Post-Game Notes, Northwestern vs. Iowa

Sept. 27, 2008

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Northwestern Post-Game Notes

Iowa won the toss and elected to receive. It was the third straight game that NU did not win the coin toss after winning it the opening two weeks.

Northwestern now leads its series with Iowa 7-5 since 1995 and is on a two-game winning streak in Iowa City. Iowa has a 35-8 record at home since 2002, with Northwestern the only team to beat the Hawkeyes twice in Iowa City since that time (NU won 21-7 on Nov. 4, 2006). NU has handed Iowa 25 percent of its home losses since 2002 (last 43 games).

With the win, Northwestern improves to 5-0, marking the first time since 1962 that the Wildcats have won their first five games. That year, the Wildcats opened the year 6-0 en route to a No. 1 national ranking. (NU earned its No. 1 ranking after defeating Notre Dame 35-6 in week five to move to 5-0.)

With the win, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald now is over .500 at 15-14 for his career.

Northwestern, which entered the game ranked 13th nationally in scoring defense, allowed 17 points to Iowa. Northwestern also has surrendered just 62 points in its first five games, marking its best defensive scoring start in 47 years. The last time NU allowed less than 62 points in its first five games was 1961, when it surrendered 37 points.

RB Tyrell Sutton increased his career rushing yardage total to 3,460 yards and remains in third place on NU's all-time list. He began the day as the nation's sixth-leading active rusher and the second-leading active rusher in the Big Ten. Sutton, who totaled a team-best 149 all-purpose yards (77 rushing, 72 receiving) against Iowa, upped his career all-purpose yardage to 4,563, which is still third on NU's all-time list. (Damien Anderson holds NU's career all-purpose mark with 5,271.)

QB C.J. Bachér completed 28 passes to increase his career completion total to 523. He becomes just the fifth player in NU history to surpass the 500-completion mark and moves into fourth place on NU's all-time list. He passed Mike Greenfield (1984-87, 497) and Zak Kustok (1999-2001, 507) today. Bachér also upped his career passing yardage mark to 5,929 and moved into third place on NU's all-time list, passing three players today: Sandy Schwab (1982-85, 5,679 yards), Mike Greenfield (1984-87, 5,803) and Zak Kustok (1999-2001, 5,822).

For the 19th time in 22 career starts, Bachér threw for over 200 yards. It was his seventh career game with two or more TD passes. He moved into a fourth-place tie on NU's career passing TD list with Steve Schnur (1993-96) and now has 32 career TD receptions. Bachér is now 13-9 in his career as NU's starting quarterback.
Northwestern scored three touchdowns via the pass today. Coming into the game, Iowa was one of two teams nationally that had not allowed a passing TD.

Northwestern's string of consecutive scores inside the red zone came to an end in the first half when Iowa blocked Amado Villarreal's 37-yard FG attempt. That also ended Northwestern's perfect record on FG tries this year (8-of-8 before the block). Northwestern was ranked in a first-place tie nationally for red-zone scoring success. NU is now 20-of-22 (91 percent) for red-zone scoring.

Senior WR Rasheed Ward hauled in his first TD reception since his freshman year (vs. Arizona State on Sept. 17, 2005) when he caught a 1-yard TD pass from Bachér just before halftime. Ward finished the game with a career-high 10 catches and a career-best 94 yards. He upped his career reception total to 97. With three more receptions, he will become the fourth current NU player with 100 or more career catches.

WR Eric Peterman caught a pair of TD passes today, marking the first time in his career he recorded multiple TD receptions in a single game. He finished the contest with five catches for 47 yards. He moved into 12th place on NU's career receiving yardage list and now has 1,516 all-time yards.

With Rasheed Ward's big day, he now has 978 career receiving yards, which gives NU four active players on its top-30 list for career receiving yardage: 11. Ross Lane, 1,647 yards; 12. Eric Peterman, 1,516 yards; 22. Tyrell Sutton, 1,095 yards; and 30. Rasheed Ward, 978 yards.

After suffering a season-high five turnovers last week vs. Ohio, Northwestern forced a season-high five turnovers today. Northwestern is now +3 in turnover margin for the year.

Northwestern, which ranked 20th at the start of the day in defensive third-down efficiency, limited Iowa to 3-of-9 on third-down attempts today. NU is now holding its foes to 20-of-70 (28.6 percent) on third-down tries.

S Brad Phillips led NU's defense with 11 tackles (7 solos), a career single-game best (he had nine vs. Minnesota in 2007). He also added a sack, a forced fumble and two tackles for loss.

Northwestern totaled two more sacks to up its season total to 17, one shy of its entire 2007 total of 18. The Wildcats entered the week ranked fourth nationally in sacks with 3.75 per game. DE Corey Wootton rang up one of the two sacks, giving him 4.5 for the season and 10 for his career, which moves him into a seventh-place tie on NU's all-time list. On the opposite side, NU's offensive line did not give up a sack and lowered its sacks allowed total to 0.4 per game. NU was ranked ninth nationally in that statistic at the start of the day.

CB Sherrick McManis totaled 11 tackles (sharing team honors with Brad Phillips), including eight solo hits.

Northwestern had another solid day with its kickoff coverage team. The Wildcats forced a fumble (by DE Vince Browne) and held Iowa to an average of 16.0 yards per return. That lowered NU's season opponent average to 16.3. The Wildcats were ranked ninth in that category at the start of the day.

NU has outscored its first five opponents 49-17 in the second quarter and 27-7 in the fourth quarter.

Northwestern now has an open date before returning to action Oct. 11 at home against Michigan State. Kickoff time and television plans for that game will be announced on Monday (Sept. 29).

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