With the way the Northwestern defense feasted on Friday, you’d think they skipped their Holiday dinner.
The Wildcats forced four turnovers, including three-straight in the second quarter, and turned those into points as Northwestern romped their way to a 34-7 win over the Central Michigan Chippewas in the GameAbove Sports Bowl on Friday at Ford Field in Detroit.
Big role
Defensive back Braden Turner played a big part in two of those turnovers.
The first came with 8:06 left in the first half when Turner picked off CMU quarterback Angle Flores at the Chippewas’ 29-yard line. Northwestern scored just over a minute later when quarterback Preston Stone found Griffin Wilde on a 23-yard strike in the endzone, breaking a scoreless deadlock.
Turner later recorded his own touchdown after Flores was strip-sacked by Mac Uihlien in the third quarter. Turner grabbed the ball and carried it home 47 yards to put the Wildcats up 27-0.
“With the pressure that the D-line gives us, they kind of had to loft it to me,” Turner said after the game. “And then, I mean, without the blocks from them, I wouldn’t be able to score. So it’s really a testament to the whole defense and what we’ve worked throughout the whole year.”
More turnovers
After Turner’s interception in the second quarter, CMU immediately turned it over again when quarterback Joe Labas fumbled when sacked by Aidan Hubbard as Carmine Bastone recovered for the Wildcats. That turned into a Caleb Komolafe 2-yard scoring run.
Again, the Chippewas turned the ball over on the first play of their next drive when Labas fumbled the snap, allowing Michael Kilbane to recover at the CMU 23-yard line.
The Wildcats wasted no time, scoring immediately when Stone found tight end Lawson Albright for the score to go up 21-0. This score was just 10 seconds after the previous.
Defensive lineman Aidan Hubbard recorded three sacks, including a strip-sack, to help the Northwestern defense take control. (Tony Patroske/TPM)
Hubbard, who missed the last two games of the regular season with an injury, was cleared to return just days before the game at Ford Field. In his return, he recorded three sacks to match his career-high and the one forced fumble.
“It was very frustrating missing those last two games of the season,” Hubbard said. “But I stayed the course. I took it day by day, trying to get healthy. And then coming out here and playing with my teammates was special.”
Braydon Brus tallied a game-high 11 tackles as the defense held Central Michigan to 269 yards of offense. Northwestern scored 27 of their 34 points off of turnovers.
Legacy
Hubbard, who has been with Northwestern since 2021, spoke on the legacy of the senior leadership on the team.
“This is something we’ve kind of been talking about just throughout bowl prep,” he said. “But the standards this leadership, this player-leadership group has set, I’ve said it a few times, but it’s the best player-led team I’ve ever been a part of. I want these guys to take that with them and just exceed the standard and keep pushing forward.”
Full game recap here.
