Nebraska Cornhuskers: Breaking down Northwestern Wildcats’ offense
The Nebraska Cornhuskers (3-4, 1-2) take on a Northwestern team coming off of two straight losses. With both teams having two game losing streaks recently, Saturday’s contest is a must-win for both programs.
The Northwestern Wildcats began the season with a bang. They knocked off an extremely talented Stanford Cardinal squad to open the season. A couple of weeks later, the Wildcats punished the Duke Blue Devils, giving them their only loss of the season. However, the Wildcats haven’t been as stellar since starting the season with five straight wins. Currently, the Wildcats are (5-2, 1-2) in the Big Ten.
Nobody confused the Wildcats with a high scoring offensive team in the first month of the season, but they were scoring enough points to win most games comfortably. During their five wins, the Wildcats have put up 25.4 points per game. However, they only average five points per game in the two losses.
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To be fair, Northwestern faced a pair of rugged defenses in losses to Michigan and Iowa. At this time, the Huskers’ defense isn’t close to being on their level. However, Northwestern always had the ability to run the ball until the past two weeks. Coincidentally, they’ve given up 78 points in the two losses. Therefore, Northwestern has been unable to play to their strengths in the defeats.
Quarterback Clayton Thorson is a young talent leading the Northwestern offense. In seven starts, Thorson is completing 94/175 passes. He’s completing 53.7 percent of his passes, while throwing for five touchdowns and five interceptions. Due to Thorson’s struggles in the passing game, Northwestern relies heavily on the ground attack. He’s third on the team with 171 rushing yards, but leads the Wildcats with four rushing touchdowns.
The biggest key for the Huskers’ defense has to be running back Justin Jackson. Although the Huskers have a top 10 ranked rushing defense, Northwestern will be attempting to get Jackson going early. So far, he has 691 yards on 160 carries. Yet, Jackson has only found the end zone one time this season. He’s really struggled during these stretch of games. He only managed 25 yards against Michigan’s defense. In the loss to Iowa, Jackson had 10 carries for 30 yards.
Clayton Thorson
In reality, the offenses didn’t have a chance to get into the games. They were down 21-0 to Michigan in the first quarter. Last week, Iowa took a 16-0 lead early in the second quarter. Northwestern scored the final 10 points of the first half, but they were shutdown in the final two quarters.
Offensively, the Wildcats didn’t just struggle trying to score points. They completely fell off the map in the last two weeks. Northwestern gained 168 yards in their loss to Michigan. They bounced back with 198 total yards against the Hawkeyes. Due to their struggles, would they attempt to scrap their game plan against Nebraska?
The Wildcats must be well aware of the Huskers struggling pass defense. Nebraska gives up 341 yards passing per game, and every quarterback has had a great game against the defense. Only Wes Lunt and Illinois didn’t reach the 300 yard mark in the passing game. Yet, Lunt was able to torch the defense in the fourth quarter, scoring two touchdowns. Even Minnesota passed for 301 yards last Saturday. Therefore, it wouldn’t be surprising if Northwestern tried to attack the Huskers defense through the air.
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The Wildcats throw the ball 27 times per game, so they aren’t used to unleashing a healthy passing attack. Dan Vitale leads the team with 18 catches for 221 yards, and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, Christian Jones is tied for the team lead with 18 catches, and one touchdown. Austin Carr is their big-play threat averaging 23 yards per reception on six catches.