Northwestern's defensive strengths and matchup notes

wsg Rodger Sherman, founder of Sports!, formerly of The Ringer, coiner of "Fetty Wapping," college football hero.

The Sponsors

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Featured Musician: Terry Klein

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] 

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Not necessarily in this order.

1. Northwestern Preview

starts at the top

They're fine. Their offense plods but for one good receiver or when their QB throws an INT, which he's got accuracy problems that were visible when he was a Rhett Ashlee QB at SMU. Their defense is decent, rotates, plays sound football of a Lloyd variety. Alex likes edge Aidan Hubbard more than Michael Kilbane (whom PFF prefers). Their DTs are a little undersized so they jump behind the line of scrimmage, which Nebraska was able to exploit down the stretch.

2. Northwestern Preview cont. wsg Rodger Sherman

starts at 13:56

What's it like being a Northwestern fan these days? It's spending $800 million on an unnecessary stadium instead of players, because you can't put your name on players.

3. Wake Forest After-Action Report, and a short TCU Preview

starts at 27:45

How many ways can we say Mara is a star? Defensive ceiling is ridiculous. Three-big lineup needs a name. We also talk about Matt D's findings regarding the defensive play of Michigan's guards, which was not at all what we expected.

4. Purdue Upon Further Review

starts at 44:58

Young offensive line plus Zack Marshall and Jalen Hoffman continue to be good blockers—might meet their match vs Ohio State. Jordan Marshall is a beast. Bryce's second half wasn't great either—he was not feeling comfortable in the pocket, missed some RPO reads he made earlier. Need a bye to get right. Defensively, I wasn't mad about Wink. Don't say on the internet that I was mad. Defensively the kids were not alright and the defensive rotations were still weird, but more explainable given the injury circumstances. Long drives were explainable until Purdue figured out they were just running nail (where you insert a blitzing LB as a 5th lineman and play 5-1). Interested in Lugard Edokpayi.

Featured Artist: Terry Klein

I usually don't go for country music, but I do when it's made by Terry Klein (LSA 1995), a folk country artist from Austin who's been touring festivals the most hallowed singer-songwriter venues across the country for decades, and reading a lot of MGoBlog between stops. His last album Leave the Light On won a bunch of acclaim, making American Songwriter's list of the best records released in 2023. His fifth album, Hill Country Folk Music, just came out.

Songs:

• I Used To Be Cool
• The Dirty Third
• The Job Interview Song    

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat