Northwestern’s home crowd let out a collective gasp when graduate student quarterback Preston Stone’s second pass of a Friday night contest with Western Illinois was nearly intercepted.
After tossing four picks and fumbling the ball twice in his Wildcat (1-1, 0-0 Big Ten) debut at Tulane last week, all eyes were on the SMU transfer quarterback to see how he’d respond to the adversity against a much less formidable foe.
A few plays later, NU silenced its doubters by jumping out to a quick seven-point advantage — an early sign of its eventual 42-7 blowout win over the Leathernecks (0-2, 0-0 Ohio Valley Conference).
Up three touchdowns by halftime, it was clear that Stone and his teammates had found the rhythm they never summoned in the Big Easy as they took advantage of an overmatched FCS opponent.
It began with a tone-setting first possession.
What was already evolving into a steady opening NU drive quickly became the best start it could’ve hoped for. Following two completed passes and four run plays for small gains, graduate student running back Cam Porter pushed himself through two defenders near the Leatherneck 40-yard line, spun around to evade a tackle and took the ball into the endzone for NU’s first touchdown of the season.
For coach David Braun’s group, the early offensive push translated to defensive dominance, as the ’Cats held their opponents to a three-and-out opening drive.
Relishing in the rhythm, Stone found more success on subsequent snaps. On what would become yet another touchdown drive, the Dallas native found a wide open target in junior wide receiver Griffin Wilde, drilling a 46-yard pass to jumpstart the possession.
Following another 12-yard completion to Wilde and three handoffs to Porter, Stone scrambled and fired off a 5-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Hayden Eligon II, who was standing just over the goal line.
Graduate student tight end Lawson Albright ran the ball through traffic on a two-point conversion play to put the ’Cats up 15-0.
From there, the ’Cats’ overbearing form began to fizzle throughout the remainder of the first and bulk of the second quarters, but they continued to steadily build their lead while not conceding any points until the game’s final minutes.
With just under 30 seconds before halftime, Stone connected with graduate student tight end Hunter Welcing for another 6-yard touchdown pass. The extra point put NU up 22-0.
After the break, the ’Cats tacked on a duo of third-quarter field goals, but its star running back in Porter went down with a lower body injury and did not return.
To top off a prolific night of scoring, the hosts tacked on two more touchdowns in the final quarter, including a stiff-arm and subsequent 58-yard scoring run by redshirt freshman quarterback Ryan Boe.
The ’Cats conceded one touchdown to the visitors with just under three minutes left to play, but it didn’t make a dent.
Here are five takeaways from NU’s triumphant win over Western Illinois:
1. Porter goes down
After scoring the ’Cats’ first touchdown of the season earlier in the game, Porter went down with a lower-body injury midway through the third quarter and did not return Friday night.
Porter’s injury came as he was pushed out of bounds with minimal contact following an 11-yard gain.
After receiving attention on the field, he walked into the medical tent with the help of two personnel members. He was ultimately carted back to the locker room and was labeled as “doubtful to return” before being ruled out.
Prior to his sudden exit, Porter led the team with 91 rushing yards and had also received three passes for 23 yards.
Last season, he led the team with 126 carries for 501 yards and posted a career-high six rushing touchdowns. Porter previously missed the entirety of 2021’s season with a lower-body injury.
While it’s too soon to draw conclusions about the long-term status of Porter’s injury, having to take the field without its sixth-year captain would be a major loss for NU in its games to come.
2. ‘Take a deep breath’
On the heels of a blowout loss in New Orleans, Braun didn’t sugarcoat things at his weekly press conference Monday. Instead, he talked about the importance of his team taking “a deep breath” while acknowledging they played “really poorly”
“One day doesn’t define the last nine months of work we put in,” he said.
The visitors faced a similar beating to NU in their season-opener against Illinois last week when they fell 52-3 in Champaign.
With both the ’Cats and Western Illinois entering Friday’s contest hoping to forget their Week 1 woes, the hosts took care of business in a manner that should be expected of a Big Ten team facing a smaller-budget program.
Braun’s group flipped the script on what had been a three-possession halftime deficit in its last contest, entering the third-quarter with a 22-point cushion that they took all the way to the bank.
The commanding victory was the type of confidence-boosting result that could help NU get back on track.
3. Stone finds his form — and some key receivers
Coming off a season-opener where passes caught by the opposing team made a much greater impact than those thrown to his teammates, Stone delivered a performance that was as remarkably steady as it was successful Friday night.
That being said, the difference in opponent caliber between a College Football Playoff contender in Tulane and an FCS opponent in Western Illinois makes a comparison between Stone’s two performances inequitable.
Stone completed passes on 21 of his 29 total targets Friday night, throwing for 245 yards and three passing touchdowns in the process.
Wilde, who transferred from South Dakota State ahead of the season, paced all pass-catchers with five catches for 94 yards.
While Stone leaned on Wilde the most, tossing nine passes his way Friday night, he also connected with redshirt sophomore receiver Ricky Ahumaraeze and Porter on three occasions apiece.
4. Letting off the gas pedal, accelerating to the finish line
Up 15-0 after eight minutes of play, the ’Cats sat firmly in the driver’s seat, on pace to prove their dominance on the scoreboard with a two-possession lead in tow.
Unlike the back-to-back touchdown drives that greeted their first home crowd of the year, Braun’s group came up empty handed on its penultimate first-quarter possession. Upon catching a pass at the Leathernecks’ 35-yard line, redshirt freshman receiver Chase Farrell — filling in for redshirt sophomore Frank Covey IV who was ruled out ahead of the game — fumbled the ball and lost it.
Following the turnover, the ’Cats couldn’t find much traction on their next drive either. Though they picked up 21 yards at the possession’s inception, Akers ultimately had to punt after a gainless run and two incompletions.
Five first-half penalties — four of which came in the second quarter — for a loss of 45 yards didn’t help as the hosts looked to bolster their lead.
Despite not conceding any second-quarter points to its in-state opponent, the energy NU possessed through the contest’s opening minutes seemed to sputter out until the end of the second quarter when it tacked on another touchdown.
Luckily for the ’Cats, their late first-half addition to the scoreboard gave them momentum as they returned from intermission and they didn’t look back from there.
After a slower third quarter, Braun’s squad erupted for two more touchdowns in the game’s final 15 minutes, including Boe’s dramatic 58-yard run.
5. A new Big Ten competitor awaits
The last time Oregon played in Evanston, Gerald Ford was president, the Ducks were members of the Pacific-8 conference — a precursor to the Pac-12 — and NU came away victorious in a 14-10 result.
Now, 51 years later, that same Pacific Northwest opponent will return to Wildcat territory, this time as a conference challenger.
Following a 51-13 win over Montana State, Oregon moved up to No. 6 in AP’s Top 25 poll ahead of Week 2.
The No. 1 seed entering last year’s CFP, the Ducks lost in the national quarterfinals to Ohio State. Before facing NU next week, they will host Oklahoma State.
While a dominant win over Western Illinois may be good for morale, the ’Cats must now turn their attention to a more threatening foe as they anticipate their first Big Ten test of the season next Saturday at 11 a.m..
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