The Wildcats have regressed to their likely mean in the first two games of this season.
We’ve written at length on this site about how Northwestern was fairly lucky in its 10-3 season last year. The Wildcats were a good team—especially on defense—but, based off various statistical measures, such as S&P+ and second-order wins, they had no business winning 10 games.
When Northwestern lost, it was by a very large margin and when the Wildcats won, it tended to be a closely contested affair.
NU lost to Michigan, Iowa and Tennessee by a combined 107 points.