Northwestern Never Trails, Routs Ball State 45-14
Northwestern scored first and kept on scoring. By the time Ball State reached the end zone, the Wildcats were up 21-0 and the afternoon was a formality.
Aidan Chiles started it with a 1-yard run with 11:42 left in the first quarter and hit Griffin Wilde from 19 yards before the quarter was over. Caleb Komolafe made it 21-0 with a 14-yard run early in the second. Ball State got one back on a TJ Horton 1-yard run, and Northwestern replied with a 52-yard Jackson Kleather field goal and a Robert Fitzgerald 15-yard interception return for a touchdown. That made it 31-7 with just over three minutes left in the half. Jamarion McDougle's 2-yard catch from Keldric Luster made the halftime score 31-14.
There was no lead to protect and no lead to lose: zero lead changes, zero ties. Chiles added a 12-yard touchdown pass to Drew Wagner early in the third and a 32-yarder to Alex Honig with 53 seconds left in the quarter. Nobody scored in the fourth, and the board stopped at 45-14.
The yardage was closer than the score. Ball State had 360 total yards to 437 for Northwestern, and Luster threw for 209 yards, completing 27 of 41. The difference was that he threw one interception and it went back for six. Northwestern did not turn it over once and had two sacks to Ball State's one. Flip that pick-six and it is 38-14, which is still not close.
Northwestern improves to 4-1. Ball State drops to 1-5. For fantasy owners, Chiles was the top scorer at 38.1, and he had company: Wilde and Wagner both set season highs.