Northwestern delivers in the clutch, finally, but Dan Persa pays for it

Northwestern 21, Iowa 17. Northwestern has spent most of the season on the verge of a breakthrough, especially over the course of a month marked by repeated fourth quarter heartbreak. Its bid for a 6-0 start against Purdue was foiled by a late Boilermaker touchdown drive and a missed field goal in the final minute. Its bid to foil Michigan State's perfect season a week later ran out of gas in a 21-point Spartan rally. A 21-7 lead at Penn State yielded to a 28-0 Nittany Lion run in the second half that put the Wildcats on the wrong end of Joe Paterno's 400th career win. It's been that kind of season: Close, but no cigar.

But certainly they never imagined that the brass ring would cost them so much – specifically, quarterback Dan Persa, who capped a career day by leading back-to-back touchdown drives against a top-10 for the win, then limped off for the rest of the year. Persa accounted for 69 of the Wildcats' 85 yards on a 13-play march that cut the Hawkeye lead to 17-14 with a little over six minutes to play, and all 91 yards on the 11-play, game-winning procession that followed, the final 20 coming on a go-ahead touchdown pass to Demetrius Fields.

After the play, Persa went down without being hit and eventually had to be helped off the field. Diagnosis: Ruptured Achilles tendon. Out for the season. Even when the Wildcats win, they lose.

In this case, they lose the most accurate passer in the nation in terms of completion percentage and the only player in the Big Ten besides Denard Robinson averaging 300 total yards per game – and doing it with even less support than Robinson. ESPN commentator Bob Griese said just before Persa's injury that he'd vote him as the Big Ten's Offensive Player of the Year after watching him against the Hawkeyes, and the Hawkeyes may agree: Northwestern put up more yards on the Iowa D than any other offense except Michigan, and more importantly, dropped Iowa from the four-way logjam at the top of the conference standings.

Somebody in that cluster – Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin – should really send Persa a dozen roses (appropriate and symbolic) and a "Thank You" card for bumping the Hawkeyes off. But it will probably be another week still before we know who that is.

- - -
Scroll down or click here to visit the Doc's game day live blog, covering every game, all day long.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Source: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Northwestern-delivers-in-the-clutch-finally-bu?urn=ncaaf-285294

Stephane Roncada Gerard Rond Jean Sebastien Roy Alex Salvini Donny Schmit