Wildcats pick themselves up after stumble.

Byline: Skip Myslenski

EVANSTON, Ill. _ Damien Anderson was talking to one of his Northwestern linemen. They were dissecting their performance in last Saturday's loss to Purdue, which simply had defused the Wildcats' explosive offense, and analyzing why various plays had failed.

"I did the wrong step there," the lineman admitted to Northwestern's star running back as they discussed one of those plays.

Anderson, recounting the conversation later, said, "A lot of guys, with the success we were having, felt they didn't really have to worry about the logistics, the small intricacies of the game. They were like, `Well, we're on this high road, we just have to go and play.' And a lot of people overlooked the small things, which Purdue exploited.

"I don't think they did a whole lot differently than other teams. We just weren't prepared. On normal running plays, we miss one guy. If we don't miss that one guy, it's a touchdown. That's one thing we always had done right, and when little things like that go wrong, you know they can be corrected. Yet you wonder why they went wrong. Taking that wrong step? You make the right step, we get a touchdown. I guess you live and learn."

Learn to handle success?

"Yeah, definitely," Anderson said. "Especially after going 3-8 two years in a row (actually, 3-9 in 1998) and not really understanding that you have to maintain. That's one thing coach (Randy) Walker always talks about _ maintaining focus week in and week out. But a lot of people saw the cameras and it was, `Hey, the game's basically going to come to us.'

"Instead of us being aggressive and attacking, it was, `Well, the camera has come to us all week, we're the lead story in America, so we just have to go out there, we're the best right now.' Instead of us continuing to play our game and staying on the attack, we got caught up in the hype."

This was a startlingly frank admission for Anderson, who had been a standout as the Wildcats jumped to the top of the Big Ten standings with victories at Wisconsin and at Michigan State and at home over Indiana. It was that success that had transformed them into the story of the moment, into a national curiosity piece as they prepared to face Purdue. Walker now says he saw it coming.

"There were a lot of things that flew by us last week that hadn't been there before," he said. "Did we handle them effectively? Obviously, I think we didn't get to the right place (and) the fact is you have one job as a football coach and as a football player from August to November. You have one job. To get yourself to the right place on Saturdays. Period. And we didn't do it."

They had done that during their meteoric rise into the national rankings and consciousness, but against Purdue they flopped about like a school of fish caught in a net.

They simply were beaten in all the fundamental parts that make up a game and they don't shy away from that admission. But after that obligatory bow to the Boilermakers, the Wildcats always return to themselves and their faulty preparation and their uninspired performance.

This is not surprising.

"It's all about us," Walker stresses, a pronouncement his players echo.

But just a month ago they were making similar statements after TCU routed them and promising to get their problems corrected.

They clearly did that in September and the proof came with the three victories that earned them so much attention. But then, mesmerized by the crowd on their suddenly bulging bandwagon, they went out against Purdue and forgot all they had learned, putting on a display that was tentative and unfocused and filled with mental errors.

"We got caught up in the hype and then we were trying not to lose," wide receiver Teddy Johnson said. "We weren't going after the victory, we were trying not to lose, and you're not going to win that way."

They're thankful they are still among the five Big Ten teams with a single conference defeat and a shot at the Rose Bowl. Yet the loss does raise questions about their ability to handle the pressure that comes with success and expectations.

That is the cloud that hovers over them in their off-week as they begin to prepare for their Oct. 28 visit to surging Minnesota.

"We're definitely upset," defensive end Dwayne Missouri said. "But I'm not mad at any one player. I'm not mad at myself. I'm mad at what happened, obviously. But as far as we're concerned, we didn't let anything slip away."

Bentley demurs.

"I think I'm going to have to disagree," he said. "I'm mad at everybody. After the TCU game, we went to the system of trust and belief. We didn't do that Saturday (and) looking at (a tape of) the game on Sunday, it was like, `Dear God, we just talked about this after TCU and got it corrected. We shouldn't have to get it corrected again.'

"We shouldn't have to correct something we already got corrected. But that's exactly what we're doing now."

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