Colorado entered the “****** library” that was Martin Stadium, but left with just seven points. Northwestern put up 41 points and now is 2-0 for the first time ever under David Braun. Not too much fluff this week, just going to dive straight into the good stuff:
The numbers
Aidan Chiles accounted for five touchdowns: two on the ground and three through the air. His EPA/play this week per PFF was 0.480, which was 28th among all QBs who took at least 10 dropbacks and a significant increase compared to his 0.140
in Week 1. Chiles threw just three passes behind the line of scrimmage, completing all three. For his other throws, he was 14-of-19 for 214 and 3. It was encouraging to see Chiles go 6-of-9 when throwing in the middle of the field, including 4-for-4 between 10-19 yards.
Joseph Himon II had a big day, catching three passes for three touchdowns against the Buffaloes. Himon II did run eight routes in this game, but Gavin Sawchuk actually led the RBs in routes run vs Colorado with nine. Caleb Komolafe also ran seven routes, so the true three-RB committee seems to be in effect through two games. Griffin Wilde and Drew Wagner ran 25 and 23 routes respectively, although Wilde led all skill position players in snaps. Luke Dehnicke was second among skill position players with 50 snaps behind Wilde’s 57, during which Dehnicke ran 23 routes on 24 pass snaps. Alex Honig, who caught the first touchdown off the season for the Wildcats, didn’t run a single route per PFF. Hayden Eligon II missed this game, so Ricky Ahumaraeze functioned as the WR3 (even though it was moreso Dehnicke, but he is a TE). Targets were spread out among the three WRs and Dehnicke fairly evenly, plus Himon II who scored three times. Ezomo Oratokhai went down with an injury and was carted off, and we are still awaiting an update on his status, but Jackson Carsello did play and looked like his old self, especially in pass blocking.
The Northwestern defense forced four turnovers as well as three turnover on downs. The Wildcats defense allowed just seven points, but Colorado did gain 18 first downs and 348 total yards of offense. The bend, don’t break mentality of Northwestern’s defense held true in this contest, but against Indiana that may not fly.
The Shedeur
I’ll get to this section’s title later, don’t worry. Starting with the first of the two plays in this cut-up (which is something that Northwestern ran a few times this game, at least a variation of), Chiles takes the snap under center with the formation set to look like a sneak. Instead of the RB and other blockers shoving Chiles into the end zone, Dehnicke goes in motion, Chiles waits for Gavin Sawchuk to get in front of him and he follows his running back into the end zone. On the right side, Deuce McGuire and Idrys Cotton both deliver cut blocks to prevent the defenders from getting Chiles from behind, meanwhile Dehnicke’s motion moves the linebacker and allows for Grant Seagren to pave a hole in the B gap for the touchdown.
The other play in this cut-up is a zone read keeper out of the pistol formation. Northwestern’s O-line commits to blocking for the run, fooling the defenders and allowing the quarterback to take off on the outside opposite of where the play looks to be headed. Wilde does a great job on the exterior of keeping his defender at bay, allowing Chiles a free path to the end zone. The reason the title is “The Shedeur” is because Chiles hit Shedeur Sanders’ well-known watch flex celebration after scoring.
Slingin’ it
This section title isn’t as cool as the last one, but Chiles did showcase passing abilities that weren’t this apparent in his previous stops, at least to the fact of him having a super clean game. The first play of the cut-up, the first TD pass to Himon II, looks like Colorado is running a fire zone blitz here with three deep defenders. Himon II comes free on the wheel route with Ahumaraeze drawing one of the dropping defenders away from the play. The second play is a well-executed rollout to the right against a disguised Cover 3 defense. Wagner motions to the left side of the field with the play-action fake, with Wilde on a dig route underneath to provide a check down option. Dehnicke lines up inline on the rollout side and runs a corner route, where Chiles fits it perfectly in for the big gain. Something to note here is that this naked bootleg play looks more like a Kyle Shanahan offensive-type play, which is more of a Jerry Neuheisel thing than a Chip Kelly one. I included the third play just to show off Chiles’ improvisational skills, where he stays upright and is able to deliver a throw running to his left (almost Caleb Williams-esque…get well soon).
The fourth play is a combination of Chiles’ ability to maneuver the pocket as well as using his legs to extend plays. Colorado runs a Tampa 2 here with the linebacker dropping deep into coverage, and the go route that Wagner runs drags that LB as well as the far-side CB. Ahumaraeze runs a dig route and Chiles hits him between the two safeties for the big gain, with the underneath routes keeping the LBs and slot CB from dropping back further. The fifth play is when Chiles just overthrew Himon II. Northwestern runs a shift from a gun tight formation to a gun trips formation, then runs a motion with Chiles faking the pop pass and then faking a screen pass. The safety that dropped down because of the motion is the same one who was trailing Himon II, but Chiles barely misses him as he releases on the run. Impressive arm strength, though.
The sixth play of this cut-up is Chiles’ second TD pass to Himon II (I didn’t include the third one because it was a simple red zone flat route concept that ended up in a walk-in touchdown). On the same drive that the two couldn’t connect on, Northwestern runs a 21 personnel look with both Himon II and Sawchuk in the backfield. Dehnicke goes in motion at the start of the snap, and Chiles doesn’t even need to blink as he finds Himon II wide open up the seam to beat the Cover 3 defense. This was a situation of the first read being drawn up perfectly against the defense. The final play of this cut-up isn’t anything too fancy, but it highlights Chiles’ ability as a pocket passer and not just a scrambler. He does a great job of stepping up in the pocket and planting his back foot to deliver a strike to Wilde for a medium gain. Northwestern mixed up offensive formations a good amount in this game, using gun, pistol and under center.
TNT
Tackling and turnovers. Northwestern forced four against Colorado. The first play of this cut-up is Michael Kilbane forcing the ball out, with the edge rusher making his impact felt after missing Week 1. Kilbane powered past his blocker and was able to hit the running back from behind to get the ball loose as the bodies began to pile up on the tackle. Also, a great spot for the ball to pop out too as it was a clear lane for Robert Fitzgerald to fall on it. The second play in this cut-up is the second Colorado fumble. This play doesn’t have much to assess on Northwestern’s side other than its flying to the football and recovering the fumble as it was a bad handoff from Julian Lewis. Nonetheless, it’s a turnover so I felt I should include it.
The third play and the first of two interceptions for the Wildcats comes off a fire zone blitz, where Braden Turner rotates to the middle of the field from his initial position in the slot, jumping the route that Lewis looked to have predetermined on what looks like an RPO. The final play in this cut-up is Ore Adeyi’s interception vs. Colorado, and he broke it down following the game during the press conference. He said he had recognized the route combination that Colorado was running against Northwestern’s Cover 2 defense, and he chose to drop back to follow the receiver running the deep route. Lewis underthrew the ball massively (and into a tight window), and Adeyi capitalized.
