Yes, KellyAnne Conway, the Bowling Green Massacre is indeed real, but it actually occurred tonight in Evanston, Illinois. The 2017 Northwestern football team went up 35-7 on the Bowling Green Falcons with 2:07 left in the first half, and the massacre was on at Ryan Field.
The remaining 32:07 in this game was garbage time, as the outcome was already cemented. The Wildcats, coming off the wrong end of a massacre themselves as the hands of Duke, did exactly what they needed to regain the full faith and credit of their panicking base, destroying BGSU 49-7.
They also exacted revenge over the Falcons for their 28-24 loss in the 2003 Motor City Bowl, as they accomplished a school record for single game yards per offensive play (9.2).
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In a 41-17 loss to Duke last week, quarterback Clayton Thorson looked his freshman year again, throwing 11-29 for 120 yards and two interceptions. Tonight he was just ten yards shy of his career high in passing yardage after just three quarters. Through the first 45 minutes of play, he was 22-29 for 342 and two touchdowns.
He would eclipse his personal benchmark of 352 early in the fourth quarter, and finish with 370 for the game.
Last Saturday in Durham, tailback Justin Jackson saw his assault on the Northwestern football rushing record book temporarily roadblocked, as ran just seven times for 18 yards, both career lows. Tonight saw, as the 1920 Presidential campaign of Warren G. Harding promised, “a return to normalcy,” and much like in post War of 1812/Napoleonic Wars America, an “era of good feelings” indeed, with NU running up 678 yards of total offense.
Jackson had 116 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 16 carries through the first three quarters. The ball-carrier finished with third touchdown and 121 net yards rushing; to go along with 21 yards receiving.
“When I walked into the locker room last week, I didn’t think I was walking into a funeral,” Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald.
“We got knocked down last week…The only thing we could do is get off the mat, come up swinging.”
Northwestern football now enters a bye week, which preludes what will, at least on paper be their toughest two games of the season. They’ll travel to #10 Wisconsin in two weeks and host #5 Penn State the following Saturday.
Fitzgerald knows that there’s much bigger challenges ahead than Bowling Green State University: “We have to work on so many things in all three phases.”
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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