The magic of David Braun’s first season leading the Northwestern Wildcats has fully dissipated now. Absolutely no one, at all, expected the Wildcats to finish above .500 in the Big Ten, and to make (and win) a bowl game, but a huge credit to Braun and his staff for making that happen. Expectations weren’t sky high for the Cats entering this season, but thus far, Northwestern is underperforming. Today’s effort at Kinnick Stadium was brutally awful, as the Iowa Hawkeyes beat them 40-14 in a game that was even uglier than that final score sounds.