ORLANDO – New Year’s Day proved to be a breakthrough moment for the Northwestern college football program.
Not generally known for winning key games or bowls, the Wildcats have been suddenly proving their doubters wrong as of late.
The 2020 Big Ten West champion, which went toe-to-toe with Ohio State in the Big Ten title game earlier last month, put on a performance to remember at the Vrbo Citrus Bowl yesterday (Jan. 1) against Auburn.(
In what turned out to be a 35-19 win for the Wildcats (7-2), they shut down the Tigers running game and allowed only two total touchdowns. The 14th-ranked team never trailed in this one, as they came out of the game with an early 14-0 lead that withstood a potential rally from the middle-of-the pack SEC collective.
Vrbo Citrus Bowl MVP and Northwestern senior quarterback Peyton Ramsey showed great command and poise as he lead a nine-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a spirited 35-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman (three catches, 61 yards). With an extra point, Northwestern took a 7-0 lead over Auburn (6-5) at the 11:32 mark of the first quarter.
After both teams had stalled drives that were forced into punts for much of the first frame, it was the Wildcats that broke through again. This time it was a 10-play, 68-yard drive that resulted in a 6-yard end-zone pass from Ramsey to senior tight end John Raine (team-high six catches for 76 yards).
With another extra point made, Northwestern extended its lead to 14-0 over Auburn with 3:14 left in the first quarter.
The next frame was different for both teams, however.
Auburn got on the board with two second-quarter field goals from kicker Anders Carlson. The best of his two was a 50-yarder that cut Northwestern’s lead to 14-3 at the 6:03 mark.
At halftime, Northwestern was up 14-6.
The second half looked to be a complete comeback for Auburn, but Northwestern had other plans.
After both teams exchanged punts in the early portion of the third quarter, Auburn broke through with the play of quarterback Bo Nix, who led a six-play, 75-yard drive that culminated in a 57-yard touchdown pass to freshman wide receiver and Chaminade-Madonna alum Elijah Canion (three catches, 80 yards).
With the Canion score and the extra point that followed, Auburn made it a game as the Northwestern lead was cut to 14-13 at the 8:32 mark.
But from that very point on, the Northwestern defense shut down Nix (25-42, 292 yards, one touchdown) and prevented him from doing much in the air. And with the stingy Wildcats defense doing its part to shut down the Tigers offense, the pathway to victory started to clear up.
Here’s how it happened.
A nine-play, 87-yard drive was mostly about Ramsey. He mixed in a few passes with his 30-yard touchdown run that helped expand Northwestern’s lead to 21-13 at the 1:34 mark.
“The 30-yard run was a pressure look that we had seen a
couple times earlier in the year [against] Iowa, the guy that
tried to flush me out to the left a little bit and there was a
spy sitting there waiting for me,” Ramsey said. “But this time they didn’t spy me so I was able to get in the open field and get in the
end zone and play with that safety a little bit. More than anything, I stepped out of the pocket, saw some green grass and took off running.”
Following Ramsey’s rushing score was one from freshman running back Cam Porter, who added his end-zone appearance on a 1-yarder with 12:13 left in the game. Porter provided all of the yards gained in Northwestern’s seven-play, 50-yard drive that extended his team’s lead to 28-13.
Porter finished the Citrus Bowl game with 33 carries for 98 yards and the 1-yard touchdown run early in the fourth.
The dagger ultimately came when Northwestern’s Earnest Brown IV recovered a lost fumble at the Auburn 28, which set up a short scoring drive thereafter. In six plays, Ramsey finished the Tigers off when he fired off a 8-yard scoring pass to Riley Lees for a 35-13 lead with 7:49 left.
Auburn’s D.J. Williams finished off the game’s scoring with a 2-yard end zone run.
Ramsey on the fourth-quarter surge that put this game away:
“I think we just asserted our will, asserted our dominance and played Big Ten football and continued to execute,” Ramsey said. “Man, those dudes up front, they played so hard. They played so well. Our offensive line, Cam, ran so hard and kind of put them away there in the fourth quarter. So all credit to those guys up front. They asserted their dominance and said it’s go-time and nothing is going to stop us from getting in the end zone.”
Ramsey completed 24 of his 35 passes for 291 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. He added 10 carries for 50 yards and another score, which came on the ground.
The Citrus Bowl MVP spoke on his performance.
“I think we were just taking
advantage of the matchups that were given,” Ramsey said. “We rarely ever going into a game saying we are going to throw deep;
we’re going to throw short. It’s just taking what the defence gives you, taking advantage of those matchups, and our guys did a really good job of getting open.”
The Citrus Bowl win was one of the most significant ones in recent history for North-western.
“I think we played probably as complete of a game as we have all year,” Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “We were pretty much turnover-free. A couple penalties that were tough. But you know, that’s going to happen in bowl games…Fourth down we were really good early and then the huge fourth down stop. You could just feel the air of Auburn’s balloon go out and momentum completely come on our sideline. Our guys quite frankly said ‘we’re going to dominate the line of scrimmage’, and that’s what they did.”
PHOTO CREDITS: Northwestern Football
