r/CFB • u/CFB_Referee /r/CFB • 2d ago
Postgame Thread [Postgame Thread] Northwestern Defeats South Dakota State 34-18
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota State | 0 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 |
| Northwestern | 7 | 3 | 7 | 17 | 34 |
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u/Kvetch__22 Northwestern • Penn 2d ago edited 2d ago
Not sure whether we looked good or bad tonight, but if I learned one thing it's that Western Michigan beat Michigan 12-7 in Ann Arbor on September 5, 2026 and I watched it happen with my own two eyes.
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u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 2d ago
Mostly pretty good with weaknesses as feared in the pass rush. We need a new punter, though.
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u/IPreferBagels2 Northwestern • Indiana 2d ago
Pretty satisfied and a little disappointed. Not enough to make a determination between "we're so back" and "it's so over". Colorado will probably tell us more about this team. Losing Carsello is also cataclysmic
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u/SchizoidMan1989 Idaho Vandals • Washington Huskies 2d ago
Michigan wouldn't beat South Dakota State without cheating.
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u/nathodood Michigan Wolverines • Nebraska Cornhuskers 2d ago
Michigan lost their game fair and square
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u/KushDingies Northwestern • North Carolina 2d ago
D line looks like a problem. Offense might have a higher ceiling than before, but needs to be more consistent and figure out all the damn penalties.
But still, a win’s a win and SDSU is a good team.
Hope Carsello’s gonna be all right.
Go cats!
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u/COLU_BUS Ohio State Buckeyes • /r/CFB Poll Veteran 2d ago
I couldn’t watch, does the 34-18 score include the fun bonus play the favored team gets after regulation?
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u/Adamscottd South Dakota State • Minnesota 2d ago
Funny, with one more second we could have scored a garbage time TD to cover the spread. Probably not that far off from what likely influenced the end of the Michigan game
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u/GreatestWhiteShark Northwestern • Ohio State 2d ago
Please only look at the box score
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State 2d ago
Just eat the sausage, don't watch it being made
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u/WestCoastToGoldCoast Washington State • Northwestern 2d ago
That final 80-yard TD run is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State 2d ago
That is absolutely true. However, Himon is probably one of the five fastest guys on either team. It's not a shock that he made a house call.
Remember how fast we thought venric mark was? And he was a favorite of mine, but he got run down by that Iowa safety
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u/watchfiend21 Northwestern Wildcats 1d ago
To be fair, that Iowa safety was Micah Hyde, who was a 4.4-4.5 guy.
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State 1d ago
True, and I icr Mark's 40 times, but he was like a bolt of lightning that year. I was on the edge of my seat every time he got the ball.
I think he was just really good at bursting through the line. Quickness v speed.
I still have a #5 jersey from that season. Wore it to the game last night.
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u/Accomplished_War8690 UConn Huskies 2d ago
northwestern is likely gonna have a better season than Michigan at this rate lol
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u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 2d ago
We genuinely need a punter
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u/vikingrunner Northwestern Wildcats • Clemson Tigers 2d ago
Dugandzic was a 3 star recruit as a punter too, so I don’t know if he had the yips or what.
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u/hillko00 Northwestern Wildcats • WashU Bears 1d ago
He was the NUMBER ONE punter for the class of 25
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State 2d ago
Why did they give him an opportunity to have three bad punts? You have a bad punt, and you give the guy another opportunity, and that's it
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u/Particular_Prior5344 South Dakota State Jackrabbits 2d ago
Played neck and neck until the final minutes with what is hopefully a solid Big Ten team and it’s somehow still infuriating. Just dumb errors cost us the game. We consistently play power conference teams competitively but cannot seal the deal.
Hopefully they take the anger out on New Haven next week.
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State 2d ago
Two key possessions. 1) 22 was killing us down by the end zone and coaches get cute and call passes. FG no TD. 2) missed FG by your kicker who was money otherwise
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u/Particular_Prior5344 South Dakota State Jackrabbits 2d ago
Johnson is a monster at RB and is very similar to a former SDSU RB Isaiah Davis in that he almost always gets positive yards. Our OC is on his 3rd stint with the program and is infamous for trying to get cute with his play calls and not committing to the rushing attack. It’s no shock our best seasons came after he left, where we produced 3 NFL RBs.
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u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 2d ago
The trick play call on the 2 point conversion was a huge gift to us. I get using that call in a game with more offense or where things weren’t working, but Johnson was very effective and Mason is very good, so why not just dial up something for either of them?
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State 2d ago
It seems to me that we had a former south dakota state offensive coordinator who always tried to get cute too.
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u/KushDingies Northwestern • North Carolina 1d ago
I was stunned they didn’t just run it up the middle. Our d line against their run game was our biggest weakness.
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u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 2d ago
Lol, New Haven is in DANGER
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u/Adamscottd South Dakota State • Minnesota 2d ago
New Haven was in danger regardless of what happened today lol. But yeah
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u/DoggedStooge Northwestern • North Carolina 2d ago
Our first and last offensive plays in regulation combined for 151 yards of offense. Michigan's first and last offensive plays in regulation combined for 8 yards.
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u/Benanderson27 Nebraska Cornhuskers 2d ago
Chase Mason 🤝 Anthony Colandrea
Throwing a 90 mph fastball every pass
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u/Jackskers94 Nebraska • South Dakota State 2d ago
Mason sometimes forgets he’s not playing baseball anymore.
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u/acat114 Michigan State Spartans 2d ago
How'd Chiles look?
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u/SarcasticCroissant George Washington • Northwest… 2d ago
Great when he was on time, but dicey anytime he had to work.
It’ll be interesting how it meshes against better competition
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u/KushDingies Northwestern • North Carolina 2d ago
Pretty decent. Had some really nice plays, but took some greedy sacks when he should have thrown it away and had a few overthrows. No picks or anything disastrous though
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u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 2d ago
Pretty good overall. Inaccurate 2-3 times on what could have been big plays, mediocre but catchable throws dropped 2-3 time too, but overall very good. Lot of good throws and zero bad decisions or situations where the ball was in danger. Good movement in the pocket a bunch of times to step up and buy time and used his legs just a couple times including for the TD that iced it late. He was very willing to hit his backs on checkdowns after stepping up or escaping out, which is good because our backs are very good and it resulted in explosives from simple check downs.
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u/Skyye_23 Northwestern Wildcats 2d ago
Pretty good, made some nice throws but he also seemingly doesn’t know how to throw the ball away, that might lead to picks later in the year
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u/KushDingies Northwestern • North Carolina 1d ago
Or just taking sacks when he tries to scramble or extend plays too long. He’s very very fast but still needs to know when to just bail on a play and cut his losses
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u/Adamscottd South Dakota State • Minnesota 2d ago
Slippery- escaped a lot of trouble, but didn’t get much done on the run. His strongest throws came in a clean pocket.
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2d ago
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State 2d ago
No worries, we have about three hundred and fifty injured guys now
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u/DeZeeuw2 South Dakota State Jackrabbits 2d ago
It's gonna get lost with the Western Michigan robbery, but how do we only score 18 points with ** EIGHT TRIPS INSIDE THE 20 YD LINE!?** Even if we only convert half of those, it's a completely different game.
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u/HistoryNerd101 Northwestern Wildcats 2d ago
The offense is geared toward movement on the open field but not when the real estate gets tight
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State 2d ago edited 2d ago
Your offensive Coordinator tried to get cute and throw the ball instead of giving it to 22
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u/Adamscottd South Dakota State • Minnesota 2d ago
Even when we were throwing the ball it was often effective when we weren’t throwing covered 1 on 1 endzone fades which we tried way too many times today
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State 2d ago
Yes, I am specifically talking about when you were in the red zone as you mentioned.
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u/MrRichStarfish Northwestern Wildcats 2d ago
Mckinzie and Fitzgerald are some dogs on defense my lord. McKinzie looks unlike any other NU player I’ve seen before
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State 2d ago
So you are saying you liked to see them chase Mason. I think I saw mason jarred after one of the hits.
That's all I got
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u/AdaAstra South Dakota State Jackrabbits 2d ago
We needed at least 2 seconds left to tie, 3 seconds to win.
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u/hayrack605 South Dakota State • Iowa State 2d ago
While SDSU may have lost to Northwestern tonight, I know for a fact Western Michigan didn't lose to Michigan.
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u/Salvador_20 Purdue Boilermakers 2d ago
No way I can sleep tonight after that one. The most blatant robbery of all time. The result should legitimately be reversed and WMU should be awarded the win.
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u/watchfiend21 Northwestern Wildcats 2d ago
SDSU folks sitting around us were quite confident for a game in which they never led. Good team, though. Nice game.
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u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 2d ago
It’s cheap for them to be confident in this one. They’re genuinely a fantastic, winning program and they had a punchers chance or better to beat us. But now, having lost, it has exactly zero impact on the rest of their season and achieving their actual highest goals. Free shot, free confidence.
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u/Adamscottd South Dakota State • Minnesota 2d ago
You guys were undoubtably better tonight and would probably beat us more often than not, but it was easy to feel like we were on the cusp of winning the entire game tonight. We did have 8 red zone trips. We just never broke through, and credit is due to your defense for shutting us down when they needed to
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u/majorgeneralporter Northwestern Wildcats • UCLA Bruins 2d ago
Welcome to The Chip Kelly Experience my fellow Cats.