Northwestern mounts a furious rally but can’t overtake No. 5 Indiana in 29-23 loss

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.-Down five starters on the road against the defending national champions, Northwestern gave No. 5 Indiana all they could handle in a 29-23 loss on Friday night in the Big Ten opener for both teams. Aidan Chiles threw for 293 yards and scored three touchdowns to lead a furious Wildcat rally and give him eight scores over the last two games. But Indiana, behind 203 rushing yards from running back Lee Beebe Jr. managed to make the plays they needed down the stretch to win the game and extend the longest winning streak in the nation to 20. But there’s no question they got tested by a Wildcat team that was 20.5-point underdogs. In fact, head coach David Braun, while lauding the Hoosiers as “a great team,” flat-out said that Northwestern should have walked out of Memorial Stadium 3-0. “Not could have won,” he said, grimacing. “We should have won this football game.” It sure didn’t feel that way in the first half, when Northwestern’s offense looked like it was sleepwalking. The same unit that scored 75 points in two games generated one yard – one! – in the first quarter. They had an anemic 51 at the half, including -5 rushing. In a sign of what was to come over the first 30 minutes, their first snap of the game resulted in an Indiana safety. “The first half, we couldn’t have played a worst half of football,” said an angry Braun. Yet they were still in it, thanks to a Wildcat defense that surrendered just two scores despite the Hoosiers ending four first-half drives in Northwestern territory. They even came up with a goal-line stand on the first IU possession of the game, when linebacker Payton Roth surged through the line to drop Turbo Richard for no gain on fourth-and-goal at the 1. But on the next play, Chiles fumbled the snap for a safety to give back whatever momentum the Wildcats could have had. Chiles had a simple explanation for his lackluster first half. “I had to calm down,” he said. “I was too excited.” Northwestern’s Aidan Chiles (0) scores during the Indiana versus Northwestern football game at Memorial Stadium on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. The Wildcats punted on their first drive of the second half, and looked to be on the ropes again, facing a third-and-13 at their own 22. That’s when Chiles, apparently calm, took over. Under a heavy rush, he scrambled and winded his way through the IU defense, eluding multiple tacklers for a 15-yard gain and a first down. Braun said that Chiles’ brilliant play was the turning point. “That was definitely the spark, that long third down,” he said. “That was the moment we said, ‘Let’s go.'” On the next snap, again under pressure, he fired a bullet to Luke Dehnicke down the sideline for a 20-yard gain. This game would end up serving as a coming-out party for Dehnicke, the transfer tight end from Minnesota-Duluth who finished with seven catches for 140 yards. Then Chiles, on fourth-and-4, hung in the pocket and found Griffin Wilde in the back of the end zone to make it 12-7. Suddenly, a game that looked to be in Indiana’s pocket was up for grabs, and a raucous Memorial Stadium sounded like – to use a term in the news in Evanston lately – a library. From there, the game took on the personality of a heavyweight fight, with the teams trading blows. Indiana mounted a 90-yard drive, but they faltered inside the NU 10. A third-down fade from the 4 to Charlie Becker was knocked away by Ore Adeyi, and the Hoosiers again had to settle for a field goal to make it 15-7, still a one-score game. The Wildcat offense, now looking like a juggernaut, went right down the field for another 75-yard touchdown drive, capped again by a Chiles-to-Wilde touchdown pass to make it 15-13. They went for two and the tie at that point, but failed on two chances, as a pass-interference call on the first one gave them another try. Even though they were trailing, Northwestern looked like they had taken control of the game. That’s when a flag that flipped the game was thrown. On a third-and-19 from their own 16, Indiana’s Josh Hoover threw a screen pass to Beebe behind the line. Linebacker Matthew Smith had it snuffed out and wrapped him up for a 7-yard loss. But he grabbed Beebe’s facemask on the way down and IU got 15 yards and an automatic first down. Northwestern wouldn’t be able to stop the Hoosiers from there. They scored two touchdowns on their next two drives, sandwiched around a Chiles touchdown run to give them a 29-20 advantage. Northwestern added a Jackson Kleather 42-yard field goal for the final margin but couldn’t recover the ensuing kick despite it bouncing around several times. It was the story of the night for the Wildcats, who couldn’t quite grab a hold of what would have been a colossal win that was right in front of them.