Coach David Braun didn’t shy away from the quality of Northwestern’s week 1 opponent before his team ventured to the Big Easy to face Tulane. Commending the Green Wave as a potentially playoff-caliber team, Braun said in his weekly press conference he was “excited” about the progress his group had made over the last year to prepare for its daunting challenger.
But from the first snap of a game they ultimately lost 23-3, the Wildcats’ (0-1, 0-0 Big Ten) offseason improvements were no match for a Tulane squad that swallowed up their new starting quarterback from the outset.
Though graduate student offensive lineman Caleb Tiernan ultimately recovered the ball, kicking off the season with a fumble on the opening snap is likely not the tone graduate student quarterback Preston Stone hoped to set in his first game wearing purple.
Throwing an interception two plays later probably wasn’t either.
By the time the first half ended and Stone had thrown his third of four total picks, it would have been safe to assume this was a nightmarish debut for a quarterback Braun thought was poised for greatness.
After a less-than-hopeful opening NU drive, Tulane’s offense made quick work of a visiting defense that initially struggled to contain it.
Unlike Stone’s shaky start, the freshly-minted Green Wave pocket-passer entered the contest like it was his for the taking. Tulane transfer quarterback Jake Retzlaff threw three completions for 28 yards during the hosts’ first drive.
Following three-straight first-down pickups, Retzlaff faked a handoff and delivered a short pass to a wide-open receiver to put his team up 7-0 early on.
The ’Cats managed to get on the board with a field goal late in the first quarter, but those would be their only points of the game.
Tulane went to the locker room with a 17-point advantage at intermission.
Despite a strong second half for NU’s defense, its offense could never put a dent in what was poised to be a Green Wave victory from the start.
Here are five takeaways from NU’s season-opening loss at Tulane:
1. Sound the alarm on Preston Stone
Unlike last season, when Braun chose to hold off on naming a starting quarterback until the season-opener, the third-year head coach was clear back in July that Stone would be his go-to-guy under center for a fresh campaign’s inception.
His team was excited about it.
They voted Stone captain alongside four veteran players after he arrived in Evanston for the first time in January.
But after three first-half interceptions, Stone looked like a shell of the promising passer he was as SMU’s starter two seasons ago.
His first pick could have been the product of an offensive line still working out its kinks, but the second, he threw while facing no traffic.
The third he simply didn’t put enough heat on as he attempted to throw it away.
His rough debut wasn’t indicative of his previously reliable ball security as a Mustang. During his career in Dallas, he threw just eight total interceptions. Saturday’s outing was the first time he has thrown four picks in a game, and just the second time he’s thrown more than one.
Stone never found his groove Saturday, fumbling the ball in the contest’s final minutes to further add insult to injury.
It would be hard to attribute his shaky play to nerves.
2. One declined penalty speaks volumes
With just about five and a half minutes remaining in the second quarter, NU’s defense seemed like it had finally found its groove.
On consecutive plays, graduate student defensive lineman Aidan Hubbard sacked Retzlaff and redshirt junior defensive lineman Brendan Flakes broke up a pass.
To make matters worse for Tulane, the officials called offensive holding on its subsequent play that would have put them at third-and-29 and pushed them out of field goal range.
Instead, NU declined the penalty. The Green Wave kicked a field goal to make the game 13-3.
The conservative coaching decision said a lot about what the ’Cats were hoping for out of their opener. At a moment when their defense was effectively containing a fizzling drive, they opted to hand their opponents three points rather than taking a chance with the odds heavily in their favor.
In a blowout loss, a different decision likely wouldn’t have changed the game’s outcome, but it was a point where things could have gone much differently if NU’s defense could have forced a turnover on downs.
3. Wake up babe, it’s gameday
It could have been the Louisiana heat, the morning kickoff or just season-opening jitters, but the ’Cats didn’t seem to find their footing in most facets of the game until well after halftime.
It’s hard to bounce back from a three-possession deficit, especially with an NU offense that finished in the Big Ten basement in almost every statistical category last season.
But despite a lackluster opening 30 minutes, the ’Cats showed glimpses of promise in a much more respectable second half, particularly on defense.
Even with two additional turnovers by Stone, Braun’s group held Tulane to three points after intermission.
4. Flashbacks and echoes of a 2024 offense
Zero passing touchdowns, five turnovers, tractionless short-run plays with a drive’s continuity on the line?
In a brutal loss that had few positive offensive takeaways for the visitors, coordinator and quarterback coach Zach Lujan seemed to cling to a playbook that often led his squad astray last season.
With just over 90 seconds remaining in the first quarter, NU was down 7-0 on third down play seven yards from the endzone. It was the type of play where taking a chance could have erased Stone’s first-drive interception that led to a quick Tulane touchdown.
Instead, the ’Cats played it safe. Run-play. Field goal. 7-3.
That was before Stone threw two more picks before the first half’s conclusion and Tulane took a double-digit lead.
On a day when NU’s quarterback play left much to be desired, leaning on the run game seemed like the sensible choice for Lujan.
But in a similarly cautious coaching decision to opting to decline the second-quarter penalty on defense, deciding not to take a chance on fourth down after the third-and-seven run play may have been an early moment when things could have gone much differently.
5. Safety play continues to be a bright spot
Ahead of Saturday’s loss, Braun said at his weekly press conference that safeties Robert Fitzgerald, Damon Walters and Garner Wallace were all “proven” Big Ten-caliber players who he anticipated would see a lot of playing time this season.
He added that the team is assessing “creative ways” that they could get all three of them on the field at the same time.
Walters was ruled out ahead before NU took the field at Tulane, but Wallace and Fitzgerald quietly delivered the performances Braun had expected from them.
The pair combined for 21 tackles and played a major role in holding the Green Wave offense to three second-half points.
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