What’s up, everyone?
Sorry about missing last week. There were other news matters I had to attend to. Northwestern, though, didn’t miss a beat, it seems.
On the field, my quick takes heading into Week 4 are:
Ohio State: good!
Indiana: good?
Wisconsin: 🤷
Northwestern: good enough.
Purdue: fine.
Iowa: confusing.
Maryland: more confusing.
Rutgers: surprising.
Michigan State: rebuilding.
Penn State: no idea.
Michigan: even less of an idea.
Minnesota: was overrated?
Nebraska: so, you really wanted to play, huh?
Illinois: bad.
With that, let’s blame some things.
📵Blame the offense
Here we go again …
I’m starting to worry about Northwestern’s offense. For long stretches of the last two games, Northwestern’s offense continually came up empty.
After recording just a single three-and-out in the opener against Maryland (which was deep in garbage time), Northwestern’s offense is seeing a disturbing trend. Yes, Iowa’s defense is better than Maryland’s. And, so is Nebraska’s, probably. But, we just haven’t seen much resembling the consistent explosiveness we saw in Week 1.
In the 21-20 win over Iowa, Northwestern opened the game with a three-and-out, fumble, and an another three-and-out. They followed that up with two long drives for touchdowns (combined: 30 plays for 154 yards, taking up 12 minutes and 7 seconds).
Then, after scoring midway through the third quarter, Northwestern put the game away with three punts (including a three-and-out) and an interception.
A week later against Nebraska, Northwestern had six first-half drives after scoring a touchdown on its opening possession. Their results: three three-and-outs, a missed field goal, and two interceptions.
We all got overhyped about Mike Bajakian after Week 1. Now, with the defense playing at a top five level, according to ESPN’s efficiency metrics, Northwestern has a chance to make this season feel different.
But it won’t without an offense that can give the defense a bigger margin for error.
Northwestern’s offense is a top 50-ish unit so far this season, an improvement over where the unit has been during the last few years. In 2020, though, Northwestern has a clear path to another Big Ten West title, but it won’t get there unless the offense begins sustaining more drives with chunk plays.
📵Blame first place
For the second week in a row, Northwestern faces an opponent coming off an open week due to Wisconsin’s COVID-19 outbreak. Before the bye, Purdue scraped by Iowa at home before beating Illinois in Champaign by a touchdown.
This week, first place in the Big Ten West is on the line.
Purdue’s offense has been able to find more explosive plays this season than Northwestern has on a per-game basis. Both the Boilermakers and Wildcats have executed 11 plays of over 20 yards this season … but Purdue has done it in two games compared to Northwestern’s three.
Defensively, Northwestern has been good defending against big plays and there should be opportunities for the Northwestern offense to find some chunk plays against Purdue.
Prediction: Northwestern 24, Purdue 20
Check out…
Northwestern is shown not once, not twice, but three times in this ESPN promo for the College Football Playoff:
From ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg: 'One of the greatest underdog stories of our time': Northwestern's run to the Rose Bowl, 25 years later
From Inside NU’s Noah Coffman: Measuring stick looms as Northwestern’s receivers look to take the next step
From the Chicago Tribune’s Shannon Ryan: Tyler Gillikin is pulling double duty at Northwestern — the senior is a long snapper on the football team and a 1st-year medical school student
From the Daily Northwestern’s Jacob Fulton and Grace Chang: Residents and students face a fall season without live sports
From Inside NU’s Eli Karp: Northwestern’s secret weapon Joe Spivak is getting it done on both sides of the ball
From the Daily Northwestern’s Ella Brockway: Where Northwestern stands amidst the hectic, uncertain Big Ten season
That’s where we’ll end things this week. Thanks for sticking with another edition of 📵Blame the Phones.
Hopefully, I’ll be back in your inbox next week.
Please let me know if you have any questions or ideas. I’d love to hear them.
Take care and, remember, you don’t have to watch this,
Josh Rosenblat
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