2018 Holiday Bowl Pac-12 v Big Ten
This year’s Holiday Bowl is the poor man’s Rose Bowl given that both lost in their respective conference finals to Washington & Ohio State respectively, and those two will clash in the Rose Bowl Tomorrow. Still, this is a nice consolation, especially for Northwestern who few would have predicted to finish ranked this year. They will struggle to keep hold of head coach Pat Fitzgerald after this showing.
Northwestern started slowly going 1-3, however, showed signs of getting it right when narrowly losing to Michigan 20-17 in game four. They then won 8out of 9 to end the season, with that solitary defeat coming against playoff-bound Notre Dame. They got a bit of a hammering in the Conference Final from Ohio State, but given Bowl eligibility was probably their preseason target this has been a great season for them.
Utah was one of our preseason darkhorse tips for a NY6 bowl berth and they came mighty close losing 10-3 in the Pac Conference final thanks to a deflected pass. The PAC 12 has not had a vintage season however Utah are clearly the third best and there is only one questionable loss on their resume – to Arizona State. Utah doesn’t give up a lot of yards or points for that matter and this probably makes them favourites given Northwestern leaned on their defence a lot for their victories.
This has the look of a one-score game and points should be at a premium. Utah starts as 6.5 points favourite and we think they will just cover it.
Our prediction is for Utah to win 17-10.
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