Defensive domination drives NU win
HOUSTON - Northwestern employed an outstanding defensive game to shut down Rice and powered its way to just its second 3-0 start in the last eight years.
Dan Persa threw for 307 yards and a touchdown to lead the Wildcats to a 30-13 victory Saturday night.
Persa, who completed 24 of 32 passes and was not intercepted, also ran for a touchdown for the Wildcats, who have won 10 of their last 13 road games and are averaging 30 points per game.
The Wildcats also started 3-0 in 2008, when they won their first five games.
"I thought we had a really good plan tonight, and I thought we executed it well," Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "Our defense really stepped up; they created turnovers and left a short field for the offense."
The Northwestern defense scored the first touchdown of the game on Quentin Davie's interception return of 11 yards in the first half to open up a 13-0 lead.
"(Davie's) got three (of those) picks now, and he was wide open on a fourth tonight that he dropped," Fitzgerald said. "The good news is he caught that one and took it to the house for a huge play."
The Wildcats kept Rice (1-2) out of the end zone until the final 14 seconds of the game, when Turner Petersen scored on a 10-yard run.
The Owls' Nick Fanuzzi was 20 of 34 for 211 yards and an interception. Rice turned the ball over twice and committed 6 penalties for 60 yards.
"We are a pretty good team, but we are not good enough to overcome our mistakes," said Rice coach David Bailiff.
The first half was a defensive struggle, with the only TD coming on Davie's interception of Taylor Cook. Fanuzzi relieved Cook at that point and Chris Boswell kicked a 31-yard field goal for Rice's only first-half points.
"We expected the things we saw and we just had to go in at halftime and settle down," Fitzgerald said. "We just needed to make a couple of tweaks to our game plan. I thought we did that, and it paid dividends."
Davie finished with 10 tackles, 4 solo, for Northwestern, which hosts Central Michigan next week before beginning the Big Ten season.
Persa's 18-yard touchdown run put the Wildcats ahead 27-6 with 4:07 left in the third quarter. He ended the game with 34 yards on 9 carries, while Arby Fields was Northwestern's top rusher with 17 carries and 55 yards. Stefan Demos had field goals of 42, 28 and 21 yards for the Wildcats.
Rice running back Sam McGuffie, who had 4 receptions last week in a win at North Texas, had a season - and career-high 7 catches Saturday for 48 yards. The transfer from Michigan also had 30 yards on the ground, just behind Charles Ross' 31.
"I was really proud of our guys tonight," Bailiff said. "They gave up 2 field goals to a Big Ten team (in the first half). But we have got to have great offense, a great defense, great special teams and they have to be consistent."
Rice, of Conference USA, had not played a Big Ten school since 2002, when the Owls lost 27-10 at Michigan State.