Surprisingly, the offense and defense switched their positions in this week’s report.
In their 83rd overall meeting and first since 2019, No. 23 Indiana got its’ first win over Northwestern in Evanston since 1993. Kurtis Rourke and the Hoosiers offense were overpowering all game and a late surge from the Wildcats offense wasn’t enough to flip the script. Here’s who’s rising and falling after Northwestern’s 41-24 loss.
Stock Up
Jack Lausch’s Pocket Presence
Against Washington, Jack Lausch looked flustered all game. He was missing passes, taking unnecessary hits, and wasn’t running the ball well. This week, he started off by taking a bad sack, but he didn’t fumble the game away. He was hitting his receivers, including some passes into tight windows between multiple defenders. He also wasn’t afraid to take hits when he needed to and knew when to scramble out to either run it himself or throw on the run. Despite losing by 17 and failing to do anything meaningful after his second touchdown pass, Lausch impressed. A 23-of-38 stat line for 243 yards and a pair of scores should give ‘Cats fans a lot of hope for the future.
Joseph Himon II
Against Washington, Joseph Himon II had a 96-yard kick return. This week, he carried that momentum and had his best all-around game of the season. Himon in this game had four kick returns that resulted in 83 yards, five carries for 35 yards, and two catches for 15 yards. The big difference this week was how Himon was used. The coaches gave him the ball in space to let him go to work, rather than having him try to run between the tackles. Himon gave this offense good field position on all of his returns, and his 35-yard scamper in the second quarter helped set up a field goal.
Passing Offense
After only 54 passing yards in the first half, the Northwestern passing offense finally came alive. Late in the third quarter, Lausch found A.J. Henning on a short out route that Henning took 38 yards to the house. Then, in the fourth quarter, Lausch completed a 47-yard pass to Bryce Kirtz which resulted in Henning’s second touchdown a few plays later. As mentioned earlier, Lausch finished 23/38 for 243 yards passing and two touchdowns. Bryce Kirtz had 128 yards on ten catches, including the big 47-yard gain. A.J. Henning was six for 67 and two touchdowns. This was the best this passing offense has looked all season with both Kirtz and Henning benefitting from it. Indeed, the two combined for 195 of Northwestern’s 243 receiving yards.
Honorable mention: Luke Akers, the student section, tunnel screens
Stock Down
Pass Defense
Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke had himself a day. Rourke carved up the Northwestern defense all day and all over the field. He was 25/33 passing for 380 yards and three touchdowns. Elijah Sarrat led the Hoosiers with 135 yards on seven catches. His teammate Ke’Shawn Williams had four receptions for 87 yards and a touchdown including a big 52-yard gain. The ‘Cats let up 196 yards after the catch, which pretty much summed up the team’s defensive performance on Saturday. Of Rourke’s 25 completions, 17 went for at least 10 yards. And speaking of long offensive plays for Indiana…
Giving up Big Plays
The ‘Cats this season have been good at preventing big plays. Going into today, they had only let up eight plays of 20+ yards and only one 40+ yard gain. This was not the case today, as the Northwestern defense allowed nine plays of 20+ yards, including the aforementioned 52-yard broken play on a tunnel screen. The tackling today was bad all around, and Kurtis Rourke kept finding his receivers for big-chunk plays. The Indiana rushing attack was also good, averaging 4.3 yards per carry and having five runs of 10+ yards. This defensive performance all around wasn’t great, and the big plays didn’t help at all.
Failure to finish the game
It was a three-point game with 11:19 left in the fourth quarter after A.J. Henning’s second touchdown. The rest of the way it was all Indiana. The ‘Cats didn’t score again after Henning found the end zone, and also gave up two touchdowns in the process. Even with some momentum seeming to be on the ‘Cats’ side, the defense couldn’t hold and the offense couldn’t convert on fourth down twice. Even in the most complete offensive performance this season, the late offensive struggles combined with defensive woes allowed this game to quickly get out of reach.
Honorable mentions: fourth down conversions, sack avoidance, red zone stops