Auburn and Northwestern in the Outback Bowl 2010
Northwestern had seen this before. Their 38-35 overtime loss to Auburn in the 2010 Outback Bowl was almost the exact opposite of their victory at Purdue during the regular season. In that game, the Boilermakers had six turnovers, including three in the final two minutes of the first half that led to 13 quick points. Still, Purdue only trailed 27-21 in the final minute with a first and goal inside the Northwestern 10 yard line. Agonizingly, Purdue could not convert and Northwestern was given a win thanks mostly to the other team’s mistakes. They were able to pay that win forward on New Year’s Day.
Northwestern had 625 yards of total offense, including 532 yards passing from quarterback Mike Kafka. They could not overcome five interceptions, a lost fumble, two missed field goals, and a missed extra point though. Kafka, playing in his final collegiate game, set an all time bowl record with 47 completions and 78 attempts. Auburn did not fare much better in the generosity department. The Tigers also lost four fumbles to keep the Wildcats in it. Those fumbles helped make for what was one of the craziest endings in bowl history. The ending of this game was so crazy that Auburn stormed the field three times thinking it had won before the game was officially over.
Kafka scored on a two yard run with 3:20 left in the game, but kicker Stefan Demos missed the extra points to make it 35-27. Northwestern then forced a fumble and drove down the field for the tying touchdown. Just two minutes after the previous touchdown Kafka found Sidney Stewart for an 18 yard touchdown pass to pull the Wildcats within two. Brendan Mitchell then caught the game’s tying two point conversion, and a fumble on the kickoff return gave Northwestern the ball right back. Demos missed a 44-yard field goal and the game went to overtime.
With Auburns scoring a field goal only on its overtime possession therefore, Northwestern required only a touchdown to emerge victors. Initially it seemed as though Auburn had secured itself a victory the minute Kafka was fumbled and sacked to the Tigers. This fumble was later overturned after review of the replay which saw Auburn back to the sideline. Auburn worked itself out once again following Demos missing yet more field goal after some plays later though a roughing kicker penalty was awarded leading to a first down being granted to Northwestern.
After northwestern failed to score a touchdown following the penalty it lined up for another field goal. This time backup kicker Steve Falherty was called on to try a tying field goal because Demos was injured on the previous attempt. Instead of trying to tie Northwestern ran a fake field goal attempt. Zeke Markshausen took a between the legs handoff from Dan Persa on the fake attempt, but was tackled before scoring. That finally let Auburn storm the field – for real this time – as it had locked up a hard earned bowl victory.
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