Badgers' Bullish Play Leads to Victory

In the first half, Wisconsin Badgers looked a lot like me on Saturday morning... Sluggish, tired and inability to really do anything productive. Wisconsin probably just had to feel out their opponent, Iowa, while I tried to watch the game with a debilitating hangover. Both the Badgers and I recovered nicely as Wisconsin imposed their will on Iowa winning 28-9 in a key Big Ten win to keep their hopes of alive for a BCS bowl and a Big Ten title appearance.

Many Badgers fans held their collective breath when the football team announced Chris Borland would not
play on Saturday. Borland is the heart and soul to the Badgers defense and while Iowa's offense is not Oregon, they are not the worst offense in the nation. Further, Iowa looked stronger on offense in the last couple of weeks meaning this could have been more of an offensive battle than it had been expected going into the game.

Iowa's offense remained stagnant as Borland's replacement, Marcus Trotter, showed Wisconsin will be just fine when Borland leaves this season.  He played great inside with nine tackles containing Iowa's rushing offense and played a large part in holding the Hawkeyes to only nine points. It also says a bunch about Wisconsin's defense and maybe proof they are right up there with some of the best defensive teams in the country. Even though Iowa's quarterbacks will not be making NFL rosters (Shoutout to Ricky Stanzi, the hardest working American outchea), the young Wisconsin cornerbacks played one of their best games of the year and it could be showing they are maturing as we head into the month of November.

There has not been a James White game in a long time. Melvin Gordon stole the show from him early on this season yet this was a game for White. Iowa is a bruising mean defense and that does not suit Gordon as well as it does White (Worth nothing, I think this hurts Gordon's draft stock but what the hell do I know). The senior running back went off for 132 yards on only 19 carries averaging 6.9 per carry. Only Carlos Hyde rushed for more yards yet he did it with five more carries against this Iowa's defense. White played a large part in wearing down the Iowa defense ensuring a victory for this Badgers team.

For the first time this season, Wisconsin really leaned on their rushing game. Joel Stave had his worst output of the season with only 144 yards of passing and 44 percent of the yardage came on two touchdown passes. The Badgers do rely Stave more than the national media will ever talked about because it is not as sexy as White and Gordon.  He looked horrible in the first half minus the 44 yard strike to Jacob Pedersen and the Badgers offense did as well. Stave is still an inconsistent quarterback in his second year at quarterback and that's perfectly fine yet against a better offense, it might come back to bite the Badgers in the ass.

It might not be another Rose Bowl but CBS Sports' Jerry Palm has Wisconsin slotted into the Sugar Bowl against South Carolina. This is interesting given how impressive Michigan State played this week and given the Badgers are still at number 24 in the BCS Standings. Wisconsin has three games to continue to impressive the computers and voters yet it does seem like they should garner more respect.

Charlie.