Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Duke Recap
9/18/2016 7:06:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Snapshots from the Wildcats' first win of the season, their 24-13 throttling of Duke Saturday night at Ryan Field. . . .
ON THE GAME'S OPENING DRIVE, their offense looked smarter than a Mensa member. It opened with Justin Jackson gaining six and five and 21 yards on his first three carries, and ended with Clayton Thorson finding superback Garrett Dickerson for a 26-yard touchdown pass with just 3:30 gone. "We knew what coverage going in that they were going to play to our open set," said Dickerson, who ended his evening with four receptions for 42 yards. "It was just like we executed during the week. It worked out perfectly. Clayton hit me right on the throw. Perfect ball."
"We always talk about starting fast," Pat Fitzgerald said. "It was really important to get things going the right way from a confidence standpoint."
ON THE BLUE DEVILS' FIRST DRIVE, the 'Cat defense held them to a three-and-out. Seven of their 14 remaining possession in this game effectively ended the same way, the 'Cat D here posting a performance reminiscent of the ones it put on last season. "I felt like we made some plays that we left out there the last two games," safety Godwin Igwebuike would say. "All along I knew we had it in us. We focused on letting loose, giving it everything we've got, playing with a lot of passion and having fun out there. We had a lot of fun through camp, through all of the off-season, and we kind of got away from that. When we have fun, when we're relaxed and playing our game, that's when we're at our best."
A PAUSE HERE FOR A NOD TO IGWEBUIKE, the junior who not only picked up a first-quarter interception. He also steeled and steadied a beat-up defensive backfield that started two sophomores and a redshirt freshman who were expected to fill backup roles this season. "Obviously I have faith in them. Great players," he would say when asked about his work with this Kiddy Corps. "I went back to when I was a redshirt freshman making my first start. I remember (defensive backs) Coach (Jerry) Brown telling me, 'It's just football. You've been doing this you're whole life.' That's what I reminded the young boys. It's just football. You have the talent. You're here for a reason. You've been grinding with us this whole time. You haven't had time to shine, but now you're here, it's your time. Relax. Go out there and play like you know you can, have fun. That's exactly what they did. I'm very proud of them."
"Really proud of the young guys in the secondary. I felt they really stepped up," Fitzgerald echoed. "They were assaulted, they were attacked, and I thought they played very well."
THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE FIRST HALF, the Northwestern offense spent much of its time in Duke territory but failed to score another point. "That's like being in a baseball game and having too many runners left on base," Fitzgerald would say. "You just get a little bit uneasy having that much movement on the ball and not enough points on the board." Throughout the rest of the first half, the defense contained the Blue Devils with the exception of the 99-yard scoring drive it surrendered in the second quarter. So at halftime this one was tied, 7-7.
DUKE, after taking the opening kickoff of the second half, marched quickly to a first down at the Northwestern 29. Now it gained two, but then came a 7-yard sack by defensive end Xavier Washington that left it facing a third-and-15. Here its quarterback Daniel Jones found wideout Chris Taylor for 12 and tight end Erich Schneider for five, and suddenly the Blue Devils had a first at the 17. They were rolling now and were poised to go in for a go-ahead score, but on a quarterback keep, middle linebacker Anthony Walker stripped Jones and recovered the fumble and blunted their flurry. "A horrible play by me, honestly," Walker would later admit. "I came too far up the field and gave the quarterback the inside lane. But I was able to get my hand on the ball and kind of make a big play for our team. It was a great momentum shift for us."
THE OFFENSE did nothing with the opportunity that shift gave it, going three-and-out. But less than four minutes later they got another chance when Duke punter Austin Parker fumbled the snap and turned the ball over to it on the Blue Devils' 44. This time Solomon Vault ran a fly just outside the right hash and Thorson found him in stride for the touchdown that put their team up seven with 5:44 remaining in the third quarter.
A PAUSE HERE for a nod to Thorson, whom Duke assailed in any number of ways ("I think they threw every blitz known to man at us," Fitzgerald would say). That resulted in five sacks and any number of hits, but not only did he unfailingly arise from this constant battering. He continued to hang in there and opened up the offense with that 26-yard touchdown pass to Dickerson; and with that 44-yard touchdown pass to Vault; and with a 58-yard touchdown pass to Austin Carr in the fourth quarter; and with a 35-yard completion to Macan Wilson and a 33-yard completion to Flynn Nagel. "We've been trying to throw the ball downfield," Fitzgerald would say of these explosion plays. "We have to make people pay for putting 25 people in the box."
"That's something we didn't have in our offense a year ago," Thorson himself would say. "It's something we worked hard on. It's a good step for us."
"He's showing great toughness," Dickerson would say of his quarterback's grit while throwing those balls. "It's hard to sit in there when you've got seven guys blocking, but eight guys coming. It's hard to sit in there knowing you're going to get hit, but still delivering the ball. So he's showing great toughness."
BACK TO IGWEBUIKE for a moment. His interception was his first since October 2014 and when it came up, Walker noted, "He tweeted before the game, 'Thanks for the interception.' He said God told him to tweet it if he believes in Him. And it happened. That's the honest truth."
"I was in a room praying, talking to God," Igwebuike explained when asked about that. "And He was telling me, 'You're going to get an interception today.' It's been awhile. As you guys know, it's been a long time. So I was like, 'It's been too long.' He was like, 'If you believe it, go ahead and tweet it.' And I was like, 'Nah. I'm not going to look like a fool. If I don't get an interception, I'm going to get cheesed. Everyone'll make fun of me.' Then I was like, 'You know what? I have faith and I believe.' I had that feeling, man. Went ahead and tweeted it. God made it happen. Now I'm here."
AND BACK TO DICKERSON for another moment. Midway through the fourth quarter, Duke corner Deondre Singleton rocked Carr with a shoulder to the chin that got him ejected for targeting. But before he left the field, the superback confronted him. "Just sticking up for my guys," he said of this conversation he had with the Blue Devil. "We're a team. I can't let someone go out there and hit my boy like that. So I had a couple choice words for him, some things I won't say right now. But just sticking up for my man Austin."
Appropriately enough, since justice must be served, it was mere minutes later that Carr caught his long touchdown pass, which pushed the 'Cats' lead to 17 at 4:56 and made a late Duke score irrelevant.
SO THE NON-CONFERENCE SEASON ended with a flourish. But ahead is a game next Saturday night against Nebraska and a torturous conference schedule.
"Big Ten play," Anthony Walker would finally say. "That's what we came here to play. We came here to play big-time football. It starts right now."
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