Amidst a sea of purple from Northwestern alumni, the Wildcats put on a clinic against the ULM Warhawks. After surrendering a first-drive touchdown to trail 7-0, NU did a complete 180 to score 42 unanswered points. With ULM facing an insurmountable hill, the Warhawks took to the skies as the Wildcats exited with a dominant home victory.
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Diversifying Passing Threats
The story of the season in the wide receiver room has been South Dakota State transfer Griffin Wilde. However, it wasn’t until the third quarter that we saw a catch
out of him. Instead, Stone saw Wagner, Eligon, Hunter Welcing and more throughout the first half, and while some catch attempts looked worse for wear, this sort of comfort and pass targeting is important in a “get right” game.
The most notable of these threats were Eligon, who totaled 80 yards on three receptions in the first half, and Wagner, who ended the game with 63 yards on six receptions. In total, Stone completed passes to eight different targets, an improvement from just six pass targets in NU’s win over UCLA. Of the seven targets not named Griffin Wilde, the ‘Cats totaled 262 yards on 20 completions before redshirt-first-year Ryan Boe came to relieve Stone in the fourth quarter. After Boe’s entrance, that target total became nine with the addition of Stanford transfer Chase Farrell.
Third-down conversions
Northwestern found a way to consistently perform under pressure, and third downs were no exception. The ‘Cats went 11-16 on third-down conversions overall, a massive bump up from their 42% conversion rate entering the game.
This would become a huge key to Northwestern’s offensive success. It did not complete a single three-and-out on the afternoon, with each of its five touchdown drives including at least one third down. Or, in the case of its first drive, three third downs and a fourth down.
Preston Stone taking it himself
There was significant concern early in the season about Stone’s ability to make decisions and effective passes under pressure. While this ULM defense is far from the pressure of Oregon or Tulane, Stone put on his best Mike Wright impression to make several smart decisions of his own in the run game. This included a 30-yard rush on the Wildcats’ second drive of the game, which set up subsequent passes to wide receiver Drew Wagner and the eventual touchdown pass to wide receiver Hayden Eligon II.
In total, Stone managed five rushes that wound up in 49 yards for the SMU transfer. It will be a major test next weekend when Stone will try to take this decision-making into Northwestern’s showdown at No. 7 Penn State (who may drop a few spots after its showing against UCLA).
Honorable Mentions: The purple-dominated homecoming crowd, Anto Saka, the women’s golf team’s appearance
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Early-Game Defense
Allowing a touchdown to ULM on the first drive of the game ignited a pit in the stomachs of Northwestern fans. Warhawks wide receiver Nic Trujillo was left wide-open in space and cruised to a touchdown on a 34-yard pass from QB Aidan Armenta. This came alongside shaky defense on ULM rushes that repeatedly saw large gains before the aforementioned pass sealed the first touchdown of the game.
History repeated itself once again on the Warhawks’ second drive of the game, when quarterback Hunter Herring connected with wide receiver Tyler Griffin for a 12-yard pass into open space that wound up in an additional 36-yard run to take ULM from its own 44-yard line to the Northwestern 20.
Northwestern continued its struggles to guard the Warhawks’ wide receivers at the two-minute whistle in the first half, when Armenta and Trujillo continued their connection to the tune of a 27-yard pass. Overall, ULM passing resulted in 186 yards on 12 attempts.
Penalty-inducing plays
Nearly every time a yellow flag entered the Evanston air, the call went against the ‘Cats. In the second quarter alone, NU totaled five penalties, which resulted in 34 total yards lost, compared to ULM’s singular 12-yard penalty on a facemask during NU’s rush at the 24.
Thankfully for ‘Cats fans, this trend did not remain for long, as Northwestern’s play cleaned up significantly in the second half with just one penalty acquired for the half’s entirety.
Honorable Mentions: First quarter rushing, the stray piece of paper that flew from one bench to another (we don’t condone littering here).
