This year’s edition of Northwestern football wasn’t really easily identifiable, up until Saturday. Just like last season, the Wildcats found themselves in a win over the hated Iowa Hawkeyes. Last fall, the Cats woke up their offense from their doldrums in an impressive win in Iowa City.
Two days ago NU when a gritty, often painful to watch contest at home against the Hawks, and it was vintage 2015 Northwestern football. Remember that team? They tied the school record for wins, and they did it with defense, defense, defense, some rushing attack, and smoke and mirrors.
They were somewhat similar to 2012 Notre Dame, in that they weren’t really quite as good as their record, and ended the season with a thud in a blow game blowout to an SEC school.
Still that was a very good Cats team. Their win over Stanford kept the Cardinal out of the college football playoff. Saturday felt like the 2015 season all over again. Asked about this idea in his postgame press conference, Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald said:
“I haven’t had time to reflect on that, but I’m assuming it’s probably some pretty similar games.”
He also extolled the virtues of the defenses in the 17-10 OT win over Iowa. “Today was just a great Big Ten defensive battle…There were good and bad on both sides of our team and same thing for the…But I just thought this was one heck of a Big Ten football game.”
With the win over the Hawkeyes, the Cats now have four down, two to go in order to become bowl eligible. With five games remaining, four against the bottom feeders of the league, they should end up with seven or eight wins on the season.
They won’t reach ten like they had in 2015, but they should end up in a pretty good bowl. That year they earned a New Year’s Day berth against Tennessee in the Outback. Here’s where the projections have Northwestern football this holiday season.
ESPN- Hale: Foster Farms Bowl vs Stanford
ESPN- Bonaruga: Holiday Bowl vs USC
SB Nation: Foster Farms Bowl vs Washington St.
Sports Illustrated: Foster Farms Bowl vs Washington
CBS Sports: Holiday Bowl vs Utah
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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