Northwestern Reading Room: Wildcats are two blown big leads from being in Big Ten title discussion

It's one thing to say that but for a play here and there, you'd be having a big season.

Lots of games are decided by one score. Iowa has two such games in the Big Ten this year, and split them.

But Northwestern would be 4-1 in the conference today instead of 2-3 had it not blown leads of 17 points to Michigan State on Oct. 23 and of 21 at Penn State Saturday.

The Wildcats opened a 17-0 lead on MSU in Evanston, but gave up 28 second-half points and lost, 35-27.

Northwestern won 20-17 at Indiana the week after that. Returning to the road Saturday, the Wildcats raced to a 21-0 lead at Penn State. Teddy Greenstein's story in the Chicago Tribune elaborates.

(Joe) Paterno has 48 years of life experience on the 35-year-old Fitzgerald, who at times still seems to be finding his way.

His post-game comments left some confusion.

At one point he said, "I'm proud of our guys' fight."

What fight was that exactly? A more realistic quote regarded how his team, in the span of five Penn State possessions, went from up 21-0 to down 35-21.

"We have to fix our attitude to be able to seize momentum back," he said.

Northwestern's rushing defense didn't allow that momentum to be re-seized, as this Chicago Sun-Times story details:

One of the reasons the Wildcats (6-3, 2-3) couldn't get the momentum back in the second half was because their defense allowed 167 yards rushing. Penn State had only 93 yards rushing in the first half before the Lions turned to running backs Evan Royster (134 yards) and Silas Redd (131).

''It really stings,'' linebacker Nate Williams said. ''They ran hard and physical and ran through some hard tackles that we have to [fix] in the coming week. They ran hard and had some pretty big explosion runs. We have to fix that.''

James Fegan, the Notre Dame football blogger for ChicagoNow.com has an interesting piece suggesting the Fighting Irish should try to emulate Northwestern. Oh, how that worm has turned.

Fegan writes:

We should try to be like Northwestern. Not because our only hope is to become a middling Big Ten fringe contender, or because they're my 2nd-favorite college football team in the world, but because they're already so much like us anyway.

They compete against BCS-conference talent with regularity, they're (sic) recruiting is said to be hindered by rigorous academic standards, they play in cold mid-western environments, and they run the spread. But unlike Notre Dame, they're almost certainly headed to their 3rd straight bowl game, and seem to be getting better as a program. ...

From a talent perspective, Northwestern is far more successful than they should be.  Alternatively, from a talent perspective, Notre Dame are waaaay worse than they should be.  Faced with a recruiting disadvantage, Northwestern has gotten by picking up odd pieces looked over by competitors that they felt meshed well with their style.  Running a spread offense based on quick execution, this has largely manifested itself in going with undersized players, which are always available to them in a conference obsessed with size.  Quick (but without top end speed) and undersized backs like Jason Wright and Tyrell Sutton have proved to be optimal fits, while the slightly-built QB Dan Persa was passed on by other Big Ten squads, but his mobility was a big plus for NU and his lack of arm strength wasn't a deterrent. ...

Northwestern believes they can win every game.  They embrace an underdog role, they play for respect, and it gives them an edge.

Being who they are, Notre Dame most certainly does not embrace an underdog role.  They play tentatively, like they're trying to maintain a reputation they never had a hand in earning.