UCLA Football Preview: Passing May Be the Key for Northwestern's Offense

So far, the Wildcats have run the ball more than they have thrown it.

SMU transfer Preston Stone is the only quarterback to throw a pass so far this season for Northwestern. (Photo Credit: Griffin Quinn/NUSports.com)

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Let’s continue this week’s UCLA football previews with a look at the Northwestern offense. The Wildcats’ offense is predominantly a running offense. Northwestern has run the ball 55% of the time so far, and that’s despite falling behind big in two of their three games so far. It’s also despite the fact that the Wildcats lost starting running back Cam Porter to a leg injury against Western Illinois.

In fact, Northwestern ran the ball a higher percentage of the time against Oregon without Porter. In that game, 37 of 59 offensive plays were runs, even though they would end up losing the game by 20 points.

That’s almost at the Chip Kelly level of stubbornness in offensive playcalling.

It also eats up a lot of the clock unless you’re playing with tempo, making it even harder to comeback from a deficit.

If Northwestern insists on keeping the ball on the ground, it may present an opportunity for UCLA to win their first game of the season.

Let’s look at the Wildcats’ offensive personnel.

Quarterback

Grad transfer Preston Stone joined Northwestern this year after spending four years at SMU. He is the only quarterback to see any action for the Wildcats this season. It’s been a tale of two seasons for Stone. He played very well against Western Illinois, completing 72.4% of his passes and throwing for 245 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

But the Tulane and Oregon games tell a much different story.

In those games, he completed just 52.8% and 52.4%, respectively. In those losses, he didn’t throw a single touchdown, but he threw four interceptions against the Green Wave and two more against the Ducks. He was held to 161 passing yards against Tulane and 135 against Oregon.

Stone isn’t much of a dual threat either. While he ran three times for nine yards against Western Illinois, in four runs against Tulane he lost 42 yards. In six carries against Oregon, he lost 14 yards.

Rushing Game

The loss of Cam Porter for the season due to a leg injury has definitely hurt the Northwestern ground game. Before his injury, Porter had carried 18 times for 137 net yards, which is an average of 7.6 yards per carry.

With him out, look for redshirt sophomore Caleb Komolafe to be the starter. Komolafe has carried 36 times this season for 150 net yards. That’s an average of just 4.2 yards per carry. So, Porter’s loss has almost diminished the productivity from the Wildcats’ starting running back by 50%. You would think that there’s almost no way that doesn’t make a big impact on Northwestern’s offense, and it can’t not do that.

But against Tulane, Porter only ran for 46 yards while he ran for 91 yards against Western Illinois. So, his impact, while missed, may be skewed by bigger numbers against a much lesser opponent.

Komolafe will be backed up by Joseph Himon II. Neither of these guys has really distinguished himself this season. Against the Ducks, they combined for 118 yards on 28 carries. Neither one has run for more than 65 yards in a game this season.

One back to look out for is redshirt freshman Deshun Reeder. While he carried three times against Western Illinois for 13 yards, he did break a big 79-yard run for a touchdown in his only carry against Oregon. That breakout may just get help him move up the depleted depth chart.

Passing Game

Given that Northwestern’s offense tends to favor the running game overall, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to find that the Wildcats have started two tight ends in two of their three games this season. Interestingly, those were the two games they lost.

Against Western Illinois, they opted to start just one tight end in favor of a third wide receiver.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Stone’s favorite target this season has been Griffin Wilde. That’s because Wilde is the only Northwestern receiver to have started all three games this season. Wilde has made 15 receptions for 213 yards but he hasn’t found the end zone yet.

Stone’s second-favorite target has been Himon out of the backfield. Himon has seven receptions for 59 yards. Meanwhile, tight end Hunter Welcing has five receptions for 55 yards. Welcing is the only receiver with more than three catches with a touchdown this season.

The only other receiver with more than three receptions is redshirt sophomore Ricky Ahumaraeze, who has four receptions for 73 yards.

Backup receivers Drew Wagner and Hayden Eligon each have three catches for 48 yards and 24 yards, respectively. Each has a touchdown reception.

Analysis

Looking at Northwestern’s season so far, when the Wildcats move the ball well through both the air and on the ground, they win. When they don’t move it well, like against Tulane and Oregon, they lose.

That means the challenge UCLA will have on Saturday is to find a way to stop the Northwestern offense. If the Bruins can do that, and combine it with better play on offense, they could pick up their first win of the season and the first under interim head coach Tim Skipper.

The Bruins are the real question mark here. Will they look like Tulane and Oregon or will they more closely resemble what the Wildcats faced against Western Illinois?

Based on what I’ve seen so far this season, I’m concerned that the answer to that question is the latter.


Go Bruins!

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