Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Duke Recap
9/10/2018 12:12:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
The Wildcats receive the opening kickoff and now, like a threshing machine, they cut down the field. There is Clayton Thorson finding wideout Flynn Nagel in the flat for six, and then hitting superback Cam Green on a curl for eight. Then Thorson hooks up with Nagel twice more, for five and 12 yards, and soon enough Jeremy Larkin pops through left side and races for 40.
This is late Saturday morning at Ryan Field in their home opener against Duke, and two plays later Larkin goes in from the two to complete an 11-play, 79-yard drive that quickly puts the 'Cats up seven.
"I thought we did a great job, the first drive," Nagel will later say. "I thought we were going to put 50 on 'em, that we were just going to keep scoring."
The 'Cats, on this day, would run off 88 offensive plays to Duke's 63. They would roll up 381 offensive yards to Duke's 301; throw for 282 yards to Duke's 204; accumulate 24 first downs to Duke's 15; and convert nine-of-their-19 third down possibilities while limiting Duke to four-of-15. But never again would they put even a single point on the board, and so at the end these numbers simply proved the truth of one of their coach's favorite sayings. The one that declaims that stats are for losers.
"We've just got to finish drives," Thorson would later say, explaining how they fell to Duke by 14. ""That's what it comes down to. We didn't do a great job of that."
"We've got to finish drives," Nagel would echo moments later. "That's the big picture. That's the big answer. We had countless drives where we were driving down and we didn't finish, didn't put points on the board."
"They made the plays they needed to make," said Fitzgerald himself. "We had ample opportunities on offense as we crossed the field and weren't able to get scores on the board. Credit them. They played an outstanding game. We have a lot of work to do."
Still, despite their failings, the 'Cats were up seven as the second quarter opened, but here is when this game irrevocably turned. For just 63 seconds into it, Duke quarterback Daniel Jones showed play-action and then found T.J. Rahming on a post for nine yards and a tying touchdown.
"Bad eyes by a veteran," Fitzgerald said of 'Cat corner Montre Hartage, who got beat on this play.
Now, for the first time on this day, TJ Green trotted out with the offense and, after three runs by Larkin netted 16 yards, he threw an out to Nagel on the left boundary that was picked by Blue Devil corner Michael Carter II. No damage was done here, the defense limiting Duke to a three-and-out. But on the next series Thorson, under pressure and flushed from the pocket, threw into coverage and suffered a pick that had double consequences.
The first came on the runback when superback Green was called for targeting and ejected from the game. The next came on Duke's very first snap when Jones, again off play action, hit Johnathan Lloyd on a deep post for 52-yards and the touchdown that put the Blue Devils up seven at 8:40 of the second quarter.
"Young pup (true first-year corner Greg Newsome II) gives up a post. His eyes were stuck in the backfield," Fitzgerald said of this score. "But I thought his compete level went up after that play."
What also happened after that play represents well enough the kind of day endured by the offense. This series, which began on their 25, would be made up of 10 plays and collect 35 yards. It would feature a 22-yard completion from Thorson to Nagel, who shone all game while collecting 12 receptions for 133 yards. It would include Larkin taking a direct snap on third-and-three and rushing for five of the 121 yards he would run up this day. But it would end with Thorson, on fourth-and-nine from the Duke 40, getting flushed and rolling right and throwing futilely toward Larkin.
"When we're throwing the ball, the timing and rhythm is off at times," Fitzgerald would later lament. "Offensive football, when the timing and rhythm is off, is just really ugly, right. It's like bad backyard football playing with your buddies. You have no timing and rhythm. That's what it looked like at times."
"No. I don't think that was the reason for it," Thorson would say when asked if that lack of timing was a product of rotating quarterbacks. "I've got to do a better job of putting the ball on some guys."
"I don't think it's because of that," Nagel echoed when asked the same question. "I don't think that's the issue."
Duke, after that fourth-down failure by the 'Cats, would drive for their final touchdown, this one coming after Jones froze their back seven with another play action before finding a wide open Davis Koppenhaver in the end zone. After this the defense pitched a shutout, but this made little difference as miseries continued to visit their offense.
On its first possession of the second half, with Thorson at quarterback, it put together an 11-play, 76-yard drive that ate up 4:05. But on fourth-and-goal at the Duke four, Fitzgerald eschewed a field goal attempt and Thorson was sacked for a loss of seven.
"We were somewhat inept, weren't we, offensively?" Fitzgerald would say when asked about not taking some points there. "So we're four yards away. Let's go score a touchdown. We're down two scores. If we kick a field goal we're still down two scores. So let's go be aggressive. I'm trying to jump start the thing there."
But never would it ignite, going three-and-out on the following drive with Thorson and then, with Green, gaining just 19 yards on the next after starting at midfield. Never, in the fourth quarter, would it drive deeper than the Duke 40, and that was not all the bad that befell them. Injuries intruded too, costing them Trey Pugh, who had replaced the ejected Green at superback, and both starting tackles Blake Hance and Rashawn Slater.
"That," Fitzgerald would finally say, "was kind of the theme of our offense today. The next guy needed to step up, and I don't think that that happened.
"That's what it looked like. We had guys who needed to step up in the O line because of injury. Quarterback, because of where we're at right now. Superback. We're at a first year (Charlie Mangieri). It got interesting. Its where the game went and we have to have guys step up. We've got to coach better. We've got to get the next guys ready to play.
"You never know when that's going to happen."
