Northwestern Wildcats @ Vanderbilt Commodores Football Recap

Northwestern 23, Vanderbilt 21

Dan Persa was outstanding in his debut under center, completing 19 of 21 passes for 222 yards and three touchdowns, and rushing for 82 yards on 17 carries to lead the Wildcats.

A controversial personal foul call late in the fourth quarter against Vanderbilt’s Jay Fullam, who had stopped Persa on a crucial third-down run, gave Northwestern a first down and essentially ended the game inside the last two minutes. Vandy didn’t have enough timeouts to stop the clock at that point. Vandy made a conscious and reasonable decision to kick the ball deep to Northwestern with 2:25 left when trailing by two points and possessing two timeouts.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 10-0 lead when Persa hit Jeremy Ebert for a 33-yard touchdown with 5:27 left in the first quarter. 

A Warren Norman touchdown run and a field goal by Ryan Fowler pulled the Commodores to within a point at halftime at 10-9.  Fowler missed the PAT after Norman’s touchdown, and it was a point the Commodores would chase for the rest of the night.  Vandy failed on a pair of two-point conversions in the second half.

Persa hit Drake Dunsmore for a nine-yard touchdown to give the Wildcats a 17-9 lead with 5:03 left in the third quarter.

Larry Smith hit Brandon Barden to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 17-15 late in the third quarter, and that’s when Vandy coach Robbie Caldwell made a curious decision. 

The successor to the just-retired Bobby Johnson at Vanderbilt coached a really good game on Saturday. Yet, Caldwell easily could have resisted the temptation to chase an extra point late in the third quarter, with his team down 17-15 and having just scored a touchdown. A school of thought in some corners is that a coach shouldn’t attempt a 2-point try until the final 10 minutes of a game. The rationale for kicking a PAT in this case was that if Vandy trailed 17-16, Northwestern would be up 24-16 with seven points of its own.

It’s worth noting, then, that Northwestern answered that Vandy touchdown with one of its own. Persa hit Josh Rooks with 4:39 left in the fourth to give the Wildcats a 23-15 lead, but a missed PAT gave the Commodores a chance, down one score. Here’s the thing: Had Caldwell not chased that extra point late in the third quarter, VU would have been in position to kick a PAT for a 23-23 tie. Caldwell’s choice to go for two when down 17-15 late in the third will be second-guessed forever. It did influence the flow of the game, whether you think it was the right move or not.

About Vandy’s last touchdown: Zac Stacy ran for a 33-yard touchdown with 2:25 to play, but Vandy failed on the two-point conversion when a bad snap sailed past VU quarterback Larry Smith. On a day filled with bad snaps throughout college football, Northwestern made sure that luck snapped toward its side. That always helps in a season opener.

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