Date: 6:30 p.m. (CDT), Saturday, Sept. 15, Ryan Field, Evanston, Ill.
TV: BTN
Line: Northwestern (-21), O/U 45.5
Outlook:
Perhaps it was the color of the uniforms that had Thorson and Green
confused. At a school whose "alma mater" hymn features the lines,
"Hail to Purple, Hail to White, Hail to thee, Northwestern!" maybe the
fact that the home team was running around in some grey monstrosity and
not, in fact, wearing purple and white, addled the two quarterbacks and
they didn't know to whom they were supposed to throw the ball.
Twice did Thorson and Green conclude that blue was far closer to purple
than grey, with the ball ending up in Duke defensive hands. Hey,
Under Armour, the words "Hail to Grey" do not appear in the alma mater,
so maybe you ought to factor that in the next time you're trying to
create eyesores for the team to wear. How about you stick to the
tried and true purple jerseys and white pants for home games?
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, ex-zip-it A."
If
you watched the game, things looked great at the start. NU took
the opening kickoff and marched the ball down the field, highlighted by
a 40-yard run by Jeremy Larkin, punching it in the end zone from the
2. Thorson was 5 for 5 on the opening drive. And that was
pretty much the end of the game for the Wildcats, who apparently
decided to take their ball and go home. Hopefully, at this point,
you found something better to do than watch the rest of the game.
Like getting a root canal. Or a colonoscopy. NU would never
threaten again, with some short, mediocre drives, 2 3-and-outs, and 4(!)
turnovers on downs. Jeremy Larkin eclipsed the century mark, as
did Flynn Nagel, but the rest of the offensive performance was very
uneven and uninspiring. Neither Thorson nor Green impressed with
their decision-making, nor the speed with which they made decisions.
"Look, I'm Zippy Longstocking!"
Defensively,
it wasn't a terrible performance. For the most part, NU kept the
Duke offense at bay. One touchdown was surrendered one play after
an interception. For the entire second half, the defense kept
Duke from approaching the end zone, and seemed to be successful at
getting off the field when Duke faced 3rd down. Take back the
second quarter, in which the Duke quarterback Jones carved up the
secondary through the air, and it was a strong performance. But
when the Cats offense can't move the ball at all, and puts the defense
in difficult situations with its generosity, one cannot expect the
defense to pitch a shutout. Which, given the anemic offense, the
defense pretty much has to or the game is over.
"When a problem comes along, you must zip it! Zip it good!"
Perhaps,
then, an ideal opponent comes to Ryan Field, an opponent that will help
NU fix all that ails it. Early-season schedules of many of the
major college powers are littered with games against exceedingly
over-matched opponents. The games have two purposes: 1)
allow your team to run up an impressive score in front of your
(hopefully deep-pocketed and generous) alumni, engendering good
feelings towards the old alma mater; and 2) give your team a glorified
scrimmage at full speed and with full contact, to iron out any kinks in
the game plan before playing real competition. NU didn't really
have that opportunity this season, coming out of the gates hot against
an up-and-coming Purdue squad. At West Lafayette, no less.
While Duke is no Division III team, the reality is the Blue Devils are
a mediocre ACC team, having won their division once since 2000, while
finishing DFL 9 times (cue Ferris Bueller's principal, "Nine
times!"). If NU truly has aspirations on continuing its bowl
appearances, then it has to beat teams like Duke, not lose to them in
consecutive years, and look embarrassingly bad while doing so.
だまれ
(subtitle: "Zip it!")
Astute
readers of the Lowes Line (yeah, yeah, I know...they quit reading after
the first couple of editions) will have picked up that Akron comes in
having played only one game this season. Their season opener
against Nebraska was cancelled due to weather; there is no indication
of when it might be made up. So we have a slimmer body of work by
which to judge Akron's prospects against the Mildcats. And likely
the game they did play won't help much, as they routed Division I-AA
Morgan State 41-7, and the Bears's only touchdown came with 11 seconds
left in the game. Akron rolled up 430 yards of total offense
against a much lesser opponent. Kato Nelson, their sophomore
quarterback, is a bit of dual threat, which always spells trouble for
NU defenses. While the Akron defense had its way with the Morgan
State offense, limiting it to 192 total yards and one garbage-time
touchdown, I think it's safe to say that, even despite NU's
underwhelming performance against the Blue Devils, NU's offense is in a
different class altogether.
"Would you like to have a suckle of my 'zipple'?"
Hopefully
NU gets healthy in all aspects of the game, and I think the Zips of
Akron present that opportunity. Larkin will get his 100 yards
(and probably pretty easily) and Moten IV will probably roll up a
generous total, too. Thorson will take two steps forward in his
ACL recovery and will start making better decisions, faster. NU's
defense will continue its stronger play, keeping the Zips from giving
the NU faithful too much of a scare. That said, I don't see NU
enjoying a playground romp on Ryan Field. Twenty one points is
too tall a mountain for this version of the Wildcats to ascend.
To quote Coach Lee Corso, "Closer! than the experts think."
And, fingers crossed, we have seen the last of those awful unis.
Pick: NU 30, Akron Zips 10. NU wins comfortably, but doesn't cover.
Season to Date: Straight up, 1-1. Against the Spread, 2-0
