It can be real difficult sometimes to be a fan of the Northwestern Wildcats. They can play like World Beaters against teams like Michigan, Iowa, or Wisconsin, but every year they seem to lose a game that just makes you scratch your head and say how? In the past it has been to teams like Duke, Miami of Ohio, or Indiana. This year it was today against Army.
Northwestern (2-1) just seemed flat right out of the gate against the Black Knights. Army (1-2) used their wishbone attack to control the game and keep Northwestern's offense off the field. Northwestern was unable to stop the Army attack which led to their first defeat of the season.
After Northwestern failed to put any points on the board during their first drive of the game, Army did what they do best. Run the ball and eat up clock. The Black Knights drove 81 yards on 18 plays that ate up almost nine minutes off the clock and scored on a 17 yard run from quarterback Trent Steelman.
Northwestern did end up tying the game on a nice drive of their own that covered 51 yards on 11 plays ending with a 14 yard pass from Kain Colter to Jeremy Ebert. That would be the only real nice long drive Northwestern could put together all day.
Army would take the lead in the the third quarter on another Steelman touchdown run, but Northwestern would tie things up on a 61 yard TD pass to Ebert from Trevor Siemian. That would be it though for the Wildcats offense as Army was able to march down the field one more time and Steelman scored the game winning touchdown with 2:49 left on the clock.
Northwestern will look to rebound in their next game in two weeks against the Fighting Illini in Champaign.