Northwestern Earns 4th Straight Postseason Win, Beats Auburn in 2021 Citrus Bowl

The Northwestern Wildcats put a nice bow on their excellent season with a 35-19 victory over the Auburn Tigers in the 2021 Citrus Bowl on Friday.   

Head coach Pat Fitzgerald's team was one of the most pleasant surprises in 2020. They won their first five games of the season and played a competitive game against Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship two weeks ago. 

The Wildcats' victory over Auburn marks their fourth straight bowl victory. It's also their second consecutive win over an SEC opponent in a postseason game, after previously beating Kentucky in the 2017 Music City Bowl.   

Auburn came into the game with Kevin Steele serving as interim head coach. Gus Malzahn's eight-year run with the program ended when he was fired on Dec. 13. The Tigers ended this season with three losses in their last four games, with all three defeats coming against ranked opponents. 

Peyton Ramsey had his best game of the season, by far. The Northwestern quarterback had four total touchdowns and 291 yards passing. The Wildcats defense held Auburn to a total of 61 yards rushing. 

Notable Game Stats

• Peyton Ramsey, QB (Northwestern): 24-of-35, 291 yards, 3 TD; 10 carries, 50 yards, TD
• Cam Porter, RB (Northwestern): 33 carries, 98 yards, TD; 3 receptions, 27 yards
• John Raine, WR (Northwestern): 6 receptions, 76 yards, TD
• Bo Nix, QB (AUB): 25-of-42, 292 yards, TD; 10 carries, 32 yards
• D.J. Williams, RB (AUB): 6 carries, 16 yards, TD
• Elijah Canion, WR (AUB): 3 receptions, 80 yards, TD

Dominant Defense Leads Wildcats to Victory

Northwestern looked like it was on its way to a blowout win after the first quarter. Ramsey was 11-of-14 for 152 yards and two touchdowns in the first 15 minutes. 

Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman was on the receiving end of Ramsey's first touchdown, a 35-yarder to cap off a nine-play opening drive that put the Wildcats up 7-0. 

Ramsey followed that up with a six-yard score to John Raine late in the first quarter. The senior quarterback entered Friday with nine touchdowns and eight interceptions on the season. 

After the first quarter, though, the game slowed to a crawl for the Wildcats offense for a long period of time. They ran for 21 yards on 20 carries heading into halftime. 

While the offense failed to keep up its early performance, Northwestern's defense more than lived up to its reputation throughout. The unit ranked fifth in the nation with 15.5 points allowed per game during the regular season. 

This seemed like a bad matchup for an Auburn offense that tied for 86th in the nation in scoring offense (25.7 points per game). It was even worse against teams currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 (39 points total in three games).

Auburn's offense seemed like it was finding a rhythm late in the second quarter. Bo Nix led the Tigers to back-to-back field goals to cut the deficit to 14-6, but it could have been closer after they were set up with a 1st-and-goal from Northwestern's 5-yard line. 

Three incomplete passes and a false start pushed the Tigers back five yards. They settled for a 27-yard field goal from Anders Carlson with 17 seconds left before the intermission.

Auburn had a chance to put pressure on Northwestern coming out of the break when it received the opening kickoff. Instead, following a three-yard run from Nix on first down, he threw two incompletions for a quick three-and-out. 

The one big break Nix had came on Auburn's second drive in the third quarter. The sophomore found Elijah Canion for a 57-yard score on a busted coverage to make it a one-point game.

Later in the third quarter, Northwestern was able to answer with its best drive of the game. The offense went 87 yards in nine plays, capped off by Ramsey's 30-yard touchdown run. 

After the Canion touchdown, the Tigers finished the game with a three-and-out, a turnover on downs and a lost fumble by Shaun Shivers before a garbage-time touchdown by D.J. Williams.

Fitzgerald and his staff did a great job all season of understanding that defense was the strength of their roster and playing into it. 

If the Wildcats offense is able to catch up to the defense in 2021, they will be an even bigger factor in the Big Ten than they were this season. 

Offensive Woes Continue to Hurt Auburn

Auburn's offense wasn't very imposing to begin with, but the unit came into this game without leading rusher Tank Bigsby and offensive tackle Brodarious Hamm. The defense didn't have Roger McCreary and Christian Tutt in the secondary. 

An already-limited roster missing that much talent showed itself to be outside of Northwestern's class. 

Nix, in particular, continues to come up small in big moments. The highlight of his Auburn career to date was his go-ahead touchdown pass in the final seconds against Oregon in his first start as a freshman. 

Despite gaining experience last year, Nix didn't develop as expected in 2020. The Alabama native entered the Citrus Bowl with a completion percentage of 60.0, 2,123 yards, 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 10 games. 

Nix had no answers against Northwestern's defense throughout the game. The Tigers had five drives end in three-and-outs, two others result in a turnover on downs and one end with a lost fumble. 

If there's a reason to be optimistic about Nix in 2021, it's incoming head coach Bryan Harsin. 

Harsin is coming to Auburn after spending the past seven seasons at Boise State. The 44-year-old went 69-19 with the Broncos, including five years with at least 10 wins. His first year with the program ended with a Fiesta Bowl win over Arizona. 

Just as important as Harsin's record at Boise State was the consistent performance from his offense. The team never finished worse than 38th in the nation in points per game in a season. 

ESPN's Alex Scarborough noted there were "a number of reasons" that Auburn decided to fire Malzahn, but chief among them was "the regression of the offense" during his eight-year run:

"Jeremy Johnson was supposed to be the heir apparent to (Nick) Marshall and (Cam) Newton, and instead he went bust. Sean White was arrested and kicked off the team. John Franklin III transferred. And Jarrett Stidham never quite lived up to the hype, appearing to be more or less a game manager than the difference-maker he was promised to be.

"The tempo diminished. The excitement waned. The only hurry became the haste with which some Auburn supporters wished to show Malzahn the door."

Nix isn't an untalented player. He was rated as a 5-star prospect and the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in the 2019 recruiting class by 247Sports composite rankings. 

Things haven't worked out for Nix through his first two seasons with the program, but Friday marked the end of his run with Malzahn's staff. 

Harsin will be able to step in and figure out what Nix's strengths are to maximize them on the field, rather than follow a strict adherence to scheme in the way that Malzahn so often did.