Northwestern football: What we liked & didn't like from an NU win over Rutgers

EVANSTON, Ill. - Welcome to bowl eligibility, Northwestern football.

The Wildcats got win No. 6 with a big win over Rutgers with a 42-14 win. Here's what we liked and didn't like about the Wildcats' win over Rutgers.

What we liked

Took Care of Their Business:

Bachman–Turner Overdrive sang about takin’ care of business in 1973. The only part Northwestern didn’t emulate was the whole "working overtime" thing. No need for any extra work at Ryan Field on this fall afternoon.

The No. 24-ranked Wildcats are most likely moving up the rankings after taking care of business against Rutgers.

Northwestern ran through Rutgers’ defense and stonewalled the Scarlet Knights’ offense. Rutgers (2-4, 1-1) is not a team NU needs to worry too much about if it’s as good as their record says.

The ‘Cats are now bowl eligible for the third time in four years under head coach David Braun. It came four weeks earlier than it did in 2025.

In a year when Braun and his staff were talking about taking a step beyond a 7-6 season with a December bowl game in, they walked the walk and delivered.

That First Quarter:

Easily put: Rutgers is a game that a 5-1 Northwestern team should have handled easily.

It wasn’t utter domination, but the Wildcats looked like at top 25 team in the nation. Running back Caleb Komolafe had 121 rushing yards in the first half, including gains of 56 and 33.

Quarterback Aidan Chiles had three total touchdowns. He finished the game recording his 20th total touchdown of the year. That’s the first time an NU quarterback had over 20 total scores in a season since Clayton Thorson in 2018.

Northwestern was methodical. The offense knew where they wanted to go with the football. The defense gave the offense opportunities with turnovers and stops.

It was complimentary football and it looked fantastic.

What we didn’t like

The Third Quarter:

It wasn’t a disaster, but it wasn’t fantastic either.

Northwestern was outrushed 140-31 in the third and was shutout offensively. The ‘Cats held off two Rutgers drives that went into Northwestern territory. 

The first ended in an interception by Montae Pate. The other ended in a sack on fourth and goal by Kobie McKinzie. The offense didn’t return the favor at all, though.

Chiles threw his first interception of the season on a pass that was ripped over the middle but went too high. DK Gilley did a great job of holding on to the ball, but that ended Chiles’ six-game streak without a pick.

Rutgers finally broke through when star running back Antwan Raymond raced for a 46-yard score. The Knights got a two-point conversion to make it a two-score game.

That was the end of the third quarter. NU ran one play and began the fourth.

That’s when the Wildcats ran the rest of the nine plays on their 10-play touchdown drive. It was a needed drive and ate up about the first five minutes of the fourth quarter.

NU wouldn’t have needed that drive if the offense didn’t stall in the third quarter like it did.

NorthwesternSports