Yikes… just yikes.
Welcome back to the film room everyone.
After a solid victory over Eastern Illinois, Northwestern traveled out west to Seattle to kick off Big Ten play against Washington. They say when it rains it pours, and Seattle feels like the most likely place for that statement to be true. In his second start at quarterback, Jack Lausch and the Wildcats got walloped by the Huskies, falling 24-5 last Saturday night. It was a game where nothing went right offensively, leaving more questions than answers heading into the bye week. To the true sickos willingly joining me on this journey, I tip my hat to you. Without wasting any more time, let’s dive in.
The numbers
I usually say the numbers don’t tell the full story, but this is one of the rare times where looking at the box score can paint the picture of the game. Lausch finished the day 8-of-27 for 53 yards and two interceptions. In the second half, the Wildcats had one passing yard in the second half — yes, you read that correctly. His 53 yards are the fewest by a NU starting QB since Aidan Smith against Ohio State in 2019. No. 12 got nothing going on the ground either, picking up 35 yards on 11 carries. For his showing, the redshirt sophomore earned a 42.9 PFF grade.
The most concerning number was Lausch only averaged 2.0 yards per attempt. That is the lowest by a Northwestern quarterback this century (thank you to Big Ten Network’s Steve Schucker for this tidbit). While Lausch did not receive much help from his receivers — NU had four drops — he also did not get rid of the ball on schedule. The Chicago native took 3.49 seconds to get rid off the football, half a second more than he took last week.
For the first time this season, Lausch faced heavy pressure throughout the game. He was under duress on 60% of dropbacks, completing just three passes and tossing two interceptions when defenders were in his face. He also failed to push the ball down the field, finishing 1-of-9 on passes more than 10 yards downfield.
While the numbers were bad, the tape was equally bad, if not worse. So let’s keep moving and look at the film.
The Bad
I’ve never been one to sugar coat it, so I would be lying if I said that there was anything good from this game. I want to just put everything in this category, but let’s focus on a couple of key facets.
Internal clock
For every quarterback, there is a little voice inside their head screaming get rid of the ball. In Seattle, Lausch’s decision making regressed from just one week prior.
Make a decision, and go with it.
Northwestern runs a smash concept to the near side and tags it with two backside dig. Lausch looks at the playside routes, decides he doesn’t like it, and moves over to the TE on the dig. That is the right decision, yet No. 12 never pulls the trigger.
Instead, he pump fakes, pulls the ball down and gets drilled for a sack. He has to trust his eyes and get rid of the football. This is a sack that should have never happened, but because of Lausch’s indecisiveness, NU takes a massive loss and squanders good field position.
The internal clock is ticking.
Nothing to say here except get rid of the football. Lausch takes his three-step drop and sets himself in the pocket; however, he never feels the edge rusher coming off his blindside.
There is room to step up or to move to his right and scramble, but he gets crushed because his internal clock doesn’t go off and tell him to get rid of the ball. That has to get fixed immediately or the Wildcats are going to continually move in the wrong direction.
Accuracy
This was my biggest concern after Eastern Illinois, and I don’t feel more confident after last week.
Oh the redzone woes.
Northwestern runs an out and a crossing route, looking to set a natural pick to get Bryce Kirtz or A.J. Henning open for six. Washington is playing man coverage, and although the pick does not work, Kirtz has a step on his defender racing across the field. If the throw is put on his upfield shoulder, it is a touchdown; however, Lausch throws this pass behind and low for No. 17. He does reset his feet before throwing, but his drop is all over the place. Because the ball is behind, the DB is able to break on the ball and knock it away for an incompletion.
This is a play that has to be executed at the Big Ten level. It’s another prime example of the scheme working, but the execution just is not there. There is little room for error in this conference, and Lausch’s inability to consistently throw an accurate ball is highly concerning.
Like his first start against Eastern Illinois, most of Lausch’s misses were throws too low for the receiver to haul in.
NU runs a trips set with the tight end on a cross, slot receiver on a curl and the outside receiver running a dig. Washington is in cover four, so there is plenty of grass for Bryce Kirtz to sit and pick up an easy first down. Kirtz finds the soft spot of the defense, but Lausch throws this football well behind him.
The positive thing is his footwork looks fine, which is often the problem for inaccurate passes; however, it leaves me wondering why most of the redshirt sophomore’s passes keep sinking out of his wrist. He steps into this ball and rifles it, but it’s heading for the dirt at an alarming rate. I don’t know how you fix this because I’m not sure what the problem actually is; however, what I do know is Zach Lujan and Co. need to spend the bye week diagnosing the problem and addressing it.
Staring down the receiver
The last thing I wanted to address was No. 12’s first interception.
I’m not going to bother talking about the route concept because I want you to pay attention to Lausch’s eyes. More specifically, look how they never move. He predetermined where he wanted to go with the football, and the Huskies tracked it the entire way. When this ball is released, there are five Washington defenders in the area and only one Wildcat. The linebacker reads Lausch’s eyes the entire play and steps in front of the pass for an easy interception.
Against Big Ten teams, locking in on one receiver for the entire play is never going to work. Defenders are too smart and too athletic to let any quarterback get away with that — a lesson Lausch learned firsthand last Saturday. It’s a mistake many young quarterbacks have made, so here’s to hoping NU’s gunslinger learned his lesson.
Final Thoughts
The Huskies dared Jack Lausch to beat them through the air, and the Huskies gameplan was picture perfect. I said after the EIU game that I would reserve judgment on Lausch until he played stiffer competition, and so far he is 0-for-1. The lack of an internal clock flabbergasted me, and the spotty accuracy made me extremely concerned. Throwing for 53 yards is flat-out unacceptable from a Big Ten quarterback.
To put it bluntly, I don’t know if Lausch should start for NU when Indiana comes to town next weekend. So far, there is no passing threat from this offense with No. 12 under center, meaning opponents are going to load the box and eliminate the Wildcats’ lone source of offense. After watching both quarterbacks play for two games, I’m still fairly convinced Mike Wright gives this team a better chance to win football games.
I do not care about developing a long-term answer at QB — worry about that if the season becomes a lost cause. However, at this moment, Northwestern sits at 2-2, so winning games is the only thing that matters. If I’m David Braun and Zach Lujan watching this tape back, I would think long and hard about which quarterback I want under center against the Hoosiers.