Northwestern’s offense finally scored a touchdown. It came with 7 minutes 5 seconds remaining in the third quarter of the Wildcats’ home opener Saturday against Texas Christian and ended an offensive TD drought of a mere 97:55.
And Northwestern tailback Jason Wright set one school record by taking the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown and another by totaling 191 yards on his three kickoff returns for the day. That in turn helped the Wildcats set a school record for kickoff-return yardage with 270.
But the rest of their performance at sun-splashed Ryan Field, where they were routed 48-24 by the Horned Frogs?
It was as dismal as the day was glorious, a bumbling and stumbling and humbling and fumbling display that would make fit fodder for the next edition of “Football Follies.”
This was not merely a matter of the Wildcats (0-2) following up their season-opening 49-point loss to Air Force. Nor was it that they lost six fumbles and threw an interception, which caused NU coach Randy Walker to moan: “I don’t think I’ve ever coached a team that had seven turnovers in a game. I can’t even get remotely close to that.”
It wasn’t even their continued uncertainty at quarterback, where Brett Basanez, Tony Stauss and true freshman Alexander Webb spun through the revolving door Saturday. No. It was the style in which they made their errors and the way they frittered away the opportunity to blow open the game early.
That possibility was there after Wright’s return and a turnover by TCU quarterback Sean Stilley on the Horned Frogs’ second play of the game. Basanez, in the first start of his career, drove the Wildcats to a first down at the 1-yard line. But Wright lost 3 yards, Basanez threw two incompletions and NU settled for a 22-yard field goal from David Wasielewski.
“That was the turning point,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said, and linebacker LaMarcus McDonald agreed.
“We anchored ourselves off that,” McDonald said, “and that gave our offense a little more confidence.”
The Horned Frogs gained enough confidence to run off 41 points in a row.
TCU scored first on a safety after NU center Chris Horton’s long snap to punter Brian Huffman was so high not even Yao Ming could have pulled it in.
A field goal came after Basanez fumbled on a quarterback sneak from the shotgun before he got hit, and the Horned Frogs’ first touchdown came after Wildcats returner Mark Philmore simply stood there and watched a TCU punt hit him in the foot and bounce to LaTarence Dunbar.
Then Basanez, scrambling, fumbled the ball into the air when McDonald hit him, and defensive tackle John Turntine pulled it down and ran it in to put his team up 20-10.
“I was too casual with the ball. I need to focus more on holding it tighter,” said Basanez, but he wasn’t the only Wildcat who made errors normally corrected in Pop Warner.
Take linebacker Eric VanderHorst and defensive end Greg Lutzen. They bit so hard on a fake that Horned Frogs QB Tye Gunn waltzed into the end zone untouched on a reverse.
Or safety Jarvis Adams. He missed an easy tackle on Dunbar, who was then free to take a simple crossing pattern 66 yards to set up TCU’s last score of the first half.
The Frogs were up 34-10 at the half. At the end of the day they not only had seven turnovers but 441 yards of total offense.
Basanez (6-for-17, 74 yards, 1 TD, 3 fumbles), Stauss (8-for-12, 50 yards) and Webb (2-for-6, 45 yards) could not match that, and Webb ended up going to the hospital to have some bruised ribs checked.
“Poor play,” Wright said when asked the reason for his team’s countless errors.
Poor play, indeed.
