The week leading up to Northwestern's game against Illinois at Wrigley Field Saturday was filled with surprises.
On Nov. 13 starting quarterback Dan Persa—arguably the single most important player in any Big 10 offense—was lost for the season when he suffered a non-contact Achilles tendon tear seconds after throwing the game-winning touchdown against Iowa.
Later in the week the Wildcats' plans to take the "L" to Wrigley were foiled when the university failed to come to an agreement with the CTA.
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On Friday head coach Pat Fitzgerald and the Wildcats were informed that all offensive drives would begin facing the west end zone after it was determined the east end zone was too close to the right-field wall.
So, come game day when all the Wildcats had to do was take the field, it was reasonable for Fitzgerald to assume the surprises were over. Little did he know that their biggest one of the season had yet to come.
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The Wildcats allowed the Illini 519 yards rushing in a 48-27 loss to Illinois.
"It was embarrassing," Northwestern defensive end Vince Browne said. "That's not us and we're going to get better and we're going to fix it."
Northwestern couldn't find an answer for Illinois running back Mikel Leshoure who rushed for 330 yards and two touchdowns—the largest single-game rushing total in college football this season.
The Illinois running attack was so effective that Illinois' pass-happy offensive coordinator Paul Petrino only called 14 pass plays.
"I thought he [Leshoure] ran well, I thought we tackled very poorly," Fitzgerald said. "I mean it just came down to that. We had guys in position to make plays and we just didn't tackle."
In Persa's stead, redshirt freshman Evan Watkins got his first collegiate start under center on the biggest regular season stage the Wildcats would see in 2010.
Though Persa's scrambling ability was missed, Watkins turned in a commendable performance completing 10 of 20 passes for 135 yards and throwing one interception.
But Fitzgerald's focused remained on his defense who couldn't get the Illinois offense off the field.
After all, Persa hadn't played a snap of defense all season—leaving the Wildcats without an excuse for as undisciplined a performance as Fitzgerald has seen since taking over as head coach in 2006.
"We've got to make a decision on the team we want to be," Fitzgerald said. "We've been in this position before a couple of weeks ago [after a 35-21 loss to Penn State] walking out of the locker room not feeling good and we responding pretty boldly beating the No. 13 team [Iowa] in the country. That's what I talked to them about."
