SOC - Northwestern

It's the scores from today that make me nervous for tomorrow. I wasn't nervous all week, but the Rivalry Week will Rivalry Week and suddenly I'm nervous again. Let me just go through a few scores from yesterday and today so that you see where I'm coming from:

#7 Georgia 44, Georgia Tech 42 (8 OT)
#14 Ole Miss 26, Mississippi State 14
Memphis 34, #17 Tulane 24
3-8 Akron 21, 7-4 Toledo 14

Mississippi State was 2-9 and winless in the SEC, yet there they were, leading Ole Miss 14-10 at the start of the second quarter. They ended up losing by 12, but they were 27-point underdogs and kept it close the entire game. And we see this every year. Plucky team out of bowl contention keeps it close against their rival just because it would be fun to keep the trophy at home.

So I don't really know where to begin when writing this SOC. Confident all week and now "how does Ole Miss even allow 2-win Mississippi State to hang around?" I know that Northwestern is bad, and I saw that they basically quit during the second half against Michigan, yet here I am, wondering if they'll play like this is their Super Bowl.

I mean, this stat alone should tell me how this game will go: