By Matt Forman and Jake Simpson

SAN ANTONIO — A brief look at the 2008 Alamo Bowl.

Player you know
From his first game at Northwestern, Tyrell Sutton has been the focal point of the Wildcats’ offense. The senior running back first made his mark in 2005, rushing for a program-record 244 yards against Wisconsin. Sutton surpassed 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons, relying on a mix of agility and breakaway speed, but he has struggled to stay healthy ever since. He missed six games in his junior season with a high ankle sprain. Continue reading »

For the fifth consecutive week, a Wildcats player has sustained a season-ending injury.

Northwestern’s latest casualty: sophomore defensive tackle Corbin Bryant.

Bryant injured his knee in the third quarter of NU’s 21-14 win at Michigan on Saturday. He will need surgery to repair the damage. Continue reading »

After missing Northwestern’s last two games due to injury, it appears quarterback C.J. Bachér will play Saturday at Michigan.

The senior is listed as “probable” in this week’s recently released injury report. He hurt his right hamstring while running for a first down late in NU’s loss to Indiana three weeks ago. He did not appear in the Wildcats’ victory over Minnesota two weeks ago or their loss to Ohio State last week, although coach Pat Fitzgerald indicated Bachér could have played against the Buckeyes in an emergency. Continue reading »

The injury bug continues to bite Northwestern.

The victim of the latest sting? Running back Omar Conteh.

The senior had season-ending knee surgery Friday to repair a ligament he injured in a non-contact drill at Wednesday’s practice. The ailment kept him out of Saturday’s loss to Ohio State. Continue reading »

With less than a minute remaining in the third quarter, Ohio State faced a second-and-goal at the Northwestern 6-yard line. Buckeyes freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor took the shotgun snap and rolled out toward the right as he was chased from behind.

Nearing the sideline, it looked like Pryor would either run out of bounds or be corralled by the Wildcats for a loss. Instead, the dual-threat sensation shrugged off an intended sack, sidestepped an ankle tackle and juked past a diving defender, all while looking downfield. Pryor threw across his body and found senior tight end Rory Nicol in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.

As easily as Pryor shook the intended tackles, Ohio State shook NU’s hopes of an upset, topping the Cats 45-10.

Continue reading »

Mike Kafka was back to his running ways again. In the first half, Ohio State could do little to stop him.

The junior quarterback started his second straight game in place of injured starter C.J. Bachér, who was out with a strained right hamstring. While Kafka was unable to run with the same effectiveness he had against Minnesota, he led the Wildcats (7-3, 3-3 Big Ten) in rushing with 83 yards and scored Northwestern’s only touchdown of the day.

“He played good,” running back Stephen Simmons said of Kafka.

For the second straight week, the junior signal-caller led the offense down the field for a touchdown on NU’s opening drive. While the Buckeyes (8-2, 5-1) repeatedly stacked the line of scrimmage, Kafka ran around and through Ohio State’s talented linebacker corps.

Continue reading »

Now that the dust has settled on another Ohio State throttling of Northwestern, let’s take a (painful) look back at the keys to the game, and see where things went wrong for the Wildcats.

1. Who will play quarterback? — Junior Mike Kafka took every snap for NU, while C.J. Bacher remained on the sidelines. He could not match his performance from a week ago against Minnesota — and how could he? But he was solid, completing 18 of 27 passes for 177 yards and rushing for 83 more on 27 attempts. He did turn the ball over two times, but both came after the game had been decided.

Verdict: Whether it was out of necessity or it was a judgment call, Pat Fitzgerald chose not to give Bacher any playing time. But it’s hard to imagine Bacher would have done much better than Kafka against this defense.

2. Containing Terrelle Pryor — The freshman phenom finished with 197 passing yards, 33 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Although his running wasn’t a major factor for most of the game, he did break containment a few times to pick up big first downs with his legs.

Verdict: Clearly, the Cats decided they would make Pryor beat them with his arm, and he did just that. Plus, he threw in a couple of absolutely back-breaking runs. This was a major factor in the outcome.

3. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers — The Cats turned over the ball three times. The first came with OSU ahead 14-7 and led to a Buckeyes field goal. The last two came with the game essentially decided. Defensively, the Cats failed to force a single turnover.

Verdict: In their three losses this season, the Cats have lost the turnover battle 11-0. When NU turns over the ball and doesn’t force turnovers, it loses. It’s as simple as that.

Final thoughts: Unlike in the Indiana game, at least NU can say it lost to a better team today. Still, it’s disappointing to see another blowout loss to the Buckeyes. Here are your reasons why:

1. The defense’s inability to stop OSU on third downs, especially third-and-long plays.

2. Losing the turnover battle.

3. Some phenomenal plays by Pryor.

4. The offense’s inability to generate big plays, and at times, the coaches’ conservative play-calling.

Northwestern opens the offense a little after the halftime break. Mike Kafka finds Rasheed Ward over the middle of the field. After a loss on a play, Kafka turns a broken play in to a 17-yard rush.

Despite being listed as probably, there appears to be no sign of C.J. Bacher in this game. Kafka will be the on engineering any comeback the Wildcats might make today. The offense is moving quickinly in Ohio State territory.

The playcalling gets conservative in the redzone again as Kafka runs up the middle for minimal gain. Amado Villareal hits the field goal to make it a two-score deficit.

Kafka clearly has the ability to make big plays with his legs and his arm. The Buckeyes are starting to close down Kafka’s runs. If the Cats are going to erase this 14-point deficit, they must throw the ball. They have to find a way to efficiently and aggressively throw the ball and create a better passing attack.

Chris Wells was banged up a little bit in the first half, but he looks pretty healthy right now. He is starting to bounce off of NU tacklers and picking huge chunks of yards. Wells had 95 yards on 17 carries in the first half, including a 55-yard touchdown run.

The drive stalls at about midfield and NU will take over just inside the 20.

Kafka breaksthrough the line for a gain of 26 yards to about midfield. He is still running the ball pretty effectively and dodging tacklers. Kafka may not be as athletic or as fast as some of the Ohio State defenders, but he has fantastic vision and seems to find a running hole whever there is one.

Down 14 in the middle of the third quarter, coach Pat Fitzgerald is making a good call sticking with his gameplan. The Cats will have to score pretty soon though if Kafka is going to keep running. Kafka has over 100 yards rushing for the second straight week.

Apparently Terrelle Pryor is not the best running quarterback in this game. Pryor is dragged down from behind by Corey Wootton on third down for a big three and out form the Northwestern defense.

Kafka had 35 yards on 10 carries in the first drive of the game for the Wildcats, which ended in the game-tying score. But NU comes out with a few passing plays, including a quick swing to Andrew Brewer for a first down. Nothing down the field though.

On third down, Kafka throws over the middle for Ross Lane and defensive tackle Nader Abdallah nearly picks it off at the line. Expect some more runs from Kafka before NU tries to throw the ball again as the team punts it back to Ohio State.

Pryor tries the option for the first time and Kevin Mims meets him the backfield for a loss of seven yards. The Cats want to keep the ball in Pryor’s hands in this game. He is going to get some good runs because of his athletic ability. But with a couple of big losses already they could try and force him to throw. That did not work as he found a receiver deep for the Buckeyes’ only score in the first quarter.

Sit tight in this one.

The sell out crowd is mostly in red as the student section is not even full. The nearly freezing temperatures are definitely keeping some people away. There are plenty of seats left empty at kickoff.

Don’t underestimate the effect of the weather in this game. The wind knocked the ball off the tee on the opening kickoff and was blowing pretty strongly north before kickoff - a long field goal is definitely possible.

The Wildcats start the game off inauspiciously with a facemask penalty by Prince Kwateng on a run for no gain by Chris “Beanie” Wells.  Northwestern got torched by Wells last year with 100 yards on 12 rushes. After the Buckeyes picked up a first down, the Cats forced Wells in to a 10-yard loss with some good pressure in the backfield.

How well NU stops Wells and force freshman Terrell Pryor to throw the ball will be key. He is stepping up. He picked up a third-and-long and threw a 44-yard pass to Brian Hartline to the two yard line. It set up a touchdown by Wells.

The defense clearly has prepared for Wells, and they should want the ball in Pryor’s hands. The freshman is known for his work with his legs, but he has showed off his arm with two nice passes. The secondary cannot let Pryor have a big passing day if they want to win.

It looks like starting Mike Kafka was hte right call for coach Pat Fitzgerald. Kafka is showing the same running skills he showed last week at Minnesota. He has made the safe passes and is reading his running holes very well and even breaking some Ohio State tackles.

It looks like the safe play calling involving Kafka in the run is very effective even against a stout defense like the Buckeyes’. NU drives pretty easily inside the Ohio State 10-yard line with seemingly the same running play with Kafka running the ball.

The Buckeyes get called for their second late hit penalty of the game and the Cats get the a first and goal at the two. Two plays later Kafka spins his way into the endzone to put NU on the board.

If Ohio State cannot stop Kafka running the ball - like Minnesota couldn’t - why not keep doing it. Kafka rushed the last eight plays of the drive, all on designed runs.