Old-school Wisconsin Badgers football made its return on Saturday just in time for the Badgers to battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe. It couldn’t have come at a more opportune time, as Wisconsin repeatedly pounded the football down the throat of the Minnesota Gophers en route to a 31-21 victory.
With the win, Wisconsin extends the longest win streak of any team in the longest played rivalry in FBS football to 12 games.
The first half told the entire story in this one, as Wisconsin went for 199 yards and four touchdowns as a team on the ground alone. Junior running back Dare Ogunbowale did a ton of damage, to the point that he found a new career high in less than a half of football.
#Badgers RB Dare Ogunbowale has a career-high 131 yards before halftime. Third 100-yard game of his career
— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) November 28, 2015
He finished the game with 155 yards and one touchdown on 33 carries in the win. Sophomore Taiwan Deal joined in the running game party, contributing 90 yards and two rushing touchdowns on 20 carries of his own.
The run game wasn’t the only story for the Badgers though, as the defense came up with two major turnovers in the first half as well and erased a bad mistake by senior quarterback Joel Stave to start the game for UW.
Stave through an ill-advised pass that was jumped on by Minnesota’s Briean Boddy-Calhoun for a pick-six and a 7-0 lead for the Gophers.
Wisconsin answered back by taking the ball and handing it to anyone and everyone in the running back and fullback group. It led to 14 unanswered points and a touchdown lead for the Badgers with just seconds gone in the second quarter.
After Minnesota tied the game at 14-14 with an impressive seven-play, 71-yard touchdown drive things turned on a dime thanks to turnovers to the advantage of the Badgers.
Michael Caputo forced a fumble on the next Gophers drive, and UW turned that in to a quick four-play, 34-yard touchdown drive capped off by a 13-yard touchdown scamper from redshirt freshman Taiwan Deal.
On the next drive the Badgers forced a fumble as KJ Maye fought for extra yards with a spin move. Darius Hillary pounced on the loose football for his second consecutive fumble recovery.
What became most impressive was the ability of the Badgers to line up and smash Minnesota in the mouth, even when everyone knew what was coming. It was something missing all season long for the Badgers and came as UW started its sixth different offensive line combination.
Apparently it worked wonders, as senior left tackle Tyler Marz paired with Micah Kapoi, Michael Deiter, Beau Benzschawel and Jacob Maxwell along the line. Only one of those players, Marz, won’t be around next year.
Perhaps this is the group we will see starting in 2016 outside of Dan Voltz starting at center once again.
It was not only encouraging for finishing out this season, but showed the future could be bright with this young group of offensive linemen as well.
The second half started with the Badgers going three-and-out on the first possession as the Gophers tried to play tough. Instead, Wisconsin reversed the game plan and came out throwing the football a lot more.
It didn’t lead to a ton of production through the air, but just enough to get the needed points in the second half. Stave was 9 of 17 for just 79 yards and one interception, but he completed a few crucial third downs and helped lead the Badgers two two made field goals in the second half.
Ironically, Stave got to win No. 30 thanks mostly to the efforts of everyone else around him, including the defensive side of the football.
The Badger defense picked up pretty much where it left off in the first half, with senior safety Tanner McEvoy snagging two critical interceptions in the fourth quarter and holding the Gophers to just 11 first downs and 3 of 12 on third down conversions.
Linebackers Vince Biegel and Joe Schobert had one more party in the Gophers backfield together, with Biegel leading the team in tackles (6) and contributing two tackles for loss and a sack. Schobert added five tackles, an interception and a forced fumble to the winning effort.
Not surprisingly, the Gophers struggled to get the ground game going at just about any point of the day. Minnesota finished the day with just 53 yards rushing and were outgained 336 to 227 in total offense on the day.
Wisconsin finding its signature run game en route to retaining the Axe for a 12th-straight season was about as poetic a finish as possible for the Cardinal and White. Now can it be a momentum changer heading in to the bowl season and heading in to 2016?
UW will await a few other pieces to the puzzle next weekend, but it could be a trip to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl in the future for the Badgers.
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