There’s only two ways to make people around the country notice an underrated team and that’s to pull a huge upset or obliterate your opponent like never before.
The Wisconsin Badgers went with the latter today as they racked up 554 rushing yards in a 51-3 win over the Indiana Hoosiers.
Wisconsin had three rushers go over 100 yards for the third time this season, including James White who went for a career-high 205 on the ground.
What It Means: What more can the Badgers do at this point? They are killing their competition and the defense appears to be one of the best units in the country. Holding a Hoosiers offense that averaged 43.1 points per game without a touchdown is astonishing. Assuming Wisconsin can’t get a much-needed boost in the BCS Standings, the controversial loss at Arizona State is going to haunt the Badgers when the time comes to place teams in their respective bowls. There’s still a couple of weeks left, but it feels like Wisconsin is going to end up in the Capital One or Gator Bowl. In one of those bowls, the Badgers will match up against a premier SEC team. It’s not as nice as a BCS bowl, but still an enticing game to be excited about.
Player of the Game: LB Chris Borland (10 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss)
The leader of the Badgers top-ten defense deserves all the recognition in the world. It’s not like he doesn’t come to perform each and every week himself either as he notched his 17th career game with double-digit tackles. Borland elevates the entire team and is doing the same with his NFL Draft stock.
Highlight of the Game: On the Badgers very first offensive play, White used his burners to take a hand-off 93 yards for a touchdown, the longest play in school history. White’s 93 yard burst was the longest play since fullback Tom Brigham’s 91 yard run in 1963.
Stat of the Game (2): Wide receiver Jared Abbrederis recorded his first-ever two rushing touchdowns on a couple of reverse plays with excellent down-field blocking. Abbrederis went 32 yards in the second quarter and 49 yards in the third quarter.
What’s Next: The battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe has a new luster to it with the Minnesota Gophers and Badgers both being 8-2. Both teams are playing some of their best football right now. Wisconsin will go for a full decade of dominance when they attempt to win their tenth straight game in the historic series.
What did you think of the Badgers’ dominant performance today? Do they deserve to move up the BCS standings? Let me know by commenting below.
Nick Grays is a senior writer at the Sports Bank where he covers the Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers. He also enjoys sharing Fantasy Advice and pretends to be a Golf expert from time-to-time. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here or visit his blog Nick Knows Best. If social media is not your thing, shoot him an email at grays@uwalumni.com.
Images obtained from modbee.com