Defense, defense, defense and some more defense as the Wisconsin Badgers completely shut down the potent Northwestern offense in a 35-6 win.
Wisconsin limited Northwestern to just 2-for-17 on third downs and broke the Wildcats’ seven game streak of at least scoring 30 points.
The Badgers came up with a season-high seven sacks from seven different players.
What It Means: UW has a legitimate argument at being coined the second best team in the Big Ten. They display excellent balance; an offense who scored on a 71 yard run and a 63 yard pass as well as a defense who we already highlighted in the intro. It was almost a perfect game if not for a costly injury early in the second quarter. Number one receiver Jared Abbrederis left with what was called a “head” injury (a.k.a. most likely a concussion). Without Abbrederis, Stave dinked and dunked his way to a 17/28 for 241 yards and three touchdowns. While Coach Gary Andersen didn’t want to talk about anything “negative” in his press-conference, losing Abby for some time would be detrimental to an improving pass-game.
Player of the Game: LB Chris Borland (10 tackles including eight solos and one sack)
When you shut down Northwestern and hold them without a touchdown for the first time since Oct. 28, 2006, it has to be a defensive player of the game. Borland is the unquestionable leader of this unit and it was his 15th career game with double-digit tackles. Coach Andersen said, “Chris will never cease to to amaze me.”
Highlight of the Game: Late in the second quarter, Melvin Gordon ripped off his third 70-plus yard run. Stave faked the ball to fullback Derek Watt and the Northwestern defense completely bought it to spring Gordon up the left sideline and in to the house. After that touchdown, Gordon was averaging a crazy 34.1 yards per game on his 12 career touchdowns.
Gordon is a stud and it’s possible he could leave early for the 2014 NFL Draft.
Stat of the Game (7): The seven sacks by Wisconsin was the first time that had happened since the Badgers had seven as a team versus Purdue in 2003. Andersen also mentioned “I’m not sure if I’ve ever been around a game where there were seven sacks by seven different players.”
What’s Next: Wisconsin finished it’s lone home game in October and will head back on the road to take on Illinois. The Fighting Illini (3-2, 0-1) are coming off a bye after being thumped at Nebraska 39-19. Illinois lost at Camp Randall 31-14 in 2012 in a game Abbrederis caught seven passes for 117 yards and one touchdown.
What did you think of the Badgers defensive explosion against Northwestern? 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 BadgerFootball twitter account.