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The Northwestern Wildcats have enjoyed the comforts of home their last three games, but now they must head out on the road. Northwestern and the Illinois Fighting Illini will face off in a Big Ten battle at noon ET on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Northwestern might not be the betting favorite, but it's doubtful the players in their locker room care too much about that.
The Wildcats received a tough blow last week as they fell 38-22 to the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Northwestern's defeat came about despite a quality game from QB Andrew Marty, who rushed for 52 yards and two TDs on 16 carries.
Meanwhile, Illinois came up short against the Iowa Hawkeyes, falling 19-10. No one had a big game offensively for Illinois, but they got one touchdown from QB Brandon Peters.
With the two teams each stumbling in off of a loss, both will be hungry for the victory. A couple offensive numbers to keep in mind before kickoff: Northwestern is stumbling into the matchup with the second fewest passing touchdowns in the nation, having accrued only five on the season. The Fighting Illini have experienced some offensive struggles of their own as they are 18th worst in the nation in yards per game, with only 333.9 on average. It's possible one of these Achilles' heels will wind up tripping the losing team up.
