Northern Illinois' Jordan Lynch Ends College Career on Low Note

After having an historic career for the Northern Illinois Huskies, quarterback Jordan Lynch played his final two games in a not-so Jordan Lynch way. The now-NFL hopeful had two of the worst performances of his career in his final two games wearing a Huskies’ uniform.

Three weeks ago, Lynch and NIU took on Bowling Green in the MAC championship game. Excluding their blowout loss to Florida State last season, Lynch posted the worst raw QBR (35.8) and adjusted QBR (40.5) against the Green Falcons. Including Thursday night’s Poinsettia Bowl against Utah State, Lynch threw for 435 yards with three interceptions, two touchdowns and completed just 58.4-percent of his passes in his final two games. On the ground, he rushed for three touchdowns on 44 carries with just 165 yards as well.

All season long we’ve seen Jordan Lynch come up with heroic effort after heroic effort, but he has come up well short of his usual mark in the month of December. Twice did NIU have a chance at winning a school-record 13th game and twice did they fail, thanks in part to poor play from Lynch. And while I have done quite a bit of criticizing of Lynch in this post, it’s also important to recognize the play of the defenses that he went against.

Especially in the bowl game, Lynch was all bottled up. Utah State loaded the box and got multiple hats to the football when anyone was carrying the ball, not just Lynch. Simply put, the defenses showed up and were well prepared for him. They got after him and forced him to move around — something he’s usually very good at. However, they made him uncomfortable and forced him to throw the football — something he didn’t do well.

When his team needed him most he was unable to come up with the big plays. He may have finished third in the Heisman voting, but he certainly didn’t play that way in his final two games of his career. Jordan Lynch had one heck of a college career and it was a blast watching him grow and burst onto the scene. Unfortunately, after all the hard work that he put in in the past four years, his career ultimately ended in disappointment.

Oh, well; off to the NFL!

Brian Skinnell is a freelance sports writer for www.RantSports.com and contributor at Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter and add him to your network on Google.