Champaign — After tailback Kaden Feagin scampered in for a 12-yard touchdown with 4:30 left in the third quarter to extend the Fighting Illini's lead to 21-7, things looked just about as grim as they have for Wisconsin since, well, the last time the Badgers faced Illinois.

Last season, Illinois came into Madison and stunned the Badgers with a 34-10 shellacking, a game that would ultimately get Paul Chryst fired the next day. Down multiple scores late in the second half once again, it appeared as though Wisconsin was set to drop its second straight game to Illinois at the hands of ex-Badgers coach Bret Bielema. A loss would've dropped the Badgers to just one game over .500 with the mighty Ohio State Buckeyes rolling into town for Halloween weekend.

“It was not a great situation, down 21-7, to be honest, with a young quarterback," Luke Fickell said after the game.

Not in the slightest. And yet, when the clock hit zero after four quarters, Wisconsin had escaped Champaign with a 25-21 win, dropping 18 unanswered points with a redshirt freshman quarterback making his first ever start. The Badgers stared down a potentially crippling loss and didn't blink. In the end, the cardinal and white simply played like they wanted it more.

“I told our guys afterwards, this is the first time in 10 months I’ve seen that out of our guys," Fickell said. "(That's) probably what makes me happiest. It’s not just finding a way to win. It’s resilience, it’s fight, it’s grit that I don’t know that I’ve seen.”

The sheer heart and fire Wisconsin played with down the stretch, scoring on their last three drives and denying the Illini three straight times, was enough for a shocking, emotional victory. This year, it was the Badgers' turn to stun the world in this matchup.

This is how Wisconsin came back for its best win early in the Fickell era.

Early in the fourth quarter, Wisconsin kicker Nathanial Vakos hit a 41-yard field goal that brought the score to 21-10. At the time, with Wisconsin's offense looking stagnant since their two-minute drill touchdown right before halftime, it appeared a feeble attempt to claw back into the game.

After the defense got the ball back in the young quarterback Braedyn Locke's hands with a sack by linebacker Maema Njongmeta, Wisconsin's offense took the field with just under 11 minutes to play. It was a must-score drive.

At first, it was over before it started. Illinois' elite defensive tackle Jer'Zhan Newton flew into the backfield and laid a devastating hit on Locke, putting the quarterback on his rear end and jarring the ball loose. The hit, however, was too devastating — Newton was called for targeting on the basis of a "high hit," and he was ejected from the game. Wisconsin kept the ball and got a much needed 15 yards to kickstart their drive.

After a few first downs, Wisconsin had a 1st-and-10 on Illinois' 20 yard line. The perfect time for a shot at the end zone. Locke knew it too.

“We had a double move on. Kind of an out-and-up route. They were playing man free, that’s what they played for most of the night," the quarterback said. "The safety was in the middle of the field. I tried to hold him there, he did a great job tracking all the way over and really was in a great spot to make a play on the ball. As the ball was in the air, I was worried that he was about to."

The route combination on the near side of the field was a skinny post from wide out Bryson Green and the aforementioned out-and-up by Will Pauling. When the safety over the top bit down on Green's in-breaking route, that left Pauling one-on-one with defensive back Tyler Strain, who was in great position to defend the pass or even pick the ball off.

"Braedyn put it up, I was like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna have to go make a play,’" Pauling said.

That's exactly what he did. Listed at 5-foot-10, Pauling bodied Strain like he's 6-foot-3, boxing him out and reeling in the spectacular touchdown. If you couldn't tell from his smooth "too small" celebration as he got up after scoring, this touchdown was especially sweet for Pauling.

“I’m from Illinois, playing in front of so many friends and family," he said. "Scoring my first touchdown against a school that really didn’t recruit me much, really didn’t look my way out of high school, that was awesome.”

Despite what had been a lethargic offensive performance to that point, Pauling had confidence in Locke to get the job done. He said something changed in the fourth quarter.

“He had a little bit of fire in his eyes the last few drives," Pauling said. "That whole fourth quarter. I saw something different in his eyes.”

Following Pauling's touchdown, Locke hit tight end Riley Nowakowski in the end zone for a critical two-point conversion to cut the deficit to just three. After yet another defensive stop, this time a sack courtesy of CJ Goetz and Darryl Peterson, the Badgers' offense once again had the ball, this time with the clock showing 3:24 in the ballgame.

Wisconsin had moved the ball to Illinois' 46 yard line, tantalizingly close to game-tying field goal range. But after two incomplete passes, one intender for Skyler Bell and one intended for Chimere Dike, the Badgers faced a 3rd-and-10 in a dire situation.

“We knew it was a four-down situation, so we had some opportunities to get yourself into position where you’re gonna go for it on fourth down," Fickell said of the ensuing decision. "When it comes down to it, you’ve gotta get the ball in your horses’ hands."

Lucky for Wisconsin, they have a horse named Braelon Allen, who had ran with emotion and passion all night in what was in especially meaningful game for him.

"I was looking forward to a lot of games this season, but I think this one was at the top of the list," the star tailback said. "Eight carries, two yards isn’t something to be proud of. When you know you have another opportunity to play another team that holds you to a stat-line like that, you have no choice but to be excited for it."

"I knew what time it was when we got off the bus.”

Allen, of course, is referring to Illinois' beatdown of the Badgers in Madison last season, which he took very personally.

"They came into Madison and embarrassed us as a team but embarrassed me. That was something I never want to feel again," he said.

So, with two downs to get 10 yards, Wisconsin gave it to their best player, one who ran with a chip on his shoulder all afternoon. It paid off.

“I knew I was gonna get it, the defense they were in. They had like 6 DBs on the field. I was confident that I was gonna pick it up," Allen said. "It was a play that we’d been able to capitalize on the entire game. I was confident in the call, and I knew I had to come through big for the team."

An absolutely paramount 11 yards later, Wisconsin was set up inside Vakos' range with a chance to tie the ballgame and force overtime. They were thinking bigger.

One play after Allen's heroic third down conversion, Wisconsin was set up at the Illinois 35. Two weeks ago, the kicker Vakos told BadgerBlitz.com he's comfortable from anywhere inside 55 yards. Some quick arithmetic tells us that from the 35, that would've been a 53 yarder, just inside Vakos' range. With perilous winds ripping through memorial stadium all day long, however, nothing was guaranteed.

At this point, Wisconsin had 1:28 left. Time was of the essence, but not necessarily the most pressing factor yet. The biggest question had become whether Illinois would hold Wisconsin to a field goal attempt. Locke, however, had other ideas.

On first down, Locke decided to take a shot.

“That’s a drill that we work every single day in the beginning of practice, the over-the-shoulder catch," Locke said.

"Me and Braedyn, we do those balls probably every practice," Bell agreed. "Just like practice, he gave me a chance and I made a play.”

The receiver ran a slot fade, beating Illini corner Tahveon Nicholson with his release and getting just enough space for Locke to put the ball on him.

"We had the wind at our back, I know the ball was kind of fluttering all afternoon. He had single coverage, ran a great route, made a great play when we needed it the most," Locke said.

Bell came down with a tremendous over-the-shoulder catch, which sent Wisconsin up at the Illinois 5. It was Locke's best throw of the night, an absolutely gorgeous ball right in Bell's breadbasket.

“He dropped it in the bucket, can’t ask for it better than that," Bell said.

Bell, like the rest of Wisconsin's offense, has been mightily inconsistent to start the season. Still, in one of the biggest moments in this young season so far, Bell's number was called and he delivered.

“It means a lot to me," he said. "I haven’t had probably the start to the season that I wanted. I just think Coach Longo, Coach Brown, Coach Fick just keeping trust in me, keeping my confidence up, still coming at me on plays."

After Bell's catch, the Badgers were knocking on the door. They needed one more play to be made to complete the comeback.

Wisconsin has two Rucci's on the roster. The both play on offense, but one's job is to block while the other's job is to catch passes. Saturday evening in Champaign, you couldn't tell the difference.

Bell's 30-yard fade route had brought the Badgers to the doorstep of a glorious comeback victory. But after two fruitless runs, Wisconsin faced a 3rd-and-goal from Illinois' four yard line.

Fickell had a chip shot field goal in his back pocket that could potentially send the game to overtime. That wasn't on the forefront of his mind.

"We wanna find a way to win the football game,'" he said. "You had to take a shot at it."

Wisconsin had two timeouts remaining, but if they ran it and got stuffed once again, they'd face a maddening fourth down situation — mere yards from a touchdown and the lead, but if they failed, the decision to not tie the game would haunt them for the rest of the season.

If "taking a shot" was the assignment, offensive coordinator Phil Longo understood exactly. He drew up a play-action pass out of a jumbo package set, and snuck his barely-used tackle Nolan Rucci out of the formation where he found himself wide open in the end zone.

Locke didn't see the play call coming.

“A little bit surprised," he admitted. "They called a timeout, which kinda gave us a chance to regroup."

Neither did Rucci.

“I mean at that point I really still couldn’t believe it was happening, to be honest," he said. "It’s one of those things you rep in practice, ‘alright maybe we’ll run that sometimes towards the later end of the season.’"

Neither did anyone on the offense.

“It was so crazy. We were in the huddle. Coach Longo said ,'we’re running it,'" Bell said. "I looked at CJ (Williams) like, ‘we’re running it?’"

“I’m not sure I would’ve said that was exactly the play we would go to," Fickell laughed after the game. "In some ways, whew. I’m not sure, if we had another timeout maybe we would’ve called it right there."

Locke faked the handoff, rolled back, bought time, and lofted a pass that stayed in the air for a few painstaking seconds. On first glance, it was a touch high.

"Thank goodness he’s 6-foot-7, cause he needed all of it," Fickell said with a smile.

Rucci fully extended, left his feet and reeled in one of the craziest Wisconsin touchdowns in recent memory.

"As soon as I saw that ball in the air, it just kinda felt like slow motion," Rucci said. "I saw it come right into the hands, and still couldn’t believe I caught it. It was crazy.”

When the ball left Locke's hands, just like with the Pauling touchdown, the quarterback worried perhaps he'd thrown a poor pass.

“I thought it was a little high, yeah," he said.

Rucci, though, who had to leap into the air and catch the ball over his head, wouldn't fault his quarterback in the slightest.

“It was a perfect ball.”

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