Northwestern Football: Poor officiating overshadows thrilling bowl win

The Northwestern Wildcats closed out their 2017 season with a thrilling win over Kentucky in the Music City Bowl.

In one of the most exciting games of the 2017 bowl season, Pat Fitzgerald’s Northwestern Wildcats pulled out a 24-23 win over Kentucky in the Music City Bowl.

The win was the Cats 10th of the season, closing out their first 10-win season since 2015, and their third during Fitzgeralds tenure as head coach.

In a game marred by controversial ejections, cheap shots and injuries, Northwestern fought through and held on for their eighth consecutive win.

Now to the game.

Kentucky opened up the scoring on a Benny Snell touchdown run on the opening drive. After several punts, Northwestern would finally get on the board nine minutes later on a Charlie Kuhbander 33-yard field goal.

That score would hold through the end of the first quarter. Then the madness began.

Just two plays into the second quarter, redshirt junior quarterback Clayton Thorson went down with what appeared to be a knee injury following a 24-yard catch on a flea-flicker.

Thorson- who had just announced his return for his senior season, was carted off following the play. Senior running back Justin Jackson ran in a five-yard touchdown on the next play, giving Northwestern a  10-7 lead.

Then would come the controversy. Kentucky star runningback Benny Snell was ejected for making contact with an official following a big loss.

Snell appeared to merely wave the hand of the official away after the official reached out to help Snell up. No pushing or shoving. Just a simple swat.

Next was the questionable targeting call. Northwestern redshirt freshman Paddy Fisher was ejected for targeting on the last drive of the first half.

Twitter erupted. While the Kentucky player was defenseless, Fisher did not target the players head or neck area. It was simply a good, football tackle. The refs didn’t view it as such.

After Northwestern controlled the majority of the second half, Kentucky found themselves within a touchdown at the Northwestern 39 with under two minutes remaining.

A Northwestern pass interference on third down extended the drive to a first and goal from the NU 9 yard line with 39 seconds remaining.

Kentucky Quarterback Stephen Johnson ran in a 9-yard score to essentially tie the game at 24.

However, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops decided to go for two and failed. After a poor onside kick attempt by Kentucky, Northwestern was in victory formation as Music City Bowl Champions.

Full highlights of the game can be seen above. Northwestern caps off their third consecutive winning season with a thrilling win.

Now the Wildcats fans focus will shift to basketball, as Chris Collins guys kick off Big 10 conference play on Tuesday against Nebraska at home.