NEW YORK — Too many bowl games? Try telling that to 6-6 Northwestern, whose players have spent the past few days ice skating in Central Park, brunching at Tavern on the Green, checking out Radio City Music Hall, paying their respects at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and gazing upon the city from the One World Observatory.
It seems there’s a thing or two to do in this neck of the woods. Who knew?
Ooh, we almost forgot one — taking on No. 23 Pittsburgh in Wednesday afternoon’s Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
“We only came up here for one goal,” said junior linebacker Anthony Walker, “and that’s to get a win.”
It’s kind of a tall order, for at least a few reasons.
One right off the bat: Northwestern and bowl games just don’t seem to go together well at all. The school is 2-10 all-time in bowls, which reads like one of the Wildcats’ season records during the desolate 1970s and ’80s. Last year’s Outback Bowl ended in grotesquely lopsided fashion: Tennessee 45, Northwestern 6.
But then there’s the Wildcats’ Pinstripe opponent, 8-4 Pittsburgh, a team that would’ve been even higher in the national pecking order if not for a few narrow defeats — by a touchdown at Oklahoma State, by a single point at North Carolina and by only a field goal against Virginia Tech.
And did we mention the Panthers are the only team in the land that beat a pair of Power 5 conference champions? This is the part of Pittsburgh’s résumé that really sings. It beat Big Ten champ Penn State early and went on the road to knock off ACC champ and College Football Playoff No. 2 seed Clemson late.
The only thing surprising about the Panthers being 5½-point favorites is that the spread isn’t higher.
“You pop on the video and you see a tough, physical football team that’s well-coached in all three phases,” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “In my opinion, they’re just a few plays from probably being not only conference champions but also playing, potentially, in the (playoff). That’s how talented they are.
“So we understand we’ve got a huge challenge, but I believe we’ve got a pretty darn good football team, too.”
It was an uneven performance by Fitzgerald’s team from the start of the regular season until the end. A 1-3 September led to a highly encouraging October, when the Wildcats won at Iowa and Michigan State back-to-back, beat Indiana in Evanston and then gave powerhouse Ohio State all it could handle in a four-point defeat in Columbus.
Yet a 2-2 November was far less exciting. “Good” Northwestern looks like a team that can hang with most any foe and certainly go nose-to-nose with Pittsburgh. “Bad” Northwestern might get blown off the field.
“They’re going to be physical, well-coached,” said Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Josh Conklin. “They’re going to give you everything they’ve got from the first quarter to the fourth quarter.”
Asked which ACC squad Northwestern reminds him of, Conklin went with Duke. Not to read too much into that, but the Panthers beat the living heck out of Duke 56-14 in November.
Three quick things to think about as you watch this game:
1. Pittsburgh is coming off a 76-61 win over Syracuse — the highest-scoring game in FBS history. Nutshell: The Panthers have a terrific offense and a subpar defense, especially against the pass.
2. Northwestern’s red-zone defense will be tested in a huge way. The Panthers scored touchdowns on 43 of 52 trips inside the red zone — a TD percentage of 82.7 that easily led college football.
3. No matter what, root for Pittsburgh running back James Conner, one of the best in the country at his position. Conner wrecked a knee in the 2015 opener and missed the entire season. By last December, he’d begun his fight against Hodgkin lymphoma. How about coming back from all that to rush for 1,000 yards and score 20 touchdowns?
And one more, for the heck of it: Fitzgerald is good buddies with Yankees manager Joe Girardi, a Northwestern alum. Seriously, football in Yankee Stadium? This is going to be pretty sweet.
chicago.suntimes.com
