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2018 SEASON REWIND: Northwestern

2018 PREDICTIONS

WHERE I WENT RIGHT

Well I did call Northwestern a dark horse contender and highlighted having a good defensive front seven (NU finished 62nd in yards allowed per game) and that they had a very good veteran qb (Clayton Thorson had over 3,100 yards) so that’s pretty good AND their overall win count was pretty spot on.  Having said that…

WHERE I WENT WRONG

I didn’t foresee Northwestern winning the west.  So how did I get the wins right but not the division championship?  Well Northwestern inexplicably lost to Akron and was blown out by Duke in the non conference.  To make up for that the Wildcats smoked the Big Ten going 8-1 so I get the close for the win total but was nowhere near correct in the league tally.

SEASON-DEFINING MOMENT

There were a whole lot of nail biting league wins but the Nebraska win takes the cake and came at a critical time.  Northwestern was 2-3 (2-1) when they hosted the Huskers and at the time it felt like Northwestern needed to get some wins to make a bowl – not that they were taking the first steps to an epic division title run.  Fast forward to late in the fourth, Northwestern was down 31-21.  They hit a field goal with about 2:30 left, force a 25 second three and out, then do the old “eight-play-ninety-nine-yard-drive” trick to tie the game with 12 seconds left.  Northwestern would go on to win 34-31, then go on to win five of their final six.  So yeah, that was one way to define the season.

MVP

Blake Gallagher, LB – Oh, you know, just 72 solo tackles and 55 assisted tackles to end up with an absurd 127 tackles.  I think it goes without saying that all three of those marks led the team.

  • Honorable Mention: Paddy Fisher (LB) and Clayton Thorson (QB) – Fisher also had a ridiculous number of tackles as he and Gallagher were one of the best LB tandems in the nation.  As for Thorson, other than being the heart and soul of the offense, he passed for a ton of yards.

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