Blame the refs. Go ahead, because they deserved it for two horrible calls that took 14 points off the board for the Wisconsin Badgers.
However, let’s also realize the officials weren’t the only culprits in Wisconsin’s 13-7 loss to Northwestern on Senior Day in Madison.
Five turnovers, no run game to speak of and bad special teams play were far more at fault than anything the officials did (or didn’t do) to the Badgers.
The fact that Wisconsin’s defense was on the field for 32 minutes, 6 seconds and dealt with an average starting position of the Northwestern 41-yard line should tell you most of what you need to know about this game. It also should tell one just how crazy it was that only 13 points were given up.
“I thought our defense played tremendous and individual efforts, group efforts, gave us a chance to be in that game and to win,” head coach Paul Chryst said after the game. “And that’s not common.”
The other side of the coin? Not even close to pretty in any way, shape or form. In fact, it may have been the ugliest offensive game played by the Badgers in years.
Joel Stave ended his career in Camp Randall on a massive thud, going 20 of 29 for 229 yards and two interceptions. The overall numbers aren’t bad, but it was the two untimely interceptions and the numerous sacks that killed any momentum the Badgers offense had on the day.
Stave got no help from the offensive line, as they gave up six sacks on the day and couldn’t open a hole for a running back to save their lives. Wisconsin finished the game with minus-26 yards rushing, largely thanks to those six sacks equaling minus-58 yards on Stave alone.
As it was, Wisconsin’s leading rusher was Corey Clement, who had 10 carries for 24 yards and the lone touchdown on the day.
Winning football games when your leading rusher racks up 24 yards is a really hard feat, something Chryst acknowledged following the game.
“(Not running the football well) makes it really hard, I think,” said Chryst. “You’ve got to be able to run the football. And certainly, the six sacks add to the total. But we were not getting anything consistent and that’s hard.
“We have got to do a much better job running the football if we really want to have a chance to win games.”
Wisconsin has struggled to run the football all season, it also has struggled against quality defenses to keep Stave upright behind them. Having opposing defenses that aren’t exactly difficult to play against for most of the season hid a lot of the warts on this offense.
Playing against a quality defense like Northwestern exposed those warts in a major way.
There’s also the fact that Alex Erickson’s alleged touchdown was correctly reversed, since apparently you can’t make any signal and advance the ball (never mind that call is never made except for that one time).
The harsh reality of Saturday’s loss is that while it’s easy to blame officials for mistakes or questionable calls, Wisconsin really only has itself to blame.
Find ways to protect Stave, open up holes and not turn the ball over on offense and chances are there would be plenty of opportunities to win the game regardless of bad officiating or not.
Scapegoating officials is easy.
Admitting your favorite team blew plenty of opportunities of its own, well that’s a much harsher reality. Still, it is exactly what happened on Saturday, like it or not.
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