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http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/278740781.html
Just as the sting of last fall’s seven-game Big Ten losing streak began to fade into the optimism of a new football season, the head winds hit Northwestern once more.
First, the players were at the epicenter of a controversial push for student-athlete unionization, and that was an apparent team distraction during spring ball. Then, on one grim day in August, Northwestern announced both the transfer of star running back Venric Mark and that top receiver Christian Jones was out for the year because of a knee injury. And once this season began, any lingering expectation that the Wildcats could flip-flop their 1-7 conference record of a season ago was all but smashed after a head-scratching start.
Northwestern dropped its first two games, against California and Northern Illinois, before unconvincingly topping Western Illinois. In the eyes of many analysts, they had promptly fallen out of Big Ten contention even before conference play kicked off.
“We couldn’t get out of our own way offensively,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “We couldn’t sustain drives. We couldn’t score points. We left our defense out to dry and left them on the field way too long, and then conversely, our defense didn’t do a good enough job of limiting explosive plays.”
But somehow, heading into Saturday’s matchup against Minnesota (4-1, 1-0 Big Ten) at TCF Bank Stadium, those words now sound foreign.
In the past two weeks, Northwestern (3-2, 2-0) has picked itself off the mat and started swinging, transforming a listless start into perhaps the conference’s most impressive opening weeks. With the Wildcats sitting next to last in the Star Tribune’s power poll for the week, Northwestern traveled to Penn State and shocked the Nittany Lions 29-6. One week later, the Wildcats played host to No. 17 Wisconsin and didn’t slow down, rolling over the Badgers 20-14..
Just as the sting of last fall’s seven-game Big Ten losing streak began to fade into the optimism of a new football season, the head winds hit Northwestern once more.
First, the players were at the epicenter of a controversial push for student-athlete unionization, and that was an apparent team distraction during spring ball. Then, on one grim day in August, Northwestern announced both the transfer of star running back Venric Mark and that top receiver Christian Jones was out for the year because of a knee injury. And once this season began, any lingering expectation that the Wildcats could flip-flop their 1-7 conference record of a season ago was all but smashed after a head-scratching start.
Northwestern dropped its first two games, against California and Northern Illinois, before unconvincingly topping Western Illinois. In the eyes of many analysts, they had promptly fallen out of Big Ten contention even before conference play kicked off.
“We couldn’t get out of our own way offensively,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “We couldn’t sustain drives. We couldn’t score points. We left our defense out to dry and left them on the field way too long, and then conversely, our defense didn’t do a good enough job of limiting explosive plays.”
But somehow, heading into Saturday’s matchup against Minnesota (4-1, 1-0 Big Ten) at TCF Bank Stadium, those words now sound foreign.
In the past two weeks, Northwestern (3-2, 2-0) has picked itself off the mat and started swinging, transforming a listless start into perhaps the conference’s most impressive opening weeks. With the Wildcats sitting next to last in the Star Tribune’s power poll for the week, Northwestern traveled to Penn State and shocked the Nittany Lions 29-6. One week later, the Wildcats played host to No. 17 Wisconsin and didn’t slow down, rolling over the Badgers 20-14..