After opening the 2012 season with three wins over BCS conference teams, Northwestern earned a week of rest - and they got it against South Dakota.
The Wildcats put their foot on South Dakota’s throat right out of the gate when Kain Colter started with an 80-yard drive on nine plays, highlighted by a 47-yard run by Venric Mark. Mark then punched the ball in from three yards to give Northwestern a 7-0 lead.
It was the first of five drives that resulted in running touchdowns, the most for the Wildcats in over three years.
The balance of Colter and Trevor Siemian as quarterbacks 1A and 1B continued to thrive, even though the duo was rarely needed to use their right arms. Colter went 7-for-9 for 46 yards, while Siemian went 4-for-5 for 72.
The Wildcats got a pair of scares in the first quarter when Colter and Siemian each appeared to get banged up on different hits.
Colter came out during the team’s second drive after getting hit on a first down scramble and aggravating a left wrist injury he sustained against Syracuse three weeks ago. On the following drive, Siemian appeared to hurt his left wrist after getting hit by a blitzing safety as he released the ball. However, both quarterbacks returned and should be on track to play next week against Indiana.
The Wildcats flaunted their depth at running back on Saturday as Mark, Tyris Jones, Mike Trumpy and Treyvon Green all saw significant action.
Mark continued to excel as Northwestern’s primary ball carrier. He carried the ball only 16 times but picked up 117 yards and scored three touchdowns.
Trumpy, last week’s hero, dressed for the game but did not see action until the second half. Fitzgerald later said that was a precautionary measure after Trumpy got banged up during his 106-yard effort against Boston College.
“We wanted to keep their touches under 25,” Fitzgerald said of both Mark and Trumpy. “To get both of those guys quite a bit of rest was kind of the plan, and I guess mission accomplished.”
The defense stepped up once again. They allowed 51 yards on the ground, good for only 2.2 yards per carry and forced punts on six of South Dakota’s 10 drives. After a disastrous opening game against Syracuse, the defense has become the team’s rock, holding their last three opponents to an average of 11 points.
But even after the team’s most complete performance of the season and a spotless record, the undefeated Wildcats are maintaining their focus as they prepare to enter Big Ten season.
“This is a clean slate we have now,” said defensive end Quentin Williams, who had four tackles, a sack and two pass breakups against South Dakota. “It’s obviously gratifying to be 4-0…but we have a long way to go.”
Three things we learned
1. Patience is no longer Fitz’s middle name
Head coach Pat Fitzgerald has said publically that he may have been too loyal to some of players last season as they stumbled to an embarrassing 2-5 start. He has been sure not to repeat the same mistake in 2012.
Demetrius Dugar, the much-maligned cornerback who struggled each week, lost his starting job on Saturday to Stanford-transfer Quinn Evans. Although the move may have come too slow for some fans, it is now part of a trend for Fitzgerald this season.
Neal Deiters returned from injury to start at right guard, replacing senior Chuck Porcelli. Fitzgerald has also benched starting safety Davion Fleming for Jared Carpenter after their opener at Syracuse.
Fitzgerald was hesitant to publically criticize the performance of either player he benched this week but his message on performing well during practice was crystal clear.
“Both [Dugar] and Chuck [Porcelli] are doing great but they’re in a competitive situation right now and every rep counts. Every rep counts,” he said.
2. It is still Venric Mark’s backfield
After only mustering three field goals on four attempts in the redzone last week, the Wildcats made a statement by repeatedly punching the ball into the endzone. They scored four touchdowns on five tries inside the endzone and booted in a field goal on their other try.
“We ran the ball more efficiently and we were able to control the line of scrimmage," Fitzgerald said. “Obviously, if you can run the ball down there it makes things a lot easier.... A week ago, it wasn’t anything magical. We just weren’t executing in the moment."
Mark executed more than anyone else in the moment, as each of his three touchdowns came inside the redzone. After getting knocked out of last week’s game against Boston College with a lower body injury, questions bubbled up about his durability and role as the team’s No. 1 running back. Trumpy’s performance certainly added to that.
But after Saturday, Mark is averaging only 18 carries per game but already has 399 yards on the ground. That is good for over 5.5 yards per carry.
He is only 72 yards away from passing the total rushing yards by Northwestern’s leading running back last season and is on pace to become Northwestern’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 2006.
3. The Big Ten is seriously wide open
As Steven Goldstein wrote earlier in the week, the Big Ten has looked truly awful this season. And it only got worse on Saturday.
Iowa dropped a stunner at home to Central Michigan, 32-31 on a last second field goal. They are now 2-2 and realistically could have been 1-3, escaping with a one-point win against Northern Illinois in their first game.
Michigan State trailed winless Eastern Michigan at home for almost three quarters before pulling out a 23-7 win. Wisconsin also struggled to put away UTEP in Madison and Ohio State had their own problems with UAB. It was another ugly day.
The truth is that we did not learn a lot about the Wildcats this week. South Dakota racked up 67 yards of penalties, dropped catchable passes and was generally sloppy in every phase of the game.
But this conference continues to look weaker than ever and should have the 4-0 Wildcats beginning to think, “Why not us?” as Big Ten champions.
The Wildcats have been far from perfect in their first four games but in this year more than any other, it will not take perfection to earn a Rose Bowl berth.