Northwestern Football: Clayton Thorson a cause for concern in Duke loss
Northwestern football opened the season with an impressive victory at Purdue, but the Wildcats looked awful against Duke on Saturday, especially the offense.
It wasn’t pretty, but Northwestern will live to see another week. Pat Fitzgerald’s Wildcats suffered a bit of a hangover against the Duke Blue Devils in Week 2, a little over a week after they beat Purdue on the road to kick off Big Ten play with a 1-0 record.
Coming into the season, there was talk about Clayton Thorson being one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten — potentially even one of the top-two or three gunslingers — but he looked anything but against the Blue Devils.
No, Duke isn’t a pushover as David Cutcliffe is one of the more underrated coaches in the country, but the defense shut Thorson and the Wildcats down completely.
The senior quarterback completed 22-of-38 passes for 198 yards and an interception as he couldn’t gain any momentum through the air all game long and Fitzgerald decided to switch TJ Green in during the second half for a spark, but that may have just hurt the confidence of Thorson even more.
Should Northwestern fans be concerned about the veteran quarterback? Yes and no.
Yes, because it seems like he doesn’t fully have confidence back in that injured leg and no because he had a shaky performance against Duke a season ago and still managed to have a strong year.
Still, Northwestern cannot lose games like these at home against seemingly inferior, on paper, non-conference foes if it wants to contend for a big-time bowl or prove itself once it gets to Big Ten play.
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Thorson will get a chance to bounce back against Akron next week, but will he be splitting time once again?