Know Thy Opponent: #23 Northwestern Wildcats

2019 Record: 3-9

Bowl Result: N/A

SB Nation Blog: Inside NU

All Time Series: Purdue leads, 51-32-1

Last Purdue Win: 201, 24 to 22

Last Northwestern Win: 2018, 27 to 31

Head Coach: Pat Fitzgerald, 99-79, 13 Years

NW Offense: Northwestern is a run heavy team. In two games, they have just over 500 yards passing with Indiana Grad Transfer, Peyton Ramsey. This doesn’t bode particularly well, as Purdue has allowed around 186 yards rushing per game in the two contests we have played.

NW has 5 players with over 50 yards rushing in 3 games, including leading rusher Drake Anderson who is at 193 yards rushing on 5.5 yards per carry. Peyton Ramsey has also broke the century mark early this season with his rushing totals.

As far as for the receiving corps, they only have one player that has over 100 yards receiving. I would expect a run heavy offense from NW this week, Purdue isn’t great at stopping the run and NW has ran the ball well.

NW Defense: Defensively, as usual, NW is pretty stout. Only allowing 12 PPG, good for 7th in the nation. They held Maryland to 3 points, who has looked explosive in recent weeks, week 1. Then Iowa to 20 and Nebraska to 13.

While none of these offenses are explosive or have the weapons like we do with David Bell, Milton Wright and maybe? Rondale Moore - it is still impressive nonetheless.

I do think we will be able to move the ball through the air on the Wildcats, but they will sell out to stop the run. Our biggest plays have come from play action this season, we will see how play action works this weekend.

Game Outlook: On paper, it quite frankly looks pretty even. Their defense is a little bit better, but they have yet to see an offense with the firepower that we have. Northwestern’s offense really does not scare me all that much. They struggle to pass, but they do run the ball by committee keeping their backs fresh.

Look for NW to pound the rock and control the clock this weekend and for Purdue to look for chunk plays to get NW out of their defensive scheme.

Way too early prediction:

Purdue 27 Northwestern 24