Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Nevada Recap
9/4/2017 12:43:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
This was late in the second quarter of the Northwestern's season opener with Nevada and here, down seven, they faced a fourth-and-two from the Wolf Pack 25. They were driving into the wind and so now there would be no field goal attempt by their freshman kicker Charlie Kuhbander. There was instead Clayton Thorson dropping and finding Bennett Skowronek on a deep curl, which the true sophomore collected and carried to the 10. But here, as he churned for extra yards, Nevada's Asauni Rufus punched the ball free and his teammate Nev Crumbie recovered it at the 13. Two minutes and 25 seconds later the Wildcats were down 10 after a Wolf Pack field goal, and that was still their condition as they headed to their locker room at halftime.
Skowronek, in those first 30 minutes, had just a pair of catches for 18 yards. But, in the 30 to come, he would have half-a-dozen for 105. The 'Cats, in those first 20 minutes, had put up a mere seven points and allowed 17. But, in the 30 to come, they would put up 24 and allow just three. Skowronek, then, serves as an appropriate symbol of the 'Cats on this Saturday when both he and they spit into the eye of possible disaster, and transformed the afternoon into a testament to their collective resiliency.
"The Nevada player, he made a great play. Just punched the ball right out," Skowronek would later say of his fumble. "But when I got to the sideline (wide receiver) Coach (Dennis) Springer, he told me to just flush it. Clayton came up to me and told me to just let it go, go make some plays. We're a family on this team and a lot of guys, a lot of staff members came up and said, 'We're going to need you later in the game to make big plays.' So they helped me flush that out and I was able to refocus truly after I got my first catch of the second half. Then I was just playing again."
"I really loved the way Bennett responded," said Pat Fitzgerald, but here he could have been speaking of his team as well. "We got a big fourth down conversion, he's got a great catch. I didn't see what happened. But I'm assuming he had his elbow away and that's why the ball came out, and then he responds. That's a sign. He's a true sophomore and to see the way he responded, I was very, very impressed by him."
Thursday night, down in Bloomington, Indiana led Ohio State by one at halftime and was still up one late in the third quarter. But then the Buckeyes scored 29 straight on their way to a 49-21 win. Friday night, up in Madison, Utah State and Wisconsin were tied at 10 at the half. But then the Badgers scored 49 straight to run away with their 59-10 win. Then came Saturday at Ryan Field, where the 'Cats faced a Nevada team with a new head coach and new offensive and defensive coordinators as well.
They would, in the first half, make that turnover and blow coverages and miss a short field goal attempt (21 yards) and commit penalties of both aggression (late hit) and inattention (illegal substitution), and all of that contributed to their halftime deficit. But so too did the newness of the Wolf Pack brain trust, which tossed some unexpected Uncle Charlies the 'Cats way.
"We saw a lot of new things," defensive tackle Tyler Lancaster said.
"The offense showed us some looks we had not practiced, and it was all about responding. Going in at halftime, we were talking as a defense that we've just got to respond and play Big Ten football. We went in there, we changed up our game plan, we accounted for things that we had not recently accounted for, and we came out swinging. And our conditioning showed up from practice. We pushed all the way through four quarters."
"It was weathering the storm earlier," added safety Kyle Queiro. "We weren't expecting them to run the ball as much as they did. Once we got to the locker room, gathered ourselves, composed ourselves, came out with a different game plan a little bit, we were able to change the pace of the game."
His defense changed it immediately, forcing Nevada into a three-and-out after it received the second-half kickoff, and that led to a 23-yard field goal by Kuhbander. Now that defense again asserted itself, allowing the Wolf Pack just one first down before forcing a punt, and this time the 'Cats unfurled an eight-play, 70-yard drive that ended with Thorson finding Riley Lees for 19 and the tying touchdown.
This one was still tied at 17 early in the fourth, but now Nevada was on the move and set up with a first down at the NU 21.They had come into this game without the injured corner Keith Watkins II and during it they would lose Marcus McShepard and Brian Bullock, two other corners. It was no wonder, then, that the Wolf Pack now went after their defensive backfield. But here Queiro, brilliant all day, picked its quarterback Ty Gangi at the two.
A pair of Northwestern runs pushed the ball out to the six and now, from the end zone, Thorson threw right toward Jalen Brown. He would end this day 28-of-38 for 352 yards and a pair of scores, but here his offering sailed way high and was intercepted by Nevada's Elijah Moody. That gave Nevada a first down at the 17, and then it was third-and-six and Gangi ran a read option and D end Joe Gaziano read it perfectly and stopped him for a loss of three.
"Probably the big turning point was the interception we gave up and we held them to three," Fitzgerald would say thinking back to this sequence, which concluded with a Nevada field goal. "That was a big turning point. A great response by our defense."
Now, down three at 10:13, their offense did that too behind Thorson, who found Garrett Dickerson and Justin Jackson and finally Skowronek on the left boundary for 26 and a first at the Nevada five. Then it was Jackson for three and Jackson for minus-two and Thorson to Macan Wilson for three, and here the 'Cats faced fourth-and-goal at the one. They called a time out, and now there was Thorson under center, and finally here he was sneaking it in behind blocks by center Brad North and right guard Tommy Doles.
"No. No. Not at all," Fitzgerald would say when asked if had been a difficult choice to go for a touchdown instead of settling for a field goal.
That put the 'Cats up three at 5:28 and then, just under two minutes later, came one last play that magnified just how well they adapted this day. It came with the Pack facing a fourth-and-one, came with the Wolf Pack inserting a 245-pound quarterback named Griffin Dahn, came with Dahn taking a snap and bulling forward and getting just drilled for a loss of one by Lancaster.
"They put in a new quarterback and ran a formation they hadn't run the whole game. How about that? Then we get a TFL for minus-one," Fitzgerald was saying soon after another Thorson sneak closed out his team's 31-20 win.
"It was one of those games, guys. Every rep was, 'Oh. That's new. Cool.' We knew that was the way it was going to be and I was proud of the way our guys responded. The way that our guys worked this off-season, it showed up in the second half. By far not a work of art. But to go into the locker room down two and walk back into the locker room up two scores shows a great response, a great resiliency."
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