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The Northwestern Wildcats have the luxury of staying home another week and will welcome the Miami (OH) RedHawks at 7:30 p.m. ET Sept. 24 at Ryan Field. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W.'
It was all tied up 14-14 at halftime, but the Wildcats were not quite the Southern Illinois Salukis' equal in the second half when they met last week. Northwestern came up short against SIU, falling 31-24. If the result catches you off guard, it should: Northwestern was far and away the favorite. One thing holding Northwestern back was the mediocre play of QB Ryan Hilinski, who did not have his best game: despite two touchdowns, he threw two interceptions and fumbled the ball once with only 4.95 yards per passing attempt.
Meanwhile, Miami (OH) scored first but ultimately less than the Cincinnati Bearcats in their game last week. The RedHawks' painful 38-17 defeat to Cincinnati might stick with them for a while. Miami (OH) was surely aware of their 24-point disadvantage in the point spread, but the foreknowledge did nothing to prevent the result. No one had a standout game offensively for Miami (OH), but they got scores from WR Mac Hippenhammer and TE Jack Coldiron.
The losses bumped both teams down to an identical 1-2. A pair of defensive numbers to keep in mind before kickoff: Northwestern enters the contest having picked the ball off four times, good for 19th in the nation. Miami (OH) is completely their equal: they also come into the matchup with four interceptions.
