Game Day Primer: Indiana Hoosiers at Northwestern Wildcats
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Written By T.J. Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)
Week 8 Primer
What: Indiana Hoosiers at Northwestern Wildcats
When: Saturday, October 22 at Noon
Where: Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois
How to Watch: The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network. You can also listen to the audio broadcast on the IU Radio Network.
What’s at Stake: Both teams enter this contest at 3-3 and a victory would be a major boost towards bowl eligibility. The Hoosiers have lost seven in a row in Evanston and haven’t won at Northwestern since 1993. Breaking that streak and securing a win on Saturday would move IU to 4-3 with winnable games against Maryland, Rutgers and Purdue still to play. A loss would nearly eliminate all margin for error if the Hoosiers are to return to a bowl game. Northwestern won’t be repeating last year’s ten-win season but they can still have a successful year as games remain against Purdue, Minnesota and Illinois. A loss at home to IU though would put their bowl hopes in serious jeopardy.
A Few Things to Look For
Containing the Wildcats Big Two
Northwestern’s resurgence on offense has come on the backs of the Big Ten’s leading rusher and the leading receiver. If the Hoosiers are to escape Evanston with a critical victory, they’ll need to figure out a way to slow down RB Justin Jackson and WR Austin Carr. Jackson began the season slowly but he has exploded in the past two weeks, rushing for more than 170 yards in games at Iowa and Michigan State and averaging more than seven yards a carry. Jackson is the best all-around running back in the conference and the Hoosiers will need to tackle him well to prevent letting him get into space. IU’s improved defense is only surrendering 4.08 yards per carry on the season and they’ve done a nice job, on the whole, against the running games of Michigan State, Ohio State and Nebraska. Quarterback Clayton Thorson is capable of scrambling for yardage and the Wildcats will occasionally hand the ball to John Moten or Solomon Vault but expect for Jackson to get at least 30 carries in this game.
The other half of the big two is the surprising leading receiver in the Big Ten, Austin Carr. He has a conference-high 43 catches for 595 yards with eight touchdowns. The senior from California is listed at only 6’1” but he catches everything thrown his way and he has a knack for creating separation between his defender and his route. Carr has scored at least one touchdown in five straight games and he has five touchdowns in the past two weeks. He had 135 yards receiving against Duke, 109 against Nebraska, 73 with three touchdowns against Iowa and 130 yards with two scores against Michigan State. In short, he’s playing the best ball of his career right now. I would expect for Rashard Fant to spend the majority of game defending Carr with A’Shon Riggins rotated onto him for short increments. The Cats have a few other capable targets: Flynn Nagel (16 catches), Macan Wilson (nine catches) and Garrett Dickerson (11 catches), but limiting Carr’s impact on the game would go a long way towards halting the momentum of the Northwestern offense.
Finding the IU Offense We Know and Love
It wouldn’t be fair to call IU’s offense “bad” because it’s been better than that. That being said, this unit has certainly not matched the explosive production we’ve seen in the past couple of seasons in Bloomington. Kevin Wilson said this past week that the offense was “just a bit off” and that the issues were correctable. I think he’s absolutely correct and I believe the offense is close to having a breakout performance. I’m not sure it will come this week but I’d be very surprised if it doesn’t happen within the next couple of weeks. One of the major keys to returning the attack to one of the Big Ten’s best is re-establishing the performance of the running game. IU is only averaging 3.74 yards per rushing attempt but they’ve been worse than that during the past two weeks. The Hoosiers ran the ball 40 times for an average of only 2.5 yards against Ohio State and then 30 times for only 2.9 yards per carry last week against Nebraska. The absences of All-American right guard Dan Feeney and right tackle Dimitric Camiel have been felt dearly. While Camiel won’t be returning any time soon, the Hoosiers hope to have Feeney back. They’ll be trying to run against a Northwestern rush defense that has improved greatly in the past two weeks. After giving up more than 300 yards rushing against Nebraska, they held Iowa to 1.9 yards per carry on 41 rushes and Michigan State to 2.2 yards per carry on 23 carries.
The Wildcats have proven to be vulnerable through the air as Michigan State threw for 424 yards and both Tommy Armstrong and C.J. Beathard had efficient days against their secondary. It’s not clear how much IU will use Zander Diamont or how often they let Richard Lagow test the Northwestern secondary with vertical passes to Ricky Jones or Nick Westbrook but it appears there will be opportunities for IU to move the ball through the air. IU’s defense is much improved, the offense must now step up if Indiana is to earn its way back into a bowl game.
Defensive Playmakers
Northwestern’s defense is led by a pair of standout playmakers: linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. and defensive lineman Ifeadi Odenigbo. Walker is one of the top linebackers in the conference and he’s capable of disrupting the game in multiple ways. On the season, he has a pair of sacks, 40 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, one fumble recovery and one forced fumble. Odenigbo leads the team with seven sacks and seven tackles for loss (totaling a loss of 52 yards). These two demand attention from the Indiana offense and the Hoosiers can’t allow them to wreck the game with big sacks or impact plays.
Names to Know and Injury Notes:
-The Northwestern Wildcats enter this game in relatively good health. Defensive lineman Xavier Washington appears to be the only regular that will miss this game with an injury. The Hoosiers have been without Dan Feeney since the second-half of the Ball State game as he attempts to return from a concussion. Kevin Wilson said that Feeney was “doing more” but his status for the game is unknown at this time. Running back Cole Gest’s status (ankle) is also unknown.
-Solomon Vault is the reigning Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week after he returned a kick-off 95 yards in the fourth quarter in the Wildcats win over Michigan State. It was his school-record fourth kick-off return for a TD.
-This Saturday is Homecoming for the Northwestern Wildcats and they will be honoring the 1996 Wildcats team that went to the Citrus Bowl as co-Big Ten champions, finishing 7-1 in the league.