MADISON, WIS. -- Saturday night's matchup inside Camp Randall Stadium waged a battle of strength-versus-strength. Army boasted the No. 2. rushing offense in the nation, grinding out 318.2 yards per game on the ground. Wisconsin, on the other side of the line of scrimmage, allowed a mere 41.4 yards per contest -- best in the FBS.

For one half, Wisconsin dominated. The other half, Army came alive and brought some anxiousness to the Badger faithful on the sidelines and in the stands.

UW officially held Army to 179 rushing yards -- 266 total yards -- on 3.6 yards per carry in it's 20-14 win. That is over four times the average given up by Jim Leonhard's unit, yet just about 56% of what Army averaged entering this weekend.

It truly became a tale of two halves when dissecting the victory. Wisconsin dominated the first two quarters, leading 13-0 and holding Army to just 48 total yards on 2.4 yards per attempt. The final two, not so good -- giving up 218 yards, 131 of which came on the ground.

"They adjusted well," inside linebacker Leo Chenal said. "They played with our eyes a little more in the second half. A lot of action one way and then pulling a guy another round, another way, and running to the outside, and that was really effective for them.

"We're all pretty like upset about that. We wanted to hold them under 100 [yards] or whatever. So it's obviously looking at ourselves and seeing what we can do better and understanding our rules and adjusting from there."

Three of Army's four rushing plays that went for 10 or more yards came in the second half. The Black Knights came into the game averaging just 69.6 yards through the air, but it averaged over 20 yards per catch. Overall playing solid defense in the secondary but prone to giving up some substantial passing plays, UW also allowed two completions of over 35 yards.

Army did not register a 100-yard rusher on the day, but quarterback Tyhier Tyler ran the ball 17 times for 90 yards with a touchdown. His 36-yard run on a 2nd-and-12 in the fourth quarter placed the Black Knights at the UW five, and he scored on a five-yard run three plays later to make it 13-7.

Wisconsin's defense came through with the play of the game on the next series, though. Chenal sacked quarterback Jabari Laws, causing a fumble that was recovered by junior nose tackle Keeanu Benton at the Army 1. UW's offense, itself stymied in the second half, found the end zone on Graham Mertz's one-yard touchdown sneak to make it a two-score game.

However, Army rebounded and made the contest interesting once again on its ensuing drive. Starting at its own 23, two splash plays, a 26-yard run by slotback Tyrell Robinson and a 36-yard reception by A.J. Howard, sparked its seven-play, 77-yard series. It ended with Howard's six-yard touchdown run to close it to within a six-point game with under a minute to play.

Overall, Army converted six of its 14 third-down conversions on Saturday, but moved the chains on four of eight chances in the second half.

Safety Collin Wilder believed Army was "doing kind of what their identity is in the first half, and we had a great game plan for it."

"In the second half, they did some some stuff where it kind of messed with our rules, messed with our eyes," Wilder said. "I mean, there were a couple plays where I was coming back into the huddle, and I'm looking at Scotty [Nelson] and I'm like, 'That one's hard. That one was tough.'

"So they did a great job of really throwing some different looks at us in the second half. I think we did, for the most part, a good job of adjusting. But obviously, there's some plays that we definitely need to clean up to avoid some of those longer drives."

Wisconsin devised a unique personnel mix to combat Army's triple-option, flexbone scheme on Saturday. The grouping could be thought of as a 2-5-4, with two defensive linemen, five linebackers and four defensive backs.

It looked like a base 3-4 defense, however, and digging into the granular aspects of which Badgers were on the field, a few areas stood out. Three of the four defensive backs on the field were safeties, and outside linebacker C.J. Goetz -- who UW listed initially as a defensive end on its 2019 roster -- worked on the line alongside Benton and Matt Henningsen.

"I think our staff just kind of felt like with what we wanted to do against them that C.J. was kind of in the right mix," head coach Paul Chryst said of Goetz after the game. "I don't think it was because he had the history of it. It's a little bit different that way, but had a feeling that this is going to be kind of a game that fit him and his skill set.

"He's dependable, he's tough, and I think he showed up and made plays. Again, it takes everyone, and that's what's been fun to see is when you do have success, it's more than just a couple guys."

Goetz, a Muskego, Wis., native, responded with a career-high seven tackles, 1.5 of which were for loss. He found out Monday morning via text from outside linebackers coach Bobby April III to start in the defensive line meeting room. The redshirt junior mentioned that "it was a pretty easy transition, especially for this week and the techniques we use."

"It's very similar to outside linebacker," Goetz said.

*Three Badgers registered double-digit tackles against the Black Knights -- inside linebackers Leo Chenal (17) and Jack Sanborn (12), and safety Scott Nelson (11). Those 11 stops for Nelson are a career high, according to UW.

*That three-safety personnel look appeared very often against Army on Saturday. PFF credits Nelson and redshirt junior John Torchio with 57 snaps played, which is what the service reports as the number of plays the Black Knights ran against the Badgers. Wilder and Travian Blaylock saw time on 46 and 11 snaps, respectively, according to PFF as of Sunday morning.

*Wisconsin announced two additional players out for the season on its official pregame status report in running back Isaac Guerendo (left leg) and cornerback Deron Harrell (left leg). A UW official confirmed to BadgerBlitz.com that Guerendo, who ran for 160 yards on 23 carries with a touchdown in four games, underwent surgery.

*Wisconsin tight end Jake Ferguson extended his single-game receptions streak to 40 games on Saturday night. He finished with four receptions for 58 yards.

*Saturday's attendance within Camp Randall Stadium was 76,314.