There wasn’t a lot that might cease Brendan Sullivan final Saturday in opposition to Maryland.
The junior quarterback carved up the Terrapins protection on the bottom and thru the air, placing collectively arguably his greatest model of soccer resulting in Northwestern’s 33-27 win. The Davison, Michigan native threw for a career-high 265 yards and rushed for 56 yards — a group excessive.
And with graduate scholar quarterback Ben Bryant nonetheless sidelined, Sullivan’s breakthrough couldn’t have come at a greater time. It’s very true as a result of NU will face a hard-nosed Iowa protection this Saturday at Wrigley Field.
“We know the challenge that is ahead,” Interim Head Coach David Braun stated. “A team (that) in a lot of ways embodies a lot of the things we pride ourselves on here at Northwestern in terms of being a developmental program that plays with great fundamentals, great technique and great physicality.”
Fundamentally sound, outlined approach and physicality are just a few methods to explain Iowa’s protection in recent years. A program that has struggled offensively, however has been unquestionably dominant defensively, three of its 4 2023 NFL Draft picks have been defensive gamers.
This season is not any completely different, because the Hawkeyes have allowed solely 14.5 factors per recreation — the fourth-best within the Big Ten and sixth nationally. In their final two contests, they’ve given up 12 factors to Minnesota and 6 to Wisconsin.
Sullivan began in NU’s 33-13 loss in Iowa City final 12 months, so he’s skilled Braun’s definition of Iowa’s group first-hand. Preparing for the second go-around, he understands what it takes to go away The Friendly Confines with a win.
“They do what they do, and they don’t really sugar coat it too much,” Sullivan stated. “They’re a physical team, so just trying to go out there and out physical them.”
In comparability to Maryland’s protection, Iowa’s unit has efficiently smothered its opponents on a extra constant foundation — displaying similarities to the Cornhuskers protection NU confronted simply two weeks in the past. Although Sullivan’s struggles in opposition to Nebraska counsel issues going through a powerful protection on Saturday, the junior made vital changes versus Maryland.
This was clear in Sullivan’s sturdy pocket presence and success by the air — one thing he’s been engaged on all season. His deep ball connections to senior wideouts, Bryce Kirtz for a 23-yard landing within the first quarter and A.J. Henning for 34 yards within the fourth quarter, have been merchandise of that.
“The biggest thing is not freaking out too much and not having to rely on my legs as much,” Sullivan stated. “It just comes one throw at a time, you know, you get into the flow of the game where it kind of goes by pretty fast and you’re kind of just reacting.”
Sullivan was a serious piece of the puzzle within the Maryland win, however as a substitute of pumping himself up, he gave all of the credit score to the offense. He emphasised how all people improved, lastly translating their follow play into the sport.
Braun additionally detailed how a lot better the offense carried out across the quarterback compared to Nebraska. But greater than that, he’s stated how impressed he was in his “stinkin’ warrior,” and described the rise in consolation he’s seen in Sullivan’s general recreation.
Iowa’s protection will check Sullivan and the ‘Cats offense on Saturday differently than the Terrapins and Cornhuskers, but with the quarterback finding his groove and stepping into his own, Braun expects Sullivan to be a great decision maker, a great game manager and to force Iowa’s protection to earn all the things they will get — regardless of his ultimate stat line.
“With the way that Sully’s trending, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to continue putting our team in a lot of good situations to win a lot of football games,” Braun stated. “With the playcalling (this week), I think we did a really good job of just finding ways to get the ball out of his hands on time which allowed for him to get into a rhythm and play his best football.”
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