In the week leading up to Northwestern’s Saturday showdown with Oregon, the consensus was that the Wildcats would be in for an uphill battle against an insurmountable wall of Green.
Oregon proved the consensus right, in a 34-14 whalloping in Evanston.
The struggles for Northwestern began not in the first quarter, but against Western Illinois, where running back Cam Porter suffered a lower-body injury that rendered him out for the season. And in a game where Preston Stone struggled to locate first-half
passes, especially in the long range, it was all about the running game for a team missing their RB1.
In Porter’s place was the duo of redshirt-junior Joseph Himon II and redshirt-sophomore Caleb Komolafe. Himon led the two with 59 yards over 12 attempts to Komolafe’s 53 yards over 16 attempts. And, on his only carry of the afternoon, redshirt-first-year Dashun Reeder ran for a 79-yard touchdown, albeit late in the fourth quarter.
“If you look at the stat line, we won the rushing battle, but ultimately we didn’t win until that explosive play by Dashun Reeder,” said Northwestern head coach David Braun.
In spite of a solid performance by the Wildcat running backs, the loss of Porter had to weigh heavily on the minds of players. While Braun said Monday that Porter continues to help as a mentor in the running back room, ultimately, it was up to the team to step up in his absence.
“That’s someone who we look up to, so that was a devastating loss,” said Himon about Cam Porter postgame. “At the end of the day, it’s next man up, and I think me, Caleb and Dashun… we stepped up when our number was called.”
Despite the running game’s comparability to the Ducks, the game was decided by passing. Oregon’s Dante Moore went 16-20 on completions for 178 passing yards, while Stone struggled to the tune of 11-21, 135 passing yards and two interceptions in critical moments. This came to a head early in the fourth quarter, when Oregon head coach Dan Lanning felt confident enough in the 31-0 lead garnered by Moore and Co. that he gave two backup quarterbacks a chance. This included redshirt-freshman Luke Moga subbing in at NU’s 12-yard line and failing to convert a touchdown.
The final score appears closer than experts anticipated. However, this is in many ways facetious. Northwestern drilled its final two scores with the game already out of reach, as the score stood at 34-0 with 11:32 to play in Q4.
“We need to do a better job as a coaching staff, starting with me, of identifying truly who this football team is and putting our team in situations to get a game like this to the fourth quarter to be within striking distance,” Braun said.
Much of this falls on the heavy shoulders of Preston Stone, who once again appeared to struggle under pressure. As a result, NU repeatedly saw short passes, with Stone failing to gain over eight yards on a pass throughout the entire first half. Despite a strong Oregon defense, Stone’s inability to execute long-range passes in pivotal moments proved to be the nail in the coffin for an underdog team.
Stone improved in the second half with a 31-yard pass to South Dakota State transfer Griffin Wilde and a 40-yard pass to sophomore Drew Wagner, albeit one which Braun said was “underthrown.” The head coach emphasized postgame that there is still room for improvement on those successful plays.
“Every ball’s not going to be perfect. In those situations, [Stone] has to trust that his wide receivers are going to outcompete a DB for the ball, and that’s what Drew Wagner did,” Braun said.
The major bright spot for the ‘Cats in this contest was special teams. Graduate Student punter Luke Akers averaged 55.3 yards over three punts, which all went over 50 yards, respectively. The sole kick return from Himon was also impressive and saw the Arkansas native run for 39 yards.
While the special teams can often make or break the final kick of the game, it’s clear that Northwestern can not leverage that advantage in this sort of a matchup.
In the end, the scoreboard is undeniable. The Ducks were the better team Saturday, whether it was the multitude of effective receiving targets, the interceptions, or, as Braun put it postgame, the fact that Northwestern simply “got [its] butts kicked by a really good football team.”
Looking forward, Northwestern may be without DB Josh Fussell, who left earlier in the game with a lower-body injury. There is not currently an update on his return.
Next week will be a chance to rest and recharge, as it’s a bye week for the ‘Cats before a worse-for-wear UCLA team comes to town on Sept. 27.
