After a disappointing home loss under the lights, many ‘Cats fans may feel as though the early hype brought on by the early hot start was all for naught. However, consider the loss a thing of the past. Given Illinois’ and Michigan’s performances last Saturday, Northwestern’s game against the Spartans may well wind up as the second toughest contest of the season. Furthermore, look for the loss to take some of the pressure off the NU squad as they prepare to bring their invigorated mentality to Ryan Field this Saturday to face Purdue in front of the Homecoming crowd.

Nonetheless, Joe Tiller’s Boilermakers have proved to be problematic in recent meetings, and NU will have to be particularly focused to triumph in this match up. Last year in Ross-Ade Stadium, the Cats, riding a 3-game winning streak, overcame an early deficit to tie the game at the half, a surge which was capped off by a CJ Bacher-Kim Thompson-Eric Peterman hook-and-lateral touchdown play. However, in a collapse which was all too typical for last year’s up-and-down Cats, the Purdue offense scored 21 points in the 2nd half to the Cats 3, ending the ‘Cats hot mid-season spurt.

In Tiller’s last year as head coach of the Purdue program, however, the Boilermakers look to be a bit more vulnerable. The Boilermakers are just 2-4 and have lost three in a row. Much of the slow start can be chalked up to the Boilermaker’s difficult early schedule. Their losses so far have come to Oregon (in overtime), Penn State, Ohio State, and Notre Dame, the first three of which were ranked at the time of the contest. This being said, Purdue is still under performing. The scoring potential of the Curtis Painter-lead offense yielded a mere 9 points in their last two contests against the Nittany Lions and the Buckeyes, two teams with solid but not impenetrable defenses.

In fact, Curtis Painter, whose name was being thrown around before the season started as a Heisman candidate, is part of the problem. Without three-time All-Big-Ten wideout Dorien Bryant (who was drafted by the Steelers but failed a physical in May), stellar tight end Dustin Keller who is now making an impact with the Jets, and running back Jaycen Taylor, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the pre-season, Painter looks rather pedestrian. The active conference leader in passing yardage is playing with a QB rating more than 20 points lower than last year’s figure. After throwing 29 scores in 2007, Painter has thrown a mere 5 TD’s so far this year and has been picked 6 times.

For Pat Fitzgerald’s Wildcats, gaining momentum and maintaining it will be a key to victory Saturday. In a difficult loss to Michigan State, special teams’ miscues, a lack of takeaways, and key interceptions made it impossible for the team to create any sustained momentum. The Spartans’ dominance of the big mo nullified several things NU did well on Saturday, including pressuring Spartans’ quarterback Hoyer and generally limiting the damage inflicted by Javon Ringer.

Fitzgerald addressed the special teams issue, highlighted by Sherrick McManus’ early gaffs on kickoff returns, by hinting that speedy true freshman Jeravin Matthews may get the bulk of the return opportunities against Purdue. Although he is no Desmond Howard, at least not yet, Matthews showed with his 40-yard return against MSU that he possesses the ability to succeed in this new role. McManus, who has been highly productive at times and shaky at others as a return man, is best saved for covering the Cats’ opponents’ primary wide-out.

The ‘Cats will try to solve the second major cause of their inability to generate momentum, their lack of turnovers on defense, by pressuring Painter. To do this the ‘Cats will need to eliminate Purdue’s run threat early. This is by no means an easy task. Purdue running back Kory Sheets may not get a lot of hype but he is still capable of making it a long day for opponents’ rush defenses. Against Oregon, Sheets ran for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns. Still, Sheets is no Javon Ringer and if the ‘Cats defense plays as well as it did against the Spartans’ running back they should be able to contain Sheets and free themselves to blitz Painter. Look for defensive tackle Corbin Bryant, who has settled in at the tackle spot aside John Gill after being seen as more of an end who could also play inside, to be in Painter’s face all day.

As for the final cause of the ‘Cats lack of momentum, Bacher’s turnovers, there is really nothing Fitzgerald can do. Getting an early lead will help as it will enable NU to call lots of running plays and short screen passes to take the pressure off Bacher. Other than that, Northwestern will just have to pray that the great quarterback we saw during the first half of the 2006 MSU game shows up and not the one who has struggled throughout much of the season.

My prediction is that the ‘Cats make it a joyous homecoming for the second straight season. This will be the week that Bacher dominates an entire game and finally meets his potential. One day this season Painter is probably going to come out of his slump and torch some unsuspecting defense. However, that won’t happen this week. The ‘Cats have gotten to quarterbacks all year and it will be impossible for Painter to break out when he will be on his rear the whole game. Northwestern will win this one 24-16.