TheHoosier.com caught up with the publisher and managing editor of the WildcatReport.com Louie Vaccher to break down a handful of concerns regarding the Indiana-Northwestern matchup coming up Saturday in Bloomington.
See what Vaccher had to say below.
I don’t believe Northwestern is as poor as its record shows. How did it end up at 1-6, and why are they a major threat to Indiana’s current momentum?
How did they end up 1-6? In a word: Offense. Or, more specifically, lack of offense. Northwestern’s defense, special teams and overall talent level aren’t nearly as bad as what you’d expect for a team still looking for its first Big Ten win in November. Their offense, however, is. Think about this: the Wildcats have scored a grand total of three points over their last nine quarters.
Right now, the Wildcats rank 130th in the nation – that’s dead last – in scoring (10.7 ppg) and passing efficiency. They rank 129th in total offense (266.4 ypg) and 125th in passing (126.0). Their best category is rushing, and even there, they rank 93rd (140.4). They also have problems with ball security – the team’s turnover margin is minus-1 per game and they’ve thrown just two touchdowns against 11 interceptions passing. You’re just not going to win a whole lot of games with numbers like those.
Where they could be a threat, however, is on defense. Northwestern is a very fundamentally sound defensive team. They don’t make a ton of big plays – they’ve generated just eight takeaways all season and none in the last three games – but they keep everything in front of them, tackle well and stiffen up in the red zone. If the Wildcats can “ugly up” the game and turn it into a slugfest, and their offense gives them something, they could hang around and turn it into one of those game where the team that makes a mistake in crunch time loses. Northwestern has been the team committing that big turnover all year, but I guess they could be due to turn that around.
