Chappell, Hoosiers upset favored Northwestern 21-19

Defensive end Jammie Kirlew had more than just a spark in his eye – he had his swagger back. And the junior, along with his teammates, had good reason.

For the first time in six weeks, the IU football team could celebrate a victory – a 21-19 win over Northwestern. To Kirlew, this was the Hoosier team he fully expected to show up throughout the year.

“We were looking to have the spark earlier in the season, but the fact is we have it now,” Kirlew said. “And we’re going to try and take advantage of it as much as we can.”

    SLIDESHOW: IU beats Northwestern

IU (3-5, 1-4) dominated defensively, forcing five turnovers, while the offense methodically churned out points and limited mistakes against a fundamentally sound Northwestern defense.

And they finally played four quarters.

Inconsistency plagued the Hoosiers through a five-game losing streak when the team lost sight of its abilities, but IU was able to put it all together Saturday and break out of that miserable slump.

“We lost the attitude,” Kirlew said. “The games we played in the past couple of weeks, that wasn’t us.”

But the first win since Sept. 6 did not come without its casualties. The Hoosiers lost three members of their offensive line, junior Rodger Saffold, junior Mike Reiter and sophomore James Brewer, and junior safety Austin Thomas, to injury.

Even sophomore quarterback Ben Chappell – who was 21-of-34 for 219 yards and two total touchdowns – was so banged up at the end of the game that he was receiving treatment and unavailable to the media.

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“He’s pretty beat up right now,” said IU coach Bill Lynch. “Nothing was told to me other than he’s pretty beat up. He took some shots out there.”

Already entering the game without junior quarterback Kellen Lewis, Chappell began his second career start sluggishly.

But things began to click for Chappell and the Hoosiers when they held Northwestern to a field goal on its 20-play, game-opening drive that ended on IU’s 7-yard line.

When the Hoosiers’ second drive stalled, Lynch called upon freshman Chris Hagerup to punt. A bad snap coaxed Hagerup into an improbable 17-yard run up the middle, extending the possession.

On the next play, Chappell executed a perfect play-action fake and threw a 43-yard strike to freshman Damarlo Belcher for a touchdown.

Bad penalties cost the Hoosiers and allowed Northwestern to take a 9-7 lead after Tyrell Sutton ran into the end zone from a yard out.

Approaching halftime, Sutton fumbled at the Northwestern 37-yard line, resulting in the Hoosiers taking a 14-9 lead, when Chappell scored on a 3-yard rush.

Playing with a little more fun, IU kept going for the big play and accomplished just that toward the end of the third quarter. Sophomore wide receiver Mitchell Evans took the ball on a reverse, stopped to plant his feet and launched the ball down the field to a wide-open Tandon Doss for another IU touchdown.

Northwestern would score one more touchdown to bring the game to 21-19, but Thomas’ second interception and a forced fumble from junior defensive lineman Greg Middleton with 1:34 remaining squelched the Wildcat comeback and prompted the Hoosiers to run to the student section to celebrate something they had not done in a long time.

“I don’t think anybody expected us to win this game – except for everybody in that locker room,” Evans said. “All week, we were talking about how this was a huge game for us – we’ve got to have this and this is a must win.

“We needed to get our season started again.”