UW’s stinging loss will be difficult to forget
INDIANAPOLIS – If you’re a Wisconsin football fan, it’s hard to see the glass as half full today. Yes, the Badgers get to play Miami in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30 and have a chance to finish 13-1.
Any other year, you’d take that in a heartbeat.
This year, it rings as hollow as the plastic consolation trophy no one aspires to win, as the participation ribbon for trying, no matter that you got waxed by the bigger, better kids.
What could have been the greatest season in UW football history, a season that would have lifted the Badgers into the rarefied air breathed by the Oklahomas and Alabamas, turned to profound disappointment Saturday night.
Ohio State’s 27-21 victory in the Big Ten championship game crushed Wisconsin’s bid for the four-team College Football Playoff and silenced all the happy talk — in hindsight it seems silly — about a possible run at a national title.
And to a degree it validated the critics
who said UW was a paper tiger that had built its 12-0 record on the backs of hapless teams in the Big Ten’s weak West Division. The Badgers went into the game ranked No. 4, but SEC apologist Paul Finebaum and whiny Tim Tebow turned out to be right: They didn’t belong.
One could argue that the Buckeyes were just one score better than the Badgers, that Wisconsin had chances to pull out the victory in the fourth quarter, that a holding penalty and a non-call on pass interference formed the razor-thin line between winning and losing.
But that would be overlooking the obvious: Ohio State was the better team, with a front seven that shut down Wisconsin’s vaunted running game and explosive playmakers on offense who left Badgers defenders grasping at air.
The same defense that gave up 433 combined yards in victories over Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota to close out the regular season allowed the Buckeyes to pile up 449. The same defense that hadn’t allowed a run of more than 28 yards all year gave up runs of 77 and 53 yards to J.K. Dobbins.
When Terry McLaurin blew past Wisconsin safety Joe Ferguson and hauled in J.T. Barrett’s pass for an 84-yard touchdown on Ohio State’s second possession, the difference in speed was striking.
“They made some plays and certainly some big ones,” said UW coach Paul Chryst. “Credit to them. We certainly felt like they were a good offense and they were going to make some plays. We just had to keep playing.”
It wasn’t as if Wisconsin didn’t have its moments. There just weren’t enough of them.
Most of the Badgers who came to the interview room at Lucas Oil Stadium — the losing team’s locker room was closed — tried to put a positive spin on it.
In monotone sound bites, they said they were proud of their effort, put it all on the line, fought to the end and came up short, etc.
Junior tackle Michael Dieter, however, was having a hard time keeping his chin up. This one hurt. It hurt beyond words, but he tried to find them, anyway.
“There’s nothing to say that can cheer you up,” he said. “It’s just something you’ve got to battle through. It will take a little time (to get over).”
This was Wisconsin’s first loss in 364 days. On Dec. 3, 2016, Penn State overcame a 21-point deficit to beat the Badgers, 38-31, in the Big Ten title game. If it’s possible, this one hurt more.
“In a demented way that’s what’s awesome about this,” Chryst said of the tightrope walk between winning and losing under the bright lights. “There’s risk, right? You put it all out there and there’s risk. On the scoreboard, we came up short.”
The emotional hangover will linger. Chryst will have to do a great coaching job to get his players mentally ready for Miami and the Orange Bowl. A victory would be the Badgers’ 13th of the season, a first in program history.
It’s something to shoot for, when your bigger dream has died.