Indiana Will Bring Their Pistol To Saturdays Shootout Against Northwestern

The Big Ten's No. 1 (Indiana) and No. 2 (Northwestern) passing offenses will meet up at 11:00 a.m. in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to their abilities to pass, they both struggle defending against it. This combination is sure to lead to a high scoring shootout.

Northwestern enters the game ranked 10th and Indiana 8th in the Big Ten in pass defense. Indiana also ranks 10th in rush defense and that should be welcoming to Dan Persa.

Despite poor pass protection and a weak running game, Persa has performed exceptionally well. He leads the Big Ten in completion percentage and has been named to the Manning Award Watch List.

Indiana's offense runs the "pistol", which is something very different to what the Wildcats have seen.

"It's a little bit different because the quarterback's back is turned to the line of scrimmage so the ball is hidden and they've done some nice deceptive things out of it. They've faked a fly sweep, faked a zone and thrown a bubble, things of that nature. Matt Canada and the offensive staff does a great job. It will be a little unique from what we've seen but we'll work diligently on it this week," said Fitzgerald.

As a team, the Cats must stop beating themselves and Fitzgerald is working to fix it.

"I don't know what the issue is, but I'm going to fix it, and if it is personnel-based, I'm going to fix it because we're going to find a way to play with some discipline. We had some issues out there today with some guys really not executing very well, and to me, that might be as disappointing as anything," Fitzgerald said.

Saturdays game can be seen on the Big Ten Network and is scheduled for an 11:00 a.m. kickoff.

Go Cats!