Northwestern Wildcats vs Illinois State Redbirds Football Preview

It will be interesting to see if Northwestern can actually avoid drama for one week.

Northwestern is a team that always seems to play close games regardless of the competition. The Wildcats won a 23-21 nail biter at Vanderbilt last week, but it didn’t have to be that much of a squeaker. 

The outing marked the debut at quarterback for Mike Kafka’s successor, Dan Persa. Safe to say, Persa flourished. He completed 19 of 21 passes for 222 yards and three touchdowns.  His completion percentage of 90.5 was a school record for a quarterback attempting at least 20 passes in a game. Persa also rushed for 82 yards and kept Vandy’s defense constantly off balance.

The Wildcats’ offensive line struggled at times, allowing Vanderbilt to make 11 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Running back Arby Fields, who missed most of preseason camp with a shoulder injury, carried the ball 10 times for minus-seven yards.  Northwestern fumbled four times, including one instance in which Persa carried the ball like a jug of milk and had it stripped from the back side by Vanderbilt defensive end Tim Fugger.

Another thing that made this Vandy game closer than it needed to be was NU’s balky kicking game. After scoring a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter to post a 23-15 lead, all Northwestern had to do to get a two-score (or nine-point) lead was bang through the extra point. However, the attempt missed, leaving the Wildcats up by only one score. Vandy, down 23-15, was able to tie NU with a touchdown and a 2-point conversion, and when the Commodores did post a touchdown with 2:25 left, they did indeed have that chance to tie, thanks to the Cats’ extra point woes. However, a bad snap from the Vandy center ruined the 2-point try and preserved NU’s win.

It’s worth noting that the missed PAT did not represent the full extent of the Wildcats’ kicking problems. Northwestern also had a 27-yard field goal blocked by the Commodores, which furthered Vandy’s momentum and wasted Persa’s pinpoint passing.

This week, the Wildcats have to weed out those kinds of mistakes and play crisply. Northwestern often stuck to the ground game against Vanderbilt despite the success it enjoyed through the air, so when the Cats take the field in their home opener at Ryan Field, they will probably keep pounding the ball on the ground this week against a physically overmatched FCS opponent.

The Wildcats’ secondary had its rough moments last week, which may be an issue since Illinois State has one of the most potent offenses in the entire FCS.  The Redbirds beat Central Missouri State in their opener, 55-54.  ISU quarterback Matt Brown threw five touchdown passes, and Illinois State won when head coach Brock Spack elected to try a 2-point conversion late in the fourth quarter instead of tying the score with a PAT. The conversion was made when running back Ashton Leggett burrowed into the end zone from the one-and-a-half-yard line. The play started at the 1.5-yard line because of an offside penalty on Central Missouri. The switch from the 3-yard line to a place just outside the 1-yard line made the difference for Leggett, who legged out the decisive 2-point try.

Northwestern – which survived a 2-point attempt last week – hopes that this week’s game won’t come down to one play from the 3… or in Illinois State’s case, the one-and-a-half-yard line.

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