There was a stunning comeback in the game’s last 72 seconds.
That was admirable.
There was a basic breakdown on the first half’s final play.
That was inexcusable.
There was the victory over Nevada.
That was nice.
But there were countless opportunities missed.
That was disconcerting.
The question, then, is the color of glasses used to view Northwestern as it prepares to meet Duke under the lights Saturday at Ryan Field.
Those fitted with rose-colored lenses only see quarterback C.J. Bacher on that last drive, where he operated coolly, scrambled effectively and finally found Ross Lane under the goal post for the winning touchdown.
But slip on an untinted pair and there is another Bacher, the one who miscommunicated too often with his receivers and badly overthrew a wide-open Lane for what would have been an easy score.
That is now the situation in Evanston, where the Wildcats sit at 2-0 for only the second time since 2001. Their defense, in the second half of their victory, was often a marauding band — passionate, punishing and performing with purpose.
But at day’s end it still had been shredded for 141 yards on 28 carries by Wolf Pack running back Luke Lippincott, who a week earlier had netted minus-5 yards on four carries against Nebraska.
There are so many of these examples now swirling around the Wildcats, who will attempt to run their record to 3-0 Saturday for only the second time since 1962. When their defense needed a stop and their offense needed a drive in those final, frenetic minutes against Nevada, both rose up and produced in exemplary fashion. But earlier the defense twice failed to keep the Wolf Pack pinned in the shadow of its goal post and the offense twice went three-and-out with superb field position.
“Football’s not a game of perfect,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said when considering his team’s alternate personalities. “You heard Walk (the late Randy Walker) say that all the time. Gary (Barnett) said that when he coached me. … It’s just not a game of perfect. You need to go out there and adjust and you need to stay in the moment.
“We really did a good job of that. We didn’t go in at halftime [trailing 24-10] and say the game’s over, let’s throw in the towel and we’ll get ready to play Duke. We went in at halftime, the most impressive thing was our players, the belief and confidence that we’re going to go out and win the football game.”
His Wildcats do have a little swagger about them, that sense of self any team needs to succeed, and that is certain to serve them well in the future. But like so many others in this still-young season, they also are very much a work in progress, a team that is scuffling in its search for an identity.
“Where we’re at right now is a growing and maturing team,” Fitzgerald said, and that is very much the point.
Teams that are fully ripened do not put on the kind of uneven performance his Wildcats did against the Wolf Pack.
“But coach Fitz was talking all week about how we need to respond to adversity,” Bacher said. “In the first game against Northeastern, we really didn’t face any adversity. So I think we learned we’re able to do that and that’s a big thing for us in our maturing process.”
That’s also very much to the point. Teams that merely are hanging on the vine, dormant and with no chance of ripening, do not respond as the Wildcats did against the Wolf Pack.
Yet clearly they still are ripening, which only lends a not-uncertain sense of urgency to their game with Duke. The Blue Devils have lost 22 straight and certainly do not look like a threatening foe. Yet they are just the kind of foe that can induce indolence and result in a letdown that retards the ripening process.
If they truly are a growing and maturing team, the Wildcats won’t let that happen. With Ohio State and Michigan up next on their schedule, the Wildcats can’t let that happen.
“If you look at our season, this is the last game of the quarter for us,” Fitzgerald said earlier this week. “You play four quarters in the (12-game) season, this is the last game, it’s going to be critical that we go out and perform. …
“[Against Nevada], it went all the way down to the wire physically, emotionally and mentally. Now we need to draw strength from that and move forward. … We need to shore some thing ups that we did [poorly] in the first half and put a full game together.”
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smyslenski@tribune.com
