Northwestern Football: 3 takeaways from win over Minnesota in Week 12

2. Northwestern’s defense has life

Northwestern has prevailed in a lot of tough games that were close and went down to the wire. Take for instance, one of its recent wins against a ranked team in Iowa that resulted in a 14-10 win.

Not a lot of scoring, but surrendering just a touchdown and a field goal should keep any team in the game.

The Wildcats have been successful this season thanks in large part because of their defense. On Saturday, Northwestern allowed just two scores –– one of which occurred in the fourth quarter when the Wildcats were already ahead by multiple scores.

Minnesota isn’t the greatest example of what the Northwestern defense is capable of, given the Golden Gophers now stand with a losing 5-6 record. Rather, its abilities can be gleaned through some of its earlier matchups this season.

Take, for example, their Big Ten title foe in late September. In that game, Northwestern finished on the losing end, but within a field goal of Michigan. In the process, the defense gave up 20 points to the now No. 4 team in the country.

The Wildcats have truly gone through the trials and tribulations in the 2018 season. It perhaps was signaled by the loss of their star running back, Jeremy Larkin, to a career-ending injury.

Northwestern, while winning the clutch game necessary to already have bragging rights to the West division title, fell in what could be considered “bad” losses to teams like Duke and Akron in back-to-back weeks.

In the Duke game especially, the Wildcats weren’t ripe with offense and in several other games, the score has been low as well.

In this instance, the defense means a whole lot more. The Wildcats will likely struggle on offense against Michigan in the Big Ten Championship Game and Northwestern will have to lean on its defense to keep it in the game.

The last two weeks have served as an indicator that the defense can step up (and will) step up, which is a positive sign moving forward.