The Wildcats certainly aren’t in the lead, but they proved that they’re on the right track.
The funny thing about fixing a car is that it’s a multi-step process. The first step, obviously, is identifying that there is in fact something that needs to be fixed. That’s the easy part. Typically there’ll be a red light flashing, or a weird rumbling noise and you’ll know you’ve got something you need to work on.
The second step — actually working on fixing the problem — is where things get dicey. Just because a car isn’t supposed to have problems doesn’t mean it won’t, and those problems tend to stick around a lot longer than you’d prefer. It takes a long time to fully identify the problem’s severity, and even longer to get what you need to take care of it.
The third step is solving the problem. After this step, there are no more indicators of any trouble, the car is running smoothly, and you can breathe easily knowing that your car will do everything you need it to.
After yesterday’s 26-20 overtime victory over Purdue, it’s safe to say Northwestern football has reached the second step. The victory is lovely, and it keeps a mathematical glimmer of hope for a bowl game alive, but it can’t paper over the issues that can still rock this team to its core.
You might call me a little pessimistic, but don’t take my word for it. Take David Braun’s.
“For us to have to burn three timeouts the way we did, inexcusable,” Braun said postgame. “That has to be fixed.”
There was a real chance for the Wildcats to win this game in regulation, as they got the ball on their own 25-yard line with 52 seconds remaining. Unfortunately, Braun had no timeouts. In fact, he’d used his third and final timeout for the second half nearly 10 minutes earlier, to avoid a delay of game call.
Northwestern simply seemed to forget the play clock was a thing in the second half. Braun had to use his first timeout on a third-and-2 just a minute into the third quarter — after an incomplete pass. His second came with four seconds remaining in the third frame — after an incomplete pass. And his final timeout came with 10:23 remaining in the game — after a delay of game penalty.
Procedural issues have plagued this team all season, and they nearly reared their ugly head to devastating effect again. Northwestern committed nine penalties for 85 yards in West Lafayette — and four were on pre-snap miscues. It would have been even worse had Braun not gotten his timeouts in quickly, as of the four timeouts he used, three were to prevent a delay of game.
Luckily, those are mostly cosmetic issues. The pre-snap stuff is like having a window that won’t roll down or a busted hubcap. You can still drive the metaphorical car, it just won’t necessarily be a pleasant experience the whole time.
The real engine failure of this team all season has come on third downs. Heading into this weekend, the Wildcats had converted on just 25.5% of their third down opportunities — the worst mark in the entire nation. Even though Purdue’s defense was 118th nationally at getting off the field on third down, there was understandable concern going in that Northwestern’s engine failure would kill its drives once again.
Instead, the Wildcats converted six of their first seven third-down attempts. While that hot start wouldn’t last, Northwestern still ended the game 9-of-16 on money downs. That’s the first time all season the ‘Cats have converted over 50% of their third downs. And their previous high for third down conversions in a game was five.
This problem has been noticeable ever since the ‘Cats converted just three-of-16 third-down attempts against Duke. (Our regular readers may remember I spent this column rehashing each of those failures, which ended with me bashing my head against a wall.) Braun has long acknowledged its existence, and over the past few weeks, he’s focused on not only diagnosing it but trying to solve it.
“A lot of it comes down to being better on first and second down,” Braun said on Monday after a rough loss to Iowa in which his team went 2-of-12 on third down. “We have to create more third-and-4, third-and-3, third-and-2, third-and-1 scenarios that we have a great deal of confidence in our ability to convert.”
Well, the ‘Cats did. Of Northwestern’s nine third-down conversions, six were from two yards or less. This is still a Big Ten team and an offensive line that’s taken a beating all year was able to get a good push and move the sticks basically every time it had a reasonable shot at doing so.
Credit must also go to Jack Lausch, who, as Braun said, is “unfazed of what others think of him.” Lausch has been criticized harshly as of late — indeed, the first question in Braun’s Monday presser was whether Lausch was still his starter — but the redshirt sophomore delivered the goods against the Boilermakers. He was 23-of-35 for a career-high 250 yards and was nothing short of magical on third down. When the Wildcats desperately needed to convert, Lausch went 8-of-12 for 91 yards. That includes conversions of 10, 11 and 16 yards.
Again, Northwestern is very much still on the second step. Nothing proves that more than the 3-of-10 conversion rate on third downs in the second half. But the Wildcats have identified and properly diagnosed the problem. As long as a resurgent run game (led by Joseph Himon, who was incredible Saturday) and a passing game that does a great job at finding playmakers in space can stay on schedule, Northwestern should go from nearly the FBS’ worst third-down team to a squad that’s merely below average on money downs.
And there are other issues to fix, and there always will be. If this season is a car, the navigation system is definitely spazzing out at the worst possible times (why was Ryan Hilinski ever in that football game?), and the backup camera almost never properly senses danger (Hudson Card tallying 267 passing yards in 2024 is inexcusable). But with the engine failure diagnosed and being worked on, Northwestern can once again drive regularly.
This year’s road may not lead to a bowl game, but at least the Wildcats are traveling down it smoothly now. And that’s the biggest victory of the season.