Last week was essentially a wild success for the Northwestern Wildcats, as they defeated the Indiana Hoosiers 59-38 to win their first Big Ten game of the year. They're not remotely likely to do as well this time around, though, while facing the No. 10 Nebraska Cornhuskers on the road Saturday.
Northwestern's win against Indiana last week signals a major turn of events for the team, which had lost its previous five games, including losses to Iowa and then-ranked Penn State and Illinois by less than ten points apiece. The victory may have come against one of the few teams in the Big Ten that's more hapless than the Wildcats, but it was an important win for a team that's had unprecedented success over the past few years.
They're unlikely to maintain that momentum against a rising Cornhuskers team, though. Nebraska recently clocked in at No. 10 on the latest version of the BCS rankings, and they're coming off a dominant 24-3 victory over then-No. 11 Michigan State last week. The Wildcats are likely to struggle against Nebraska's impressive rushing offense, which currently ranks No. 9 in the country in yards per game.
Northwestern was expected to have a better record than this by now, though, so maybe they're just finding their stride now and will seriously challenge Nebraska. They're going to have to get by a rowdy Cornhuskers crowd to do it.
For more on this match-up, check out Sippin' On Purple, SB Nation's Northwestern Wildcats blog, and Corn Nation, SB Nation's Nebraska Cornhuskers blog.