Worth the wait - Ward puts it all together Saturday
IOWA CITY - His teammates and coaches have seen it in practice, and Northwestern fans finally got to see it in a game Saturday in Iowa City.
Rasheed Ward picked a good time for his career game. The senior wide receiver from Harper in Chicago caught a career-best 10 passes for 94 yards and a touchdown.
"Rasheed has made a ton of plays his entire career and we were kind of waiting for his breakout game," quarterback C.J. Bacher said. "I kept coming to him and he kept producing."
Like his coach Pat Fitzgerald and a couple teammates, Ward used a boxing analogy to explain the win, Northwestern's second straight in Iowa City.
"We talked about it being a 15-round fight," Ward said. "We had to go down to the wire. That was our focus coming into this game."
Fellow senior wideout Eric Peterman also came up big with 2 touchdown receptions as the Northwestern passing game clicked again after 4 interceptions last week.
"We have the motto is it is about us this year," Peterman said. "We've taken the mind-set of getting ourselves right before we worry about what defenses we are going up against."
Closing success: Northwestern improved to 16-3 in its last 19 games decided by 7 points or less.
"That's a testament to our players the way they keep battling," Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said.
"This is the first time this team has come into a hostile environment. I like the way we kept fighting in first quarter, second quarter, but we felt at halftime we hadn't played our best football yet."
Coaching 101: Up 17-3 late in the second quarter, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz called timeout after stopping the Wildcats on third down, wanting to give his offense one more chance to extend their lead before halftime.
It might have been a sound, aggressive decision playing by the percentages, but it blew up in a big way.
Northwestern freshman Jeravin Matthews recovered Iowa's fumbled punt, setting up the Wildcats at the Iowa 33. Rasheed Ward made the key reception, a 23-yarder on third down, to give Northwestern first and goal. Bacher found Ward again from a yard out, giving the Wildcats momentum at halftime trailing 17-10 instead of 17-3.
"It was a big play," Fitzgerald said. "Give ourselves a short field and opportunity to score was real big. Momentum is a scary, scary word. It helped us to have positive momentum going into the locker room."
The Hawkeyes also fumbled a kickoff return in the third quarter, though Northwestern failed to score when its drive stalled and Amado Villarreal's field goal missed.
"We controlled the field pretty well," Fitzgerald said. "Obviously the ability to create turnovers in the kicking game and give our offense a short field (helped us)."
Coaching 102: Ferentz also pulled the plug on quarterback Jake Christensen, a highly touted recruit out of Lockport, in favor of sophomore Ricky Stanzi. Stanzi completed 21 of 30 passes for 238 yards, and he burned Northwestern freshman cornerback Jordan Mabin on a 45-yard touchdown strike to Andy Brodell in the second quarter.
Not so fast: Fitzgerald has talked all year of trying to go 1-0 each week, which the Wildcats have now done five times for their 5-0 start. The third-year coach went over .500 for his career at 15-14 with Saturday's win, but he refused to look too far ahead.
"We've got a long way to go," Fitzgerald said. "We have a lot of room for improvement. This is a big win because they are all big in the Big Ten and they are all big when you win them on the road."
Fitzgerald is looking forward to the bye week this week to get a few players healthy, send his coaches out recruiting and see his team continue improving in practice.
"We really need this bye week now," Fitzgerald said. "We're pretty beat up."
One player who looks like he never needs a rest is backup defensive end Vince Browne. The freshman played more and more Saturday in place of Kevin Mims, and he produced with an interception and forced fumble.
"He's learning from a couple sold veterans," Fitzgerald said. "We can't coach his motor. He came to Northwestern with that. We're just proud to have him in our program. He plays relentlessly."
Confidence remains: Fitzgerald gave Amado Villarreal a vote of confidence after his kicker missed a field goal and extra point, and had another field goal blocked. Villarrel had been 8 for 8 on field goals before Saturday.
"I have full belief in Amado," Fitzgerald said.