North by Northwestern

Two weeks ago, Northwestern exploded offensively to the tune of 704 yards of total offense against Indiana. Last week at Penn State, Northwestern could only scrape together 247 yards. 

Coach Pat Fitzgerald noticed that the offense slowed down last week and identified this as a problem. At practice Tuesday, he discussed some of the issues his team needs to correct before their game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers this Saturday in Minneapolis. 

“More importantly, probably than anything, we’ve got to sustain drives as an offense,” Fitzgerald said. “We didn’t do that on Saturday. So we didn’t play to our blueprint. So the good news is that garbage is over, and we moved on.”

The ‘Cats punted the ball eight times, obviously not an indication of offensive success. They were fortunate to benefit from exceptional play from special teams. They recovered a muffed punt in the red zone and running back Venric Mark returned a punt for a touchdown. These plays - indirectly or directly - set up 14 of Northwestern’s 28 points. 

Fitzgerald said that a focal point of Tuesday’s practice was getting back to the way Northwestern has run its offense, a point that quarterback Kain Colter reiterated would be important for getting back on track.

“I think just getting back to how we play, our style of football,” Colter said. “Both on offense and defense, I feel we kind of got away from that against Penn State.”

Quarterback Trevor Siemian was behind center for most of the game, with Colter throwing no passes and rushing five times for 24 yards. A lot of the Northwestern offensive strategy through the first five games focused on using Colter in a number of different roles, from rusher to passer to receiver. He made limited impact relative to previous games, totaling 41 yards as rusher and receiver with one touchdown run.

“We just got away from what we were doing, what had been working,” Colter said. 

Colter also said he and teammates focused on running the option more in Tuesday’s practice, something the Wildcats will rely on for converting on third downs more effectively than they did on Saturday. Very importantly, the fatigue is beginning to wear off. 

“I think we are starting to get our legs back,” he said. “I felt like we were a little tired last week, and it kind of showed. But people have been moving really fast this week, getting in and out of the break and Trevor [Siemian] was sharp with his throws.”

There is one mismatch Mark looks forward to exploiting against Minnesota: Northwestern’s running game against Minnesota’s rushing defense. He thinks the ground game is the way to victory for the 'Cats. 

“Running the football. Period. Point blank. I feel that we just need to just run the ball,” Mark said. 

Minnesota gives up an average of 139 rushing yards per game, which ranks 52nd of 124 FBS football teams.