and two on Wisconsin’s 34-yard line. Braun opted for a 51-yard field goal attempt, despite his starting kicker, redshirt junior Jack Olsen, being sidelined with an injury. Redshirt junior punter Luke Akers stepped into Olsen’s place.
In his first start of the season as place kicker last week, Braun said he wanted to use Akers more conservatively in the win against Maryland. After he went 3-of-3 in field goal attempts and displayed “consistent execution in practice,” according to Braun, he trusted his new kicker heading into Saturday.
“If we’re at the 35-yard line, that’s a green for us to attempt a field goal,” Braun said.
The kick didn’t even reach the upright.
Ten minutes later, NU was in a similar spot. The offense again faced a fourth and two, this time in the red zone. Down 7-0, Braun opted to be conservative for a second time. Rather than going for the tie, he ran his kicker on the field to cut the lead by three.
“Our track record on fourth and short here the last couple of years, if you want to go by numbers, is not the best,” Braun said.
This kick was blocked.
In the second half, Braun elected to be more aggressive. On the team’s first drive of the third quarter, the ’Cats successfully completed a pair of fourth-down conversions. It was NU’s first and only scoring drive of the game.
The head coach calls a game management meeting every Wednesday. The meeting includes all the coordinators, their head of analytics and safeties coach Harlon Barnett.
The group talks through situations like these to try to make correct decisions whenever the time comes. Braun said he wants to strike a balance between analytics and feel for the game.
“I never want to be absolutely handcuffed to the numbers and the analytics,” Braun said. “At the same time, it’s good to have that information.”
On the strip sack at the end of the first half, Lausch was getting ready to release the ball. He said he had a great look on a double move by the receiver but he just couldn’t get the ball out in time.
“It could have been a huge play for us,” Lausch said, “but instead, it was a huge play for them.”
That’s the delicate line between conservative and aggressive coaching. What could have been a late field goal drive at the end of the half ultimately ended in a two-score deficit.
Would Braun have been better off running the clock out? Probably.
Would the ’Cats have been better suited going for it on fourth and two in the first half? Most likely.
But it’s always easier to make those decisions in hindsight.
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