On the bright side, it should be all uphill from here. In a game that was supposed to be the start of a new era for Northwestern football, the Wildcats ran into the same old mistakes that have plagued them for the past half-decade. In his first game in purple and white, Preston Stone completed just 19 of his 36 passes for 161 yards and threw four interceptions, three of which came in the first half. The ground game was decent, with Cam Porter leading the way with six carries for 46 yards. Griffin
Wilde impressed with six catches for 64 yards, but the offense failed to find the end zone in sixty minutes of trying.
Tulane saw no such offensive struggles. The Green Wave crashed over Northwestern’s defense all afternoon long, tallying 420 total yards and 5.8 yards per play. Jake Retzlaff was magnificent in his first game in New Orleans, going 18-for-31 for 152 yards and a touchdown, but made his biggest impact on the ground. The Tulane signal caller rumbled for 113 yards and a score on just 10 carries, breaking the Wildcat defense with a 69-yard score shortly before halftime. On defense, Jaheim Johnson tallied one interception and three pass breakups, Kevin Adams III snared a pick, and breakout star Javion White broke the game open with a pair of interceptions deep in Tulane territory.
Stone’s maiden voyage under center nearly turned disastrous on his first snap, when Tulane’s Harvey Dyson III hit him from behind and knocked the ball away. Caleb Tiernan was able to recover, but Stone gave the ball away two plays later when a deep pass on third and 11 was picked off by Jaheim Johnson. The lone saving grace — a holding call on the return pushed Tulane back to its own 48, but the Green Wave were still set up in prime position.
They quickly took advantage, with BYU transfer Jake Retzlaff marching the offense down the field in a hurry. After facing third and nine, Tulane gained at least 10 yards on each of its next three plays. Retzlaff went 3-for-4 on the drive for 27 yards, with a beautiful dime to Justyn Reid on a rollout from the 1-yard-line serving as the final blow. Less than five minutes into their season, the Wildcats already trailed 7-0.
But both teams soon settled in defensively, resulting in a scintillating series of punts. After back-to-back three-and-outs, Stone settled into a groove, completing his first four passes on Northwestern’s third drive of the morning. The third completion, to Ricky Ahumaraeze, took the ‘Cats’ offense inside the Tulane 30 after a gain of 21. Once Northwestern reached the red zone, Zach Lujan turned to the ground game — to great success. A power-running approach got the Wildcats to Tulane’s three, but that was as far as they got. Luke Akers drilled a 21-yard field goal to put Northwestern on the board in 2025 with just 40 seconds remaining in the opening frame.
The Wildcats’ defense nearly forced another Tulane punt to open the second frame, but Josh Fussell bumping into the Tulane target on third and seven resulted in a first down for the Green Wave. Retzlaff and company quickly took advantage, with Reid breaking wide open for a 33-yard gain on a coverage bust to set Tulane up at the 11. Luckily for the ‘Cats, Maurice Turner dropped his second pass of the day while breaking towards the end zone, and the Green Wave settled for a 22-yard field goal to push their lead to seven points with 11:03 to go in the first half.
They’d quickly get a chance to extend the lead further when Stone tossed his second interception of the game to Tulane’s Kevin Adams III, who broke right in front of Frank Covey IV to snag the turnover. With the Green Wave starting at Northwestern’s 41, Retzlaff looked to add to the lead, but lost three yards on a quarterback keeper on third down. Tulane’s offense stayed on the field for fourth and eight, and after a Northwestern timeout, Retzlaff found Zycari Lewis Jr. for a gain of 10 to keep the drive alive. The Green Wave probed into the red zone, but the Wildcat defensive line stood tall, forcing Tulane into a fourth and 14 after a big Aidan Hubbard sack on first down. Patrick Durkin was cool and collected, though, and nailed his 41-yard attempt to bring the scoreline to 13-3 with just over five minutes left in the second quarter.
Stone’s up-and-down day continued with a pair of completions to move Northwestern into Tulane territory, and the Wildcats reached the Green Wave 39 as the two-minute warning hit. But after the TV break, Stone threw the ball up for grabs with pressure in his face, and Tulane’s Javion White managed to snare a toe-tapping interception on his own 13. The turnover ensured Stone his first career game with at least three interceptions — and all three happened before the first half concluded. The Green Wave took just two plays to capitalize on the mistake, with Retzlaff running through the parted Red Sea of the Wildcats’ defense for a 69-yard rushing score. In a span of 30 seconds, Northwestern had gone from a chance to cut the lead to one score to trailing 20-3.
And Tulane wasn’t interested in letting up. After a big-time sack by Jack Tchienchou, the Green Wave forced a Northwestern punt on fourth and 15 and got the ball back with a minute remaining in the half, sitting 80 yards from pay dirt. Tulane was able to scrape to midfield with three seconds left, setting Retzlaff up for a potential Hail Mary shot. Instead, he tried to earn the touchdown with his legs once again, but was upended at the 16 to close out the opening 3o minutes.
The late run was merely a continuation of the main first half trend — Retzlaff doing whatever he wanted against the defense. At the break, he was 10/18 for 112 yards and a score, and added seven carries for 104 yards and a score. As a whole, Tulane’s offense averaged 10.2 yards per rush for the first half, resulting in 295 total yards of offense. Northwestern, meanwhile, reached just 107 yards in the first half and only reached the red zone once. Aside from the turnovers, the Wildcats were also struggling to stay ahead of the sticks, averaging just 3.6 yards per play. But thanks to a few timely defensive stops, David Braun’s team was still within striking distance at the break, trailing Tulane 20-3.
The second half was a different verse of the same song for the defense. Short passes and a consistent rushing attack brought Tulane inside the Northwestern 25, and Retzlaff found Omari Hayes on third down to set his squad up in the red zone. The marathon drive (in 80-degree heat and nearly 80% humidity) clearly began wearing on the Wildcats’ defense, with Tulane’s drive chewing up the first seven minutes and change of the third quarter. After 16 plays and 62 yards, the Green Wave mercifully settled for a 31-yard field goal to push their lead to 20.
With Stone back out for the second half, the offense kept looking to push through the air. Stone found Griffin Wilde for 22 yards on his first play of the third quarter, and a Cam Porter run quickly brought Northwestern into Tulane territory. Unfortunately, that was as far as the Wildcats would get — Stone threw behind Frank Covey on third down, and a fourth down attempt towards Ahumaraeze sailed into the Tulane bench to give the ball back to the Green Wave with 5:52 remaining in the third quarter.
After a quick Tulane punt, Porter ripped off a 25-yard run to mark Northwestern’s longest gain of the day. Five plays later, Porter rumbled for eight yards to set up a fourth and two on the Tulane 35. Once again, Northwestern went for it. Once again, Stone went for Ahumaraeze. And once again, the pass fell harmlessly to the turf (this time after a breakup from Jaheim Johnson). Both second half drives for Northwestern had reached Tulane territory, but both ended in a turnover on downs.
Luckily, the heat was also making Tulane’s offense sluggish. The Green Wave totaled just 14 yards in the third quarter after their marathon field goal drive, and the Wildcats pushed the ball out past their own 40 as the third quarter ended. Joe Himon continued the drive with some solid runs that pushed Northwestern inside Tulane’s 35, but a risky shot to the end zone from Stone was picked off by Javion White at the 2-yard line. The pick was White’s second of the game, and Stone’s fourth — a massive number, considering Stone threw just eight interceptions in his entire Tulane career.
The rest of the fourth quarter wasn’t much better for the offense, with a wide-open Frank Covey dropping a ball that would have converted a third and 23 with under nine minutes to play. Tulane, for its part, was more than content to just chew clock and ride out the comfortable season-opening win. A gorgeous Green Wave punt pinned the Wildcats inside their own 1-yard line with 6:15 to play, but some hard running from Caleb Komolafe got Northwestern out of the danger zone. But after a solid drive into Tulane territory, Stone flat dropped the ball while scrambling, and Tulane’s Trevon McAlpine fell on the ball at the Northwestern 42.
From there, the Green Wave were able to run the clock out on an easy victory. When the clock hit zeros, one of the Group of Five’s best teams had dominated a Power Four team en route to a 23-3 victory. The Wildcats will look to get their first win of the season this coming Friday when they take on Western Illinois in their home opener at Northwestern Medicine Field.
