Live from picturesque Ryan Field

From the press box at Ryan Field, which rises eight stories above the Evanston earth, on a clear day you can see the boats on gorgeous Lake Michigan and the majestic skyline in downtown Chicago.

I bring this up because our press-box view also affords us the luxury of ignoring the Ryan Field scoreboard and evaluating a game on its merits instead of its tallies. As Northwestern led Eastern Michigan at halftime by a 21-3 count on Saturday, we couldn’t help but notice that the Wildcats and Eagles deserved to be a lot closer than the score.

Eastern Michigan, playing with an offensive line that included 256-pound true freshman left guard Andrew Sorgatz from Wheaton North, was poking holes in Northwestern’s front seven and deserved far better than 3 points at the break. In the first half alone, the Eagles got as far as NU’s 31-yard line, 34-yard line and 29-yard line without getting a single point from those three drives.

So it wasn’t entirely unexpected when Eastern Michigan came all the way back to earn a 24-24 tie with 2:40 to go. Yes, the Eagles benefitted from a turnover or two, but there’s no way that an EMU team that managed just 93 rushing yards against lowly Army (I’m not included sacks in this total) should come in and stack up 178 rushing yards against Northwestern (again, I’m not including the one sack the Wildcats had).

That spawned this truthful paragraph from fourth-year NU coach Pat Fitzgerald, who only seem semi-relieved by the Wildcats’ 27-24 victory on Stefan Demos’ 49-yard field goal with six seconds left:

“To win a game the way that we did is worrisome across the board. We need to execute better in all aspects. It’s easy when you see the ball run like it did today, then you can point the finger at the defensive line. But I’m not poised and prepared to do that yet. I need to watch the video and see, Was it linebackers not fitting properly? Was it defensive linemen not getting off blocks? Were we not playing certain plays properly? So there’s a lot to look at and grown from. It is disappointing. We should be better than that.”

So what’s wrong? From our vantage point eight stories high, Playboy All-America defensive end Corey Wootton doesn’t look like he’s 100 percent on his surgically repaired right knee. He doesn’t seem to have the pursuit and change of direction that characterized his junior year, though he is just seven months and four weeks removed from surgery to fix his multiple tears. Wootton played most of the game and had 1 solo tackle and 2 hurries.

Fitzgerald pointed out that Northwestern’s linebackers were getting hemmed in by EMU’s wide receivers, which allowed their running backs to bounce outside after busting between the tackles. Safety Brendan Smith shouldn’t need to lead the team with 12 tackles, but that’s what today required as there were more than a few missed tackles inside the box.

Then, too, Northwestern surrendered a fourth-quarter touchdown pass because of something that happened early in the third quarter. With Eastern Michigan facing third-and-3, NU’s defense stuffed Dwayne Priest for a 1-yard loss AND EMU was flagged for holding. But backup Brian Peters (who plays in safety in the nickel) was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct well after the play’s end. That gave the visitors an automatic first down, which they used to turn the drive into a touchdown that cut the deficit to 24-10.

Peters, meanwhile, was jerked out of the game by the coaches and didn’t return until late in the fourth quarter. By that time, though, EMU had picked on third-string safety Jared Carpenter (a redshirt freshman) for a 25-yard touchdown pass. Senior QB Andy Schmitt looked away from the guy he wanted to throw to, lured Carpenter away from the area and then found wide-open Jacoby Stone for a 25-yard score.

So here’s a hunch that everyone on the Northwestern roster, but particularly the defense, will be well-coached when they review the video on Monday morning.

ODDS AND ENDS

--Senior CB Sherrick McManis wore sweats today after tweaking his quad last week against Towson. Fitzgerald hopes he’ll be able to practice on Tuesday. Justan Vaughn took his spot and appeared to be EMU’s No. 1 target, regardless of whether he lined up on the field side or boundary side.
--Junior WR Sidney Stewart didn’t play due to illness. Redshirt freshman Demetrius Fields took his spot and caught a team-high 4 passes for 25 yards.

--Junior RB Stephen Simmons looked solid with 13 carries for 73 yards and first 2-TD game of his career. But in the fourth quarter, the Cats stuck with Jacob Schmidt and Scott Concannon to get those tough yards. Freshman Arby Fields lost a fumble in NU’s own red zone late in the first half and carried just two more times thereafter. He finished with 7 carries for 5 yards.

--Northwestern never asked QB Mike Kafka to do any designed runs in the open field . He did have 5 carries for 21 yards, but two were sneaks, two were scrambles and the fifth was a fumbled snap at NU’s 2. That’s a good sign that the Wildcats still have some offense left in their pocket, but they’ll need next week at Syracuse.

--If you’re curious, Stefan Demos’ 49-yard game-winning field goal tied for the program’s longest kick since David “The Woz” Wasielewski bombed a 51-yarder against Purdue in 2002. Amado Villarreal also converted a 49-yarder – his coming at Iowa in 2007.

That’s all I got. Lake Michigan sure does look purty at 5:30 p.m. on a sunny fall afternoon.

LW