Here is an under-the-radar portal move that could pay nice dividends for Northwestern. Livewire QB Mike Wright, who led a mild Vanderbilt uprising two years ago before being completely misused at Mississippi State last season, has resurfaced in Evanston, and made the key plays for the Cats in last week's 13-6 win over a tough Miami-Ohio. Wright adds a sharper edge after David Braun's defense-first formula paid dividends in 2023; now, however, the offense might be of more help. Early days at Duke for Manny Diaz, who has his own transfer QB in ex-Texas Maalik Murphy, but whose defenders might not be able to collar Wright the way they did vs. Elon when registering 8 sacks last week. Play Northwestern on ML

Northwestern averaged 30.1 seconds per play across just 61 plays in their season opening win against Miami Ohio, both statistics that rank among the slowest pace of all teams who played FBS competition in Week 1. Throw in a 15-18 mph cross-wind off the lake in the Wildcats' make-shift practice field stadium and I forecast a windy, slow, low-scoring game in Evanston.

Watching both of these teams last week did not leave me feeling confident in the offense either team will trot out this season. That, combined with a windy Friday evening along the lakefront has me believing this will be a churlish affair.

Each team’s defense played much better than their offense. Northwestern held the RedHawks to 267 total yards and even though Elon is an FCS opponent, the Blue Devils held them to only 140 total yards. Northwestern has lost the last five meetings between these two, but this is the lowest total between these two, the previous lowest total was 44 back in 2007, which was a push. The Blue Devils are still getting used to a new coach and quarterback while now having to deal with a solid Wildcats defense.

Quietly, former Texas Longhorns transfer Maalik Murphy began his Duke career last week. Yes they took care of business vs Elon, but what was most impressive was Murphy's intermediate and deep passing. While receivers had some drops, you can chalk that up to chemistry not being there. Expect that to not be the case this week.