Meineke Car Care Bowl Tickets

The Northwestern Wildcats will match up against the Texas A&M Aggies in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Houston on December 31 at noon.

If nothing else, this should be an exciting shootout between two inconsistent teams. Both squads feature quarterbacks who can put up points in a hurry and defenses that have trouble getting off the field and keeping opponents out of the end zone.

The Wildcats lost five straight games in the middle of the season, including a loss at Army, and seemed to be well on their way to a disastrous finish before winning four of their final five contests to qualify for a bowl.

Texas A&M looked like they were heading toward a promising season, only to lose four of their final five, which includes coughing up a significant lead in the season finale at home to rival Texas. The terrible finish lead to the firing of head coach Mike Sherman, so you wonder how the Aggies will respond.

It's hard to know which Texas A&M team will show up for the game, much less for each quarter, which makes a prediction difficult. Northwestern wasn't exactly consistent this year, either, so this is a true toss-up.

Prediction: Northwestern 34, Texas A&M 27