Post-Game Notes

Nov. 17, 2007

Recap | Final Stats | Quotes

Northwestern's season-ending loss to Illinois drops the Wildcats to 6-6 overall, 3-5 in the Big Ten. The six-win season marks the fourth time in the last five years that Northwestern has won six or more games in a season.
Northwestern's winning streak against Illinois comes to an end at four games. The Wildcats also saw their two-game winning streak (2003, 2005) at Memorial Stadium come to a halt. Northwestern now trails the overall series against Illinois 52-44-5. (Illinois leads the series 32-27-2 since the advent of the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk trophy in 1945.)
QB C.J. Bachér completed 29-of-49 passes for 310 yards. He finishes the season with 3,656 yards, breaking Brett Basanez's school single-season record of 3,622 yards set in 2005. He also set Northwestern's single-season mark for completions (318), which was previously held by Basanez (314 in 2005).
Northwestern set a single-season record for passing yards, finishing with 3,695 and eclipsing the 3,681 mark set in 2005.
Bachér now has thrown for 200 yards or more in 16 of his 17 career starts. He reached the 300-yard passing mark for the fifth time this season.
Bachér will enter the 2008 season with 4,887 career passing yards, which ranks seventh on the Wildcats' all-time list.
Bachér finished third on NU's single-season passing TD list with 19, tied with Zak Kustok's 2000 season performance.
WR Eric Peterman, Northwestern's leading receiver in 2007, totaled a team-best 10 receptions for 120 yards. The game was his third this season with more than 100 yards receiving. Peterman also increased his career reception total to 101, becoming the third current NU player to top the 100-catch mark for career receptions (Tyrell Sutton and Ross Lane are the other NU players with 100 or more career receptions.) Peterman finished seventh on NU's single-season reception list with 66 catches. Lee Gissendaner had 68 catches in 1992.
RB Tyrell Sutton scored his 25th career rushing TD (fourth TD of the season) on a 1-yard run in the second quarter. Sutton finished the game with 71 yards on 13 carries, and upped his career rushing total to 2,996 yards. He will begin his senior season four yards shy of joining Damien Anderson (1998-2001) and Darnell Autry (1994-96) as the only NU running backs with 3,000 or more career rushing yards.
Sutton moved up one place to fourth on Northwestern's career all-purpose yardage chart with 3,943 yards. He jumped Ricky Edwards, who had 3,924 from 1979-83.
WR Jeff Yarbrough caught his second TD pass of the year, a 2-yarder from C.J. Bachér, late in the third quarter.
LB Adam Kadela, NU's leading tackler this year, led the Wildcats in hits for the seventh time this season, finishing with a career-best 17 tackles. His previous single-game high was 15, set against Minnesota on Oct. 13 of this year. He closed 2007 with 125 tackles and closes his NU career with 296 tackles.
CB Sherrick McManis, who ranked ninth in Big Ten kickoff return average, returned seven kicks for 172 yards, which included a game-long 38-yarder.
P Stefan Demos, who entered the game with single-game punting averages of 40.0 yards or better for the past six games, had his season's top effort, booting five punts for 245 yards and a 49.0 yards per punt average. Three of his punts landed inside the Illini's 20-yard line.
NU, which came into the game with the 16th-best third-down conversion rate in the nation (47.2 percent), converted just 2-of-10 third downs today.
Northwestern's offensive line, which allowed no sacks against one of the nation's top sack-leading units (Indiana) last week, surrendered two sacks today.
Jason Reda's 27-yard FG in the fourth quarter was the opponents' first made field goal since Ohio State's Brian Pretorius converted a 40-yard FG in the second quarter on Sept. 22, 2007. NU's opponents made just 4-of-12 field goals this year.
Northwestern's senior class closes its NU career with the following accomplishments:
- Posted a 17-14 record at Ryan Field (winning home campaigns in 2004, 2005 and 2007.)
- Defeated every Big Ten program, with the exception of Michigan, at least once.
- Defeated five top-25 opponents.
- Posted a 6-1 record in overtime games (6-0 in OT vs. Big Ten teams.)
- Won six or more games four of five years (2003-07).
- Were a part of three bowl-eligible teams.

Northwestern University Athletics

Northwestern University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

C.J. Bachér

Stefan Demos

Ross Lane

Sherrick McManis

Eric Peterman

Tyrell Sutton

Jeff Yarbrough

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