Swartout: 'Tune-up game' shows Northwestern almost ready to take on Rice

In the 2005 remake of the 1974 classic film The Longest Yard, the warden asks incarcerated football star Paul Crew what he could do to get prison league football team ready to play. Crew suggests a tune-up game, saying "In college, we'd start every season against Appalachian State or some slack Division II team." Two years after the movie was released, in a stroke of irony during just such a tune-up game, Michigan lost to Appalachian State, killing their season.

On the first play of Northwestern's tune-up game against Illinois State on Saturday, Redbird quarterback Drew Kiel connected with receiver Tyrone Walker for a 32 yard gain starting a drive that would end in a field goal. But after that, it was all NU. With a final score of 37 to 3, the Wildcats did not get stung while tuning up before their showdown with Rice. What's more, they had their offense purring like a finely-crafted Italian sports car. That being said, there are aspects of Northwestern's game that, while good enough against a "Slack Division II team," will simply not fly against a full-fledged Division I Rice on Saturday.

NU's biggest problem, inconsistent secondary play, was evident after the bomb on the first play of the game. A reverse that went 20 yards and a roll-out deep completion at the expense of the cornerbacks confirmed the concern. Rice isn't known for its passing, but NU's cornerbacks are going to have to be able to set the edge against the team that ran for 143 yards against an outstanding Texas defense last week.

Another issue that the Cats must correct before facing Rice is their tendency to give up big plays. Northwestern allowed five plays of more than 20 yards against Illinois State. While Rice only had one play that went for more than 20 yards against Texas (a 47 yard touchdown pass), they had five plays of 10 or more yards which, against a lesser defense, might go farther.

All negativity aside, NU used their tune-up game well. They synced up their offence and found holes in the defense that can be patched before their next challenge. Most importantly, they didn't lose to a group of inmates at the local jail….or Illinois State. As long as the secondary steps up, the Cats should be able to beat Rice -  maybe not by 34 points, but convincingly.

Medill freshman Harry Swartout can be reached at harryswartout2014@u.northwestern.edu.