Northwestern handled Ball State this past weekend and finds itself ranked at No. 25 in the AP Poll — the first time the Wildcats have been ranked since the end of the 2020 season. Although the Cardinals aren’t the most formidable of opponents, there are some things on tape from Northwestern that looked new, at least compared to the rest of the FBS and even from last week’s game vs. Penn State. Chip Kelly continues to innovate with this offense as the ‘Cats’ passing game flourished more than it did
last week. It’s hard to really measure this game to a Big Ten one, but it is time to look at the film.
Pushing the ball
I’m not going to go into detail on every single clip here because there are a lot, but a few things stand out among them all.
First off, Aidan Chiles continues to flash his ability on the run to extend plays and find the open receiver. Secondly, Northwestern’s play-action attack works wonders, especially after rushing for over 400 yards the week prior. Take the second clip in the cutup for example. The formation on the offensive line with Alex Honig inline and Drew Wagner just offset from the line reads like a run play to the defense. Ball State also runs man here, which gets disrupted on the left side with Wagner running a wheel route to get his and Griffin Wilde’s man to bump, allowing Wilde that extra step to get behind the defense, where Chiles then finds him up the seam from the pocket. The third play is set up similarly, except this time there are two tight ends inline with Wilde also lining up inline to start. Honig motions over in front of Blake Van Buren, who drops behind Honig and runs a pull block to protect Chiles’ blindside. Chiles uses that pull block as Wilde breaks in on his post route to keep the play alive, and then he delivers a strike while running to his left. Chiles in this game scrambled to his left and still was able to make the throws while off-balance at times. The play-action passing continues to work in this third clip, as well as the fourth clip.
The fifth play of this cutup is probably the wildest offensive formation any FBS team has run this season. Northwestern lines up in a Cover 2 defense, except on offense. Joseph Himon II and Wagner both motion back to be about 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Both run flat routes as checkdown outlets for Chiles, but he instead is able to hit Honig on a curl route with the Ball State defenders not knowing what to do against the formation. The sixth play is another example of Chiles throwing while rolling left, while the seventh is another showcase of play-action opening up the field.
The eighth play is also a very interesting formation. Northwestern runs a gun duo formation, popularized by Brennan Marion’s “Go-Go” offense that he runs now at Colorado, with Himon and Wagner lined up in the backfield next to each other on the right of Chiles. It looks like an RPO, with Chiles faking the handoff to Himon before checking down to Wagner who runs the swing route — another example of Kelly mixing in different formations to keep the defense guessing. The final play is another one where play-action sets up the play, in which Chiles hits Wagner on an out route in a flood concept as he walks into the end zone.
Balls to the wall
Late in the third quarter, Northwestern’s offense switched up the game plan completely, increasing its tempo dramatically. This entire cutup is from one drive (minus a couple plays). Northwestern goes exclusively out of the shotgun, with Chiles for the most part throwing to quick out routes or checkdowns or curl routes while the Wildcats ran hurry-up for most of this drive. One of these plays is a big run for Gavin Sawchuk, which is set up by the repeated short throws to get the defense to commit to the pass more. Then, there’s the last play in this cutup. Chiles takes the snap in the gun without a play-action fake and a doubles set with Honig as one of the slots. The tight end runs a slot fade route to the left side toward the end zone. Chiles evades pressure and rolls to his left before firing once again off-balance to Honig, who mosses his defender to make the acrobatic grab. This whole drive was something Northwestern hadn’t done this season outside of two-minute drills. The drive began at the Wildcats own 1-yard line and ended with a touchdown. Once again, Kelly shows his creativity with how he’s switching up formations and tempo on offense to surprise the defense.
