Northwestern 24, Boston College 17: Post Game Links And Notes

Boston College’s Rettig cuts to the chase (Boston Herald)
"Let’s take us to the next play," he then said. "Four seconds on the clock. You need to throw the ball. It was a rollout play. I could hear the people on the sideline telling me to throw the ball ... but I didn’t know there was some guy behind me. And I was getting ready to throw the ball, and I was hit from behind. I should have thrown the ball earlier. I take that full responsibility on me."

Boston College’s defense in need of a quick fix (Boston Herald)
"(The linebackers) looked like they made a couple of plays, like we expect and need them to do. We have to give them some help," Spaziani said. "We expect those guys to be productive, but we’re going to take a hard look at where we are at and how we are going to help ourselves."

Brockton’s Al Louis-Jean, Dominique Williams make BC debuts together (The Enterprise News)
"It was a great thing seeing him right there,’’ said Louis-Jean, who started in place of the injured Donnie Fletcher and never left the field. "That’s what we did in high school. I would be at corner and he would be at safety and this was the same thing. It was good.’’ Said Williams: "He’s someone I can trust. I can trust anybody. But I know he’s got my back.’’

Backup Quarterback Colter Leads Northwestern Past B.C. (AP)
"We made too many mistakes," B.C. Coach Frank Spaziani said. "We played too sloppy to win a game like that."

Northwestern beats Boston College without Persa (Chicago Sun-Times)
The Wildcats rushed for over 200 yards on a Boston College defense that had not allowed that much yardage on the ground since Oct. 10, 2009 against Virginia Tech.

New rule comes into play just in time for NU (Chicago Sun-Times)
"I’m the biggest fan of the new time run-off rule," Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "I thought it was absolutely awesome. It was sweet. We learned a valuable lesson there because we had a defense called and now we had to communicate again from 14 [seconds] to a whole other dynamic to only four seconds left. And [Browne] did a great job getting his eyes around."

Northwestern beats Boston College 24-17 (Chicago Tribune)
As well as Colter played, temporarily shifting NU's theme from "Persa Strong" to "Kain is Able," the keys Saturday were the Wildcats' big uglies. The formerly underachieving offensive line cleared the way for three rushing touchdowns, and a fourth was called back because of a Rashad Lawrence hold near the goal line.

Football Sidebar: NU has a serious chip on its shoulder (The Daily Northwestern)
"If you look at our two-deep, we have a lot of little puppies out there. That first play, they forgot how to get off the porch a little bit," coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "What I liked was the response. We give them a big play. Then we hold them to three. That's what great defenses do."

Yes We Kain! Colter; Rushing "D" Lead ‘Cats to 24-17 Win (W/Updates) (Lake The Posts)
This was a classic chess match in the match-up between two well-coached teams. The major question marks coming in to the game surrounded the ‘Cats front seven against a potent, yet diluted rushing game (ACC player of the year, Montel Harris was out) vs the questionable passing game of Kain Colter against a green secondary for BC.  Boy did those storylines get flip-flopped.

Steve Donahue on Twitter @Coach_Donahue
Great effort by football today! Just a matter of time before this group is very good! Keep it up fellas! Also, awesome student section!