Wild Finishes: How Northwestern's Second-Half Scares Prepare It for Syracuse

(Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

Northwestern is off to a 2-0 start to the 2009 season and has racked up 58 first half points while allowing just 10 in the same period.

Although the Wildcats let up a bit in the second half of the first game against FCS opponent Towson, they had enough in the tank to cruise to a 47-14 victory while rolling 71 of their players onto the field throughout the game.

But in week two, when NU let off the gas, things got a bit scary as Eastern Michigan mounted a second half comeback to tie the game at 24 with just 2:40 left on the clock.

Even though NU pulled out the win thanks to Demos' long field goal with six ticks left in regulation, the fact that EMU had the game tied so late is rather disconcerting to Wildcats fans.

The 'Cats' task gets tougher over the next few weeks, and NU better prepare itself as they head to New York to face Syracuse, who took fellow Big Ten member Minnesota to overtime in week one before suffering their first loss of the year.

Although Syracuse has been down in recent years (including last year when NU rolled 30-10 in both teams' opener), they have a new attitude under new head coach Doug Marrone and Duke basketball player turned starting QB Greg Paulus.

So, we'll take a look at what Northwestern needs to do to get rolling again like they managed to do in the first halves of the first two games in 2009.

Open Up the Playbook

Coach Fitzgerald and his coordinators (Mike Hankwitz and Mick McCall) have rightly been holding the vast majority of the NU playbook close to the chest in NU's first two games. On offense, NU has run it over twice as much as it has thrown it—through two games NU has 102 rushes to just 46 pass attempts.

And QB Mike "Crazy Legs" Kafka, known for his running prowess after his 217 yard performance against Minnesota last year, has had a very limited number of designed running plays and just 11 rushing attempts (one of which was a sack, while most of the rest were scrambles on passing plays). It's fairly obvious that Northwestern was intently focused on making it through the first two games by keeping the ball on the ground.

Northwestern got quite a scare against EMU when it tallied just six second half points in trying to skate by on a reduced number of plays. Now, against some tougher competition, the 'Cats must open things up to even stay in the ballgame.

Syracuse has a big nose tackle in Arthur Jones who will be off to the NFL after he completes this, his senior year, so NU can't expect to run it up the gut as often as it has and maintain success. In order to continue in their winning ways, the Wildcat offense needs to look vastly different this Saturday, at least in terms of play calling.

Play of the Defensive Front

NU fans were very excited about the defense going into 2009 and rightly so, it was a unit that returned eight starters and many more contributors from the unit that gave up just about 20 points per game last year (an 11 point improvement from the prior season). 

DE Corey Wootton was an animal, and even after knee surgery was an All-American candidate, and is expected to be a high NFL draft pick. But the defense has been relatively unimpressive so far, giving up 19 points per game against two lowly offenses that had no business moving the ball as well as they did.

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