The situation looked bleak for Northwestern: The Wildcats faced a fourth-and-five from the Duke 33 and trailed 20-17 with just 4:11 left on the clock. Northwestern looked seemingly on the verge of losing its home opener to a team that had not won a game in well over a year.
Lightning then struck-quarterback Tim Hughes hooked up with wide receiver Brian Musso on a quick curl pattern, and Musso eluded Duke cornerback Tawambi Settles and streaked all the way to the Duke one-yard line. A Darnell Autry plunge into the end zone on the next play made it 24-20. Game over.
Although the Northwestern offense has revolved around the power running game in recent years, the Wildcats beat Duke last year through the air. And this year, even if the cast of the Wildcats' passing attack is entirely different, the results could very well be the same.
While the Northwestern passing attack starts with quarterback Gavin Hoffman, its focus is certainly on receiver D'Wayne Bates, a bona fide All-American candidate.
"We [have to] be aware of where he is on the field at all times," Duke safety Eric Jones said. "He's very dangerous as he showed last week. He's proven that he's an All-American; he's proven he came back from his knee injury.
"We can't overemphasize [Bates' presence], but at the same time, we can't underemphasize the importance of knowing where he's at. He's a great player, he's going to get his catches, but as long as we keep him from breaking out, we'll be okay."
Keeping Bates from breaking out as he did last week against UNLV is certainly easier said than done. Listed at 6-foot-2 and 211 pounds, Bates overmatched UNLV's shorter and smaller corners en route to catching nine passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns in a dominating performance.
Lamar Grant, the biggest of Duke's three top cornerbacks, gives up three inches and 26 pounds to Bates.
So does Hoffman think Bates will have another field day with the Duke secondary?
"One of UNLV's corners was a former walk-on, and they had another true freshman playing for the first time," Hoffman said. "They weren't very experienced back there. I think Duke doesn't really have that problem because they have a lot of good players back in the secondary. So I think we don't really expect the same amount of success, at least not right away."
If the Wildcats are to have any success against Duke, Hoffman will certainly be a major factor. The sophomore, who saw his first collegiate action last week, completed 19-of-28 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns against the Rebels. Hoffman, however, was right when he noted Duke's edge in experience. While Hoffman leads an offense with only three returning starters, Duke's defense features eight.
"We think experience is going to be an advantage for us," Jones said. "But the feel of the game when it gets into the second half, [knowing] how to play college football, making some big plays is where we feel we'll have the advantage and that's where the experience comes in. This year, we have the experience so we're going to try to get it done."
And getting it done defensively against Northwestern now requires more than just shutting down the Wildcats' grinding ground game.
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