Army's Double-eagle Downs Kain Colter and The Northwestern Wildcats

Saturday afternoon, Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter was not up to the challenge of Army's double-eagle defense, resulting in a 21-14 Wildcat loss.

Colter could only muster 146 yards of total offense -- 89 passing and 57 rushing, before being replaced by redshirt freshman Trevor Siemian midway through the fourth quarter.

In his weekly news conference, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitgerald noted that winning on third down and ball possion would be keys to the Wildcats success.

"The key to us being successful on offense is to sustain drive and win on third down. We're going to be in some third-down situations on Saturday and we've got to possess the ball. I can't come in here next Monday and say Army had the ball over 35 minutes and expect us to be successful. That just can't happen. If they're over 40 minutes, we've got an opportunity for disaster," said Fitgerald.

Not only did Army have the ball over 40 minutes (40:19), the Wildcats were 3 of 12 on third down. The inability to sustain a drive, or move the offense at all, led to lifting Colter in favor of Siemian.

"It's a pretty lonely feeling getting benched, but I didn't play to the expectations that I should have," Colter said.

Tina Akouris, Chicago Sun-Times, reported in her article "Northwestern hits wall against relentless Army" that there was the lingering question of when and if Persa might get into the game. Team officials said Persa was medically cleared and ready in an emergency.

Fitzgerald said, "We termed it 'emergency use,' but the only way that would be the case was because of injuries."

The Wildcats have an open date this Saturday and will travel to Champaign October 1 to battle Illinois for the Land of Lincoln Trophy.