Northwestern Football: 3 takeaways from upset win over Wisconsin

1. Peyton Ramsey outplayed Graham Mertz

Peyton Ramsey, the transfer quarterback from Indiana, played well. Did he throw for over 300 yards or throw for four touchdown passes? No, but when needed he delivered for Northwestern to help his team win the game.

Ramsey finished the day completing  23-of-44 passes for 203 yards, and two touchdowns.

Graham Mertz, on the other side, had a rough afternoon. He completed 23-of-41 passes for 230 yards, throwing one touchdown, but also had four turnovers on the day.

Mertz was playing without two of his receivers — Danny Davis III and Kendric Pryor — but this game came down to the turnover battle. Rarely do you finish the game with five turnovers and end up still winning.

The veteran quarterback in Ramsey helped protect the ball and that was a deciding factor in his team coming out of the game with a victory.

In past weeks against Illinois and Michigan, many people, myself included did not think Graham Mertz was playing like a freshman quarterback. Unfortunately, for Wisconsin he did have some freshman moments against Northwestern.

The famous saying is you win as a team, and you lose as a team. This loss may be hard to swallow in a few weeks if the Wisconsin Badgers are left out of the Big Ten title game, though.