This is the Depth Dossier: the Northwestern Wildcats, Week 7.

Northwestern earned every bit of its "Cardiac Cats" nickname again, surviving a 24 to 21 win over Michigan State thanks to a blocked kick in the final minute.

The Wildcats trailed by eight in the fourth quarter against the school that once recruited their own quarterback, and they found a way anyway. Quarterback Aidan Chiles took a beating all night, getting sacked five times, but he came alive late, going eight for nine for 111 yards in the fourth quarter alone. He scored a rushing touchdown and hit wide receiver Alex Honig for a game-tying two-point conversion. Running back Caleb Komolafe ran for 67 yards and a score to help power the comeback. Kicker Jackson Kleather delivered the game-winner, a 34-yard field goal with two seconds left. But none of it happens without defensive lineman Brendan Flakes blocking a 33-yard Michigan State field goal attempt with a minute to go. No block, no comeback.

Let's rewind to a sequence that should have buried this team early. A fumble recovery set Northwestern up at the Michigan State 10-yard line, and then back-to-back sacks pushed them all the way backward, a drive that actually lost 20 yards of field position. They still walked away with a Kleather field goal out of it, which is the kind of thing that barely shows up in a box score but says a lot about this team's night.

Special teams were all over the place. Northwestern gave up a 41-yard punt return and had its own field goal blocked in the first half, the kind of mistakes that usually cost you a road game. Then Flakes flipped the whole thing with his block in the final minute. Few plays swing a one-score game like a blocked field goal that late.

And buried underneath all that chaos was a quieter number that explains the win: Northwestern controlled the ball for nearly 35 minutes, building long 12- and 14-play drives that wore Michigan State down and kept their offense off the field.

A couple other notes worth keeping. Chiles took all five of those sacks against the program that once recruited and rostered him, easily the line's worst protection outing of the season, on the one night everybody was watching. And Northwestern hadn't come back from an 8-point fourth-quarter deficit on the road since 2014. That drought's over now.

Now to the depth chart, and the injury that matters most. Safety and defensive captain Robert Fitzgerald was scratched before kickoff. He's in a walking boot with a lower-body injury that hasn't been specified, and he's questionable for week eight. Fitzgerald had a pick-six just last week, so losing him takes away the defense's most productive back. It's not yet confirmed who filled in at that safety spot, which is something worth tracking once that's known.

Nothing officially changed on the depth chart beyond that, but a couple of jobs got tested. The offensive line's five sacks allowed is the kind of outing that invites scrutiny, even without any announced changes. If that keeps happening, expect pressure on that group. On the other side, Flakes' block was the single biggest defensive play of the season for Northwestern, and that kind of moment tends to lock in trust in a player for big moments rather than change anything.

As for Kleather, having a kick blocked and then nailing the game-winner later in the same night is more proof the kicking job is his no matter what bad bounces happen along the way.

Going into week eight, the two things to watch are simple: whether Fitzgerald is able to return to the defense, and whether that offensive line can clean up its pass protection without needing to shuffle the lineup.

This was the depth dossier. For everything college football, be it depth charts, data or dossiers, head over to C F B Depth dot com. We will be back next week. This was an AI-generated podcast from content developed by real human beings passionate about college football.