Kevin Hogan struggles mightily as Stanford gets upset by Northwestern
The first big upset of the college football season is already here with the Northwestern Wildcats taking down No. 21 Stanford.
David Shaw’s Stanford Cardinal were supposed to be improved on the 8-5 record they had a year ago but showed zero evidence of that in the opener where they lost 16-6 to Northwestern. The win was the first for Northwestern over a ranked opponent at home in the opener since 1967.
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Pat Fitzgerald’s team could be the team ready to make a big step forward after missing a bowl game last year and dominated in the trenches against a Stanford program known for their strong play on the offensive and defensive lines.
The Cardinal couldn’t move the ball on the ground against a Northwestern defense, limiting the Cardinal to 240 total yards, 3-15 on third down and quarterback Kevin Hogan looked awful. There was plenty of talk about how improved Hogan was in the offseason, but it was not there today after completing 20 of his 35 passes for 155 yards and an interception in the end zone in the final minute, trailing 16-6.
Meanwhile, Clayton Thorson fared okay in his first collegiate start as the redshirt freshman passed for 105 yards on 12-of-24 passing and added 68 yards and a 42-yard touchdown on the ground.
Northwestern was led by sophomore running back Justin Jackson who ran for 134 yards on 28 carries. Northwestern’s offensive line dominated to the tune of 225 rushing yards against one of the best rush defenses of a year ago.
Credit Fitzgerald and his coaching staff for pulling off another huge upset in the last calendar year with wins over Wisconsin and Notre Dame last year.
Maybe Northwestern is on way toward a bounce-back year while Stanford looks like they have a lot of work left to do to compete with the Oregon Ducks for the Pac-12 North division title.
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