LATE BLOOMERS
Badgers start slowly, dominate second half to defeat Northwestern
MADISON – For the first two quarters Saturday afternoon, a crowd of 80,584 fans at Camp Randall Stadium and a national TV audience must have wondered why Wisconsin was ranked No. 10 in the polls and the prohibitive favorite to win the Big Ten West Division title.
UW’s offense, so efficient in its previous game at BYU, suffered three turnovers and a general malaise except for one touchdown drive.
Then came the wake-up call and the second half.
UW dominated play on both sides of the line of scrimmage until late, with the offense contributing three scores and the defense one, to turn a threepoint deficit into a 21-point lead in a span of 22 minutes 44 seconds of game time.
The Badgers allowed two late touchdowns but tacked on a safety in the final minute and escaped with a 33-24 victory over the Wildcats in the teams’ Big Ten opener.
“Offensively, you have to protect the football, whether it's the ball carrier or the quarterback,” UW coach Paul
Chryst said. “Yet all those things happened... and it’s how you respond. And that’s what I was proud of, the way the guys continued to play and respond and come together."
UW (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) prevailed without senior tight end Troy Fumagalli, who was held out because of a minor left-leg injury.
Next up is a road test against Nebraska (3-2, 2-0), which has regrouped after a 1-2 start with victories over Rutgers and Illinois.
Northwestern fell to 0-1 in the Big Ten and 2-2 overall.
UW entered the weekend No. 1 in the Big Ten in scoring (43.3 points per game), No. 1 in rushing offense (275.3 yards per game), No. 2 in total offense (511.0) and No. 1 in third-down conversions (57.9%).
The Badgers struggled to move the ball for most of the first half against a suspect Northwestern defense before awakening but still finished with three turnovers, 109 rushing yards, 306 total yards and a third-down conversion rate of 27.3% (3 of 11).
Remember that UW rolled up 491 yards – 256 passing and 235 rushing – in a 40-6 victory over BYU before the bye.
“It’s too easy to say it’s off the bye,” Chryst said. “It comes down to good football and executing . ...
"It’s the fundamentals. It’s the little things. What’s empowering is those are the things that we can control.”
Quarterback Alex Hornibrook, who completed 18 of 19 attempts for 256 yards and four touchdowns at BYU, never found a rhythm in the opening half Saturday. He was 5 of 11 for 48 yards with two interceptions as Northwestern took advantage of excellent field position to score twice for a 10-7 lead.
Hornibrook responded in the second half, however, by completing 6 of 8 passes for 149 yards and a touchdown.
“I think we didn’t protect well,” redshirt junior left tackle Michael Deiter said when asked about Hornibrook’s first-half performance. “We’ve got to be able to protect. That’s something we have to be better at.
“I think his issues were our issues, because he was getting hit.”
Tailback Jonathan Taylor entered the game averaging 8.3 yards per carry and 146.0 per game. He finished with 80 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.
UW’s defense set the tone on Northwestern’s first series and, except for allowing late touchdown drives of 75 and 55 yards after the Badgers built their lead to 31-10, made big plays.
Wide receiver Jazz Peavy lost a fumble on UW’s first offensive play, and the Wildcats took over at the UW 24 just eight seconds into the
game.
The Wildcats managed 8 yards on three plays, with Justin Jackson losing a yard on third and 1 at the 15, and settled for a field goal and a 3-0 lead.
“That’s huge,” Deiter said of the defensive stand. “That series by them was massive. With the field position we gave them, to hold them to a field goal was awesome.”
Northwestern quarterback Clayton Thorson hadn’t played well in two starts against UW but entered Saturday leading the Big Ten in passing yards at 280.7 per game. His completion mark (63.9%) was No. 4 among the top 10 quarterbacks in the league.
Led by Garret Dooley’s three sacks, UW sacked Thorson eight times and intercepted two of his passes. Thorson battled to pass for three scores and finished 29 of 45 for 219 yards.
Jackson, according to Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, was held out of practice during the week because of injury. Jackson was held to 25 yards on nine carries. Including the 55 yards lost on sacks, Northwestern managed 25 yards on 34 attempts.
“Defensively, I thought there was a lot of moments we played really well,” Chryst said, “but too many missed tackles in key situations.”
Many of those came
late when the Wildcats pulled within 31-24 with 2:53 left on Thorson’s 5yard touchdown pass to Garrett Dickerson.
“When we’re up 21 points and the defense is on the field, we know that we need to go out there and get a stop or get a turnover, kind of put the dagger in,” Dooley said.
UW’s special teams and defense then combined to secure the victory.
Linebacker Ryan Connelly recovered Northwestern’s onside kick at the Wildcats’ 43 with 2:53 left.
The offense could not run out the time, however, and UW was forced to punt from the 35.
Safety Natrell Jamerson, who returned his second interception 36 yards for a touchdown to help UW build its lead to 31-10 with 9:54 left in the game, downed Anthony Lotti’s 33-yard punt at the 2.
Two plays later, safety D’Cota Dixon tackled Thorson in the end zone for a safety.
“We got a little too relaxed in the end,” said Dixon, who finished with a game-high 12 tackles, “and that was the only thing I was disappointed about.
“It was a finish, but an ugly finish, and now I feel like we’ve earned the right to think about and put into action about how we finish and how we win.”