HailToPurple.com is pleased to welcome a new contributor, Brian McGuire, who will be sharing his thoughts and insights about Wildcat football during the season. His first column looks for the lemonade in last Saturday's lemon fest at Ryan Field.



Brian McGuire


The Northwestern Wildcats suffered a heartbreaking upset to the Western Michigan Broncos in their season opener. The Broncos shocked the Wildcats with a 22-21 victory at Ryan Field, putting an early wrench in any playoff plans the Wildcats had this season. Even though the loss stings, there is reason to look at the glass half full rather than half empty.

Justin Jackson Comes Out Firing

The junior running back looked to be in midseason form in the opener. Jackson accounted for 54% of the Wildcats total yards from scrimmage with 124 yards on the ground and 47 on two receptions. Jackson rushed for a career-high three touchdowns, scoring every touchdown for the Wildcats. Jackson also moved to fourth all-time on Northwestern’s all-time rushing list.

The Defense Did Not Give Up The Home Run

The defense can take both positives and negatives out of this game. The negatives would be that the Broncos constantly beat them on short-yardage plays and got important yardage when needed. The Broncos went perfect on fourth down conversions, going 4-4 on the day. The Broncos also outgained the Wildcats 416-319 on the day. The defense can spin it as best they could by saying the Broncos were on the field for nearly double the amount of time, as the Broncos earned a 39:04 time of possession compared to the Wildcats’ 20:56.

Despite being on the field for 40 minutes, the Wildcats barely gave up any big plays. The longest run went for 18 yards and the longest pass went for 20 yards, compared to 37 and 29-yard receptions by the Wildcats and a 46-yard run by Jackson. It is irritating to constantly give up small amount of yards and 11 first downs, but the positive the defense can take out of this game is that the didn’t allow for huge plays.

The Game Very Easily Could Have Been Won

The Wildcats almost avoided the upset with a little help from a boneheaded play by the Broncos’ safety. With three minutes left in the game quarterback Clayton Thorson headed to the goal line to score the go-ahead touchdown. The ball got stripped, leading to the ball bouncing out of bounds. If the ball had rolled out of bounds, the Wildcats would turn over the ball to the Broncos on their 20-yard line for a touchback.

From some reason Broncos’ safety Davontae Ginwright’s brain short-circuited and he attempted to save the ball from going out of bounds, just like a basketball player would. Luckily for Ginwright, the official spotted that his feet were out of play, resulting in a touchback. If the official didn’t call Ginwright out of bounds, the Wildcats get a huge break off a defender’s stupidity and they win the game off a play that will be on the blooper reel for a long time.

The Wildcats look to put this tough loss behind them as they welcome the Illinois State Redbirds to Ryan Field this Saturday. The Redbird are 1-0 after defeating the Valparaiso Crusaders 50-13 in their opener. Look for the Wildcats to keep feeding Justin Jackson the ball and for the defense to hopefully be on the field for far less time.