Northwestern 42, Syracuse 41: Postgame Thread

That was a terrible game. Venric Mark did his best to win the game on his own, and Chi Chi Ariguzo got a couple of absolute gift takeaways to set up two more scores. The offense was bad, the defense was worse, and the only reason the game was competitive was that Syracuse self-destructed with unforced turnovers and penalties. Mark is clearly the Northwestern player of the game, and he looked like a potential star. I still don't get how Northwestern won given the rest of the team. The secondary was the obvious goat, but the pass rush was still mostly absent, and the linebackers struggled to fill on a few long runs. The offensive line was mostly ineffective in both run and pass protection. The receivers were pretty good, I guess, even with two drops on the day, but that is small consolation.

Next week, Vanderbilt comes to Evanston. Practice this week has a lot of things to work on.