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Northwestern opens Chip Kelly era with 34-18 win over FCS power SDSU

jne381

jne381

Freshman
Sep 2, 2013
553
81
23
The first two play of the offense had me hyped up for the season, but then things came back down to Earth.

I didn't expect NU to walk all over SDSU, and I thought it may be a tough game, and that is how it turned out. The defense did bend a lot, but didn't break. The offense showed some signs of explosiveness.

It will be important to see how this team can improve week to week. They have been good at this in years past, so I have hope for the rest of the season. I have concerns about how much pressure was getting to Chiles. Teams are going to get better, and if the O. line can't keep people out of the backfield, it is going to create issues. Chiles has the talent, but like at MSU, if he is getting hit a lot, it is not going to be good.
 
P

phatcat_rivals223240

All-Conference
Nov 5, 2001
19,121
1,218
113
jne381 said:
The first two play of the offense had me hyped up for the season, but then things came back down to Earth.

I didn't expect NU to walk all over SDSU, and I thought it may be a tough game, and that is how it turned out. The defense did bend a lot, but didn't break. The offense showed some signs of explosiveness.

It will be important to see how this team can improve week to week. They have been good at this in years past, so I have hope for the rest of the season. I have concerns about how much pressure was getting to Chiles. Teams are going to get better, and if the O. line can't keep people out of the backfield, it is going to create issues. Chiles has the talent, but like at MSU, if he is getting hit a lot, it is not going to be good.
Click to expand...
Yeah with EO out AND Carsello hurt, we would be really thin. And the DL got no pressure against a (good) fcs team.

But there were a lot of big plays and no turnovers. How many games have we lost where we played well but gave up a couple of big plays? Those aren't "lucky", they are a game plan..I would have preferred to give Komo and Sawchuk 25 carries each, but that means Himon misses the opportunity to break away.
 
eddie_gocats

eddie_gocats

Senior
Sep 4, 2018
1,449
512
107
Trust your OC... long time since I had confidence in our O playcalling!

"On the first offensive snap of the 2026 season, Chiles dropped back on a play-action pass and fired a strike over the middle to a wide-open Wilde, who carried the ball all the way down to the SDSU 11-yard line. Chiles said that they had worked on that play all week after seeing something in the SDSU defense they thought they could exploit."
 
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Fanaticat98

Senior
May 29, 2001
9,193
810
113
As it turns out, it was important to take advantage of whatever they saw in the D early on since they recovered and slowed us down (or we slowed ourselves down too with false starts) for a while after that. I like the approach.
 
D

Deeringfish

All-Conference
Jun 23, 2008
21,752
1,705
63
Fanaticat98 said:
As it turns out, it was important to take advantage of whatever they saw in the D early on since they recovered and slowed us down (or we slowed ourselves down too with false starts) for a while after that. I like the approach.
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I haven't rewatched the game yet but I feel like NU slowed itself down. There were a few dropped passes that his the WR in the hands or where the WR T Rexed it. It really killed a couple of drives.
 
K

katatonic2

Sophomore
Dec 1, 2025
204
153
43
eddie_gocats said:
Trust your OC... long time since I had confidence in our O playcalling!

"On the first offensive snap of the 2026 season, Chiles dropped back on a play-action pass and fired a strike over the middle to a wide-open Wilde, who carried the ball all the way down to the SDSU 11-yard line. Chiles said that they had worked on that play all week after seeing something in the SDSU defense they thought they could exploit."
Click to expand...

Totally refreshing to see the Cats let it loose on the 1st drive...
 
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