Persa, Northwestern top Illinois State 37-3
It's not supposed to be a fair fight when FBS and FCS teams meet.
The Wildcats chose to use their hurry-up tempo from the start Saturday morning, which frequently meant snapping the ball within 11 seconds after the previous play ended.
"We thought they might try to slow the tempo down," said NU coach Pat Fitzgerald. "So we really felt like for us to get the number of plays we needed to get to, we needed to play fast today."
Northwestern scored on five of its six first-half possessions and rolled to a 37-3 non-conference win before an announced crowd of 25,471 at Ryan Field in Evanston.
"We tried to warn our players how fast this no-huddle is," said Illinois State coach Brock Spack, who used to be Purdue's defensive coordinator. "But it's hard to simulate in practice."
"Right away they're not so much tired as they don't get lined up exactly right, so you can take advantage of little lineup problems," said quarterback Dan Persa. "As the game wears on, it definitely wears on a defense."
Persa enjoyed another absurdly efficient day as he hit 19 of 23 passes for 240 yards and 2 scores before sitting down less than three minutes into the second half.
Persa has completed 38 of 44 passes for 462 yards and 5 TDs without an interception. "You can't be 90 percent all the time, you know," Persa deadpanned.
Northwestern's primary runner benefited just as much from the quickstep as Persa.
Sophomore Arby Fields, who finished with minus-7 yards last week at Vanderbilt, rushed 22 times for a career-high 96 yards and a touchdown. The Wildcats posted 163 rushing yards overall, their best showing since Week 2 last year.
"(Left tackle) Al Netter told me before the game, 'Arby, I'm going to make holes. Just run through them,' " said Fields, who ran sideways too frequently last week. "I just worked on being patient. We sealed our blocks today. I'm real proud of the way the offensive line came out today."
Not to be outdone, Northwestern's defense gave up a few big plays early but created 4 turnovers and posted 3 sacks.
The Wildcats (2-0) were able to get a pass rush with their down linemen, which enabled them to drop seven against Illinois State's Matt Brown (13 of 22, 138 yards).
Late in the second quarter, defensive end Quentin Williams and Vince Browne earned quarterback hurries that turned into easy interceptions by Quentin Davie.
The Wildcats turned the first pick into a 1-yard touchdown plunge by Fields. Davie's second pick (and 46-yard return) set up Persa's 5-yard touchdown pass to tight end Drake Dunsmore with 10 seconds left in the first half.
Blessed with a 30-3 halftime lead, the Wildcats gave Persa one second-half series before substituting liberally the rest of the day.
That led to welcome sights, such as redshirt freshman quarterback Evan Watkins (Glenbard North) making his debut and getting to run five series.
The last of those series ended with a 1-yard touchdown plunge by fourth-string back Mike Trumpy (Wheaton North) in his first college action.
There also were some remarkable sights, such as when fifth-year senior defensive tackle Corbin Bryant picked off a screen pass and rumbled 17 yards with his first career touch.
"I question Corbin's running ability," Fitzgerald joked. "Wow. He looked like a defensive tackle with the ball in his hands. Cut right back into a guy."
"I saw the quarterback had the angle on me," Bryant said with a laugh. "So I just tried to go and knock him out, but he (under)cut me."