Pittsburgh vs. Northwestern Prediction, Pinstripe Bowl Preview, LINK!

[rmndcat]

Whatever Northwestern's passing records are for a single game in their history, they will be broken on Dec 28.

But Pitt will still win.

49-41.

Not the outcome I'd want, but seems pretty plausible...

 

[pawildcat]

Whatever Northwestern's passing records are for a single game in their history, they will be broken on Dec 28.

But Pitt will still win.

49-41.

If this year's Pitt team were playing some of Randy Walker's (NU coach before Fitz) teams of a decade ago, this game might be 110-100. This year's Pitt team is probably an anomaly for the Panthers, but Walker's teams were like that year after year — good offense and zero defense. Off the top of my head, I can remember several games in the 2000 B1G co-champion year like a 47-44 two-overtime win over Wisconsin, a 41-35 comeback win against Minnesota and the well-known 54-51 win over Michigan. NU was known as the "cardiac Cats" in those days. We played four overtime games during one season, which I think is an NCAA record. In 2005 I attended the game with Wisconsin, and the Cats were leading 51-34 with less than five minutes remaining. Wisky fans were headed for the exits until I said, "Wait, we'll find a way to make this interesting." Sure enough, it was down to 51-48 in a couple of minutes, and Wisconsin was actually driving for a tying or winning score with almost two minutes left. Fortunately, the Cats lucked into an interception and we finally got out of there. One of the guys from our 1995 Rose Bowl team said after that game, "Doesn't ANYONE here play defense?"
I get a feeling that this year's Pinstripe Bowl could be another of those cardiac games.