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Stats of the Week - Northwestern @ Iowa

The 'Cats had a second consecutive letdown game, particularly on offense, which has significantly disheartened the Northwestern fanbase. Thankfully, a trip to Iowa City is in store.

Pat Fitzgerald is 3-1 at Kinnick Stadium as NU's head coach, with his only loss coming in 2011. Against Iowa overall, Fitz is 5-2 (NU is also 5-2 ATS against Iowa under Fitz).

Northwestern is 6-3 in road games televised on the Big Ten Network, which is the case in this game. NU's last road game televised on BTN was their 28-25 upset of Nebraska in 2011, which helped propel the Wildcats to a bowl game in that season.

The line opened with the 'Cats as 4 point underdogs at Iowa; Fitz is 8-5 as a single-digit road underdog.

Under Fitz, NU is 18-13 against unranked (AP) opponents on the road (0.581). Northwestern is 22-12 (0.647) under Fitzgerald when facing a team with 3 or more losses on the season at the time of their matchup (Iowa is 4-3 on the year).

The Wildcats have only lost 4 or more consecutive games twice under Fitz: a five game stretch in 2011 and a six game streak in 2006, his first year at the helm. Walker had three such streaks (including a long of eight games), and Barnett had four (long of nine).

Northwestern's defense did a solid job last week, and if not for some costly turnovers in their own end, NU could have held Minnesota to under 20 points. Under Fitz, NU is 31-1 when holding its opponent under 20 points, which the 'Cats have done in all 5 of Fitz's wins over Iowa.