College Football Bowl Preview (Part I)
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (December 26 6:oo p.m. ET)
Bowling Green Vs. Pittsburgh
Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
The MAC champions get a chance to prove they can compete with a BCS-conference team. The Bowling Green Falcons take on the ACC’s Pittsburgh Panthers in the first game after Christmas. Bowling Green returns to Ford Field, the site of its championship victory over Northern Illinois.
The Falcons finished with a record of 10-3 and have a team that’s solid on both sides of the ball. Bowling Green used a balanced attack this season, ranking 34th in passing yards and 27th in rushing yards. Quarterback Matt Johnson is coming off a career day in the MAC Championship, throwing for 393 yards and five touchdowns. For the year, he threw for 23 touchdowns with just seven interceptions. Running back Travis Greene has been tough for anyone to bring down this year.
While the Falcons have a good offense, they have an even better defense. The unit ranked fifth in the country in points allowed and should present a problem to a Pittsburgh offense that’s been mediocre this season.
The Panthers struggled to finish with a .500 record this year, but do have one signature win. That was the 28-21 victory over then-No. 23 Notre Dame. Pittsburgh had a difficult time running the ball this season, so more had to fall on the shoulders of quarterback Tom Savage, who threw for 2,834 yards with 21 touchdowns and nine interceptions. The talk of this Pittsburgh team is the defense, namely defensive tackle Aaron Donald. The senior lineman had a fantastic season and took home plenty of hardware to prove it. In 2013, Donald won the Lombardi Award, the Nagurski Trophy, the Outland Trophy and the Bednarik Award. The talented defensive tackle makes difficult for anyone to run an offense.
Look for this game to be rather low-scoring. Pittsburgh should be able to slow down the Falcons on offense, but the Panther offense will likely struggle in this one. Prediction: Bowling Green 21 Pittsburgh 10