You have to hand it to Pat Fitzgerald. The Northwestern coach proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that he has a big ol’ pair and isn’t afraid to grab them.
Whether he was right to grab them, however, is open for debate. Although, I don’t think you’d get much argument from the Auburn faithful right about now.
With a chance to send the Outback Bowl into a second overtime, Fitzgerald opted for a quasi fake field goal. From the five-yard line. On fourth down.
The gamble fell two yards short, and Northwestern fell to Auburn 38-35 in one of the wildest bowl games of the season.
It was, however, a fitting end to a wacky game that featured 78 pass attempts -- yes, 78 -- from Wildcats quarterback Mike Kafka. The senior completed 47 of those for 532 yards and four touchdowns. Oh, and five interceptions thrown in for good measure -- one of which was returned 100 yards and gave Auburn an early 14-0 lead.
Kafka came into the game averaging just over 34 attempts per game, meaning he threw over two games worth of attempts in one 60-minute afternoon.
The Auburn defense was on the field for a staggering 115 snaps as the Wildcats rolled up 619 yards of total offense. The Wildcats had nearly double the first downs as the Tigers -- 35-18.
In the end, however, it was Auburn head coach Gene Chizik on the receiving end of a Gatorade shower.
And Fitzgerald who’ll likely be on the receiving end of some criticism, although he really doesn’t deserve it. It was nice to see a coach go for the win instead of settling for another overtime.
