Looking Back On a Classic

Hey everyone. I decided to tackle the drive home from Tampa immediately after completing my newspaper responsibilities last night. Sorry for the lack of post-game blogs.

I just had to get home. Being on the road that long drives me crazy.

So, about the game:

I thought about this on the drive home -- that was the best game I ever witnessed first-hand. I've always told people that the 1999 Super Regional baseball game between Auburn and FSU, the one where the late Brent Schoening used 130+ pitches to hold down a much better team, was the best athletic event of my lifetime.

I decided to reclassify that as "best individual performance" of my lifetime. You should have been there.

Yesterday's game was incredible. Four end-of-game celebrations, only one of them truly meaningful. Ben Tate losing his head and nearly losing the game. An illegal batting penalty on a guy who was in pass coverage 25 yards from the infraction. Crescendo after crescendo. And then a "modern-day fumblerooski" that was squashed at the 2.

Sounds like a movie.

Numbers that stood out -- and will stand out forever.

**Northwestern ran 115 plays.

**Josh Bynes, Craig Stevens, Neiko Thorpe and Daren Bates played all 115.

**Do you know how crazy that is? I'd assess 80 snaps as "crazy."

**Mike Kafka threw 78 passes.

**T'Sharvan Bell (known everywhere as Tee Bell) picks two passes.

**Walt McFadden takes one 100 yards.

**Northwestern, for all that offense, goes 6-for-23 on third down.

**Auburn penalized 12 times for 140 yards. Holy cow.

**Northwestern earned 33 first downs to Auburn's 18.

**Auburn finished with 425 yards on 72 plays. You're thinking: "Nice work."

**Northwestern finished with 625 yards on 115 pays. "Seriously?"

**Northwestern rushed 37 times for 93 yards. That's a 2.5 average. Nothing.

**Thorpe finished with 13 solo tackles.

**Auburn had 22 possessions. Northwestern had 18.

**Eighteen Outback Bowl records were broken Friday. Ten were tied.

ALSO OF NOTE: I enjoyed seeing everyone in the Official HABOTN Section®. That group included THT, LGG Byron, THT 2.0, Digger, IV, IV's sons, mrtommyd, AuFan365. I think Sean was due in the section, but I had to leave before he arrived. Thanks for the placards, THTs -- that was awesome.

ps: Is Cody Parkey struggling in the Under Armour game or what? Two missed PATs (one was affected by a bobbled snap), a short field goal and his kickoffs have been fielded at the 25 or so. Yummy!

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University

Questions? Comments? Post directly to the blog below or email me at jgtate@gannett.com.