When Northwestern struggles, Pat Fitzgerald often points to “not executing” and “one-man breakdowns” as the primary issues. And especially this season, those phrases have been used for the offensive line, which has struggled to say the least. The raw numbers — 35 sacks allowed is 113th in the nation — are bad, but that’s not always the most complete way to measure offensive line play, because some sacks are on the quarterback or maybe even a missed assignment by a running back or superback. And some teams simply throw the ball more, and that will lead to more sacks (though that’s not necessarily the case for Northwestern).
Northwestern’s short-yardage struggles and how to fix them
