Northwestern Wildcats Fall Just Short Against No. 5 Indiana
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In their first road game of the season and first Big Ten matchup of 2026, the Wildcats fell to No. 5 Indiana on Friday night. Northwestern (2-1) lost to Indiana (4-0), 29-23, at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
Quarterback Aidan Chiles finished the night 22-of-29 passing for 293 yards and two touchdowns while adding a rushing touchdown.
Griffin Wilde finished the night with six receptions for 56 yards and two touchdowns, while Luke Dehnicke recorded seven receptions for 140 yards.
Northwestern had a productive day offensively with 325 yards but fell just short against Indiana.
The game got off to a strange start, as Curt Cignetti was forced to call a timeout before an offensive or defensive snap following two penalties by the Hoosiers. Northwestern then came up with a big defensive stop, stopping Indiana at the 1-yard line and forcing a turnover on downs.
The Northwestern offense had a sloppy first two drives. The Wildcats then made a costly mistake, as Chiles fumbled in the end zone, giving Indiana a 2-0 lead with 7:20 left in the first quarter. On the second drive, they came out and had two false starts to start the drive.
Indiana extended its lead with a 43-yard field goal from Nico Radicic with 13:06 left in the second quarter, making it 5-0.
Indiana then put together a strong scoring drive, capped by a touchdown pass to Nick Marsh to extend the Hoosiers' lead to 12-0 with 5:07 remaining in the second quarter.
Northwestern’s fourth drive started better before a costly mistake by Chiles. His incomplete pass was ruled intentional grounding, resulting in a 21-yard loss with 1:16 left in the half and taking the Wildcats out of field goal range. Northwestern was forced to punt for the third straight drive as the first half came to a close with Indiana leading 5-0.
Northwestern opened the second half with another punt. The Wildcats’ defense answered with a big play, as Braydon Brus sacked Josh Hoover to force an Indiana punt.
The Wildcats finally put together a strong drive, capped by a 4-yard touchdown pass to Wilde on fourth down. The score came on the Wildcats’ third red-zone trip and cut Indiana’s lead to 12-7 with 6:34 left in the third quarter.
Indiana responded with a strong drive, as Radicic connected on a 22-yard field goal to extend the Hoosiers’ lead to 15-7 to end the third quarter.
Northwestern put together another strong drive, capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass to Griffin Wilde for his second touchdown of the night. The Wildcats failed on the two-point conversion, leaving Indiana with a 15-13 lead with 14:54 left in the fourth quarter.
The Hoosiers responded with a strong drive of its own, leaning on the run before Lee Beebe Jr. scored on a 4-yard rushing touchdown to extend Indiana’s lead to 22-13 with 9:39 left.
A one-score game once again, as Chiles scored on a 7-yard rushing touchdown to cut Indiana’s lead to 22-20 with 5:10 left.
Indiana responded with a 70-yard run by Beebe Jr. to start the drive. Josh Hoover then finished it with a 1-yard rushing touchdown, extending Indiana’s lead to 29-20.
The Wildcats quickly got into field goal range, and Jackson Kleather knocked down a 42-yard field goal to cut the lead to 29-23 with 58 seconds left. Northwestern failed to recover the onside kick, and Indiana came out on top.
The Wildcats will now turn their attention to the opener at the newRyan Field on Friday, Oct. 2, when Northwestern hosts Penn State at 7 p.m. CT on FOX. The matchup will give Northwestern its first opportunity to play in its new stadium as the Wildcats look to carry their strong start to the season into another Big Ten matchup.
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