Published Oct 19, 2019
Stat Pack: Wisconsin vs. Illinois
Asher Low  •  BadgerBlitz
BadgerBlitz.com Staff Writer

The most shocking upset of the college football season also has some intertesting stats behind it. Nobody saw Wisconsin, the No. 6 team in the country, losing to Illinois, 24-23.

Not waking up for an inferior opponent is something completely uncharacteristic for a team had not trailed all season. Two-fourth quarter turnovers for the Badgers' offense allowed the Fighting Illini back in, and Lovie Smith's group never looked back.

BadgerBlitz.com's "Stat Pack" series takes a statistical look at how Illinois pulled off a stunner.

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

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The Wisconsin defense had been historically good to start the year, especially in the first half. They had allowed three total points throughout the entirety of the season in the first half of games, but that all changed on one pitch and catch by the Fighting Illini. On a sgrab by wide receiver Donny Navarro from quarterback Brandon Peters, Illinois more than doubled the amount of points the Badgers had allowed all year in first halves. The 48-yard touchdown reception was just a sign of things to come as it uncharacteristically went from bad to worse for the Wisconsin defense as the game wore on.

A MATTER OF SECONDS

The Badgers had not trailed all season coming into Saturday morning's contest at Champaign-Urbana. That stats did not change for nearly the entire afternoon. Wisconsin not only controlled time of possession all day long (40:49 to 19:11), but also held the lead for nearly the entirety of the football game following their opening drive that ended with an 18-yard Jake Ferguson score.

UW did not trail until the closing seconds ticked off the clock as Illinois kicker James McCourt nailed a 39-yard field goal for the win. Then the shock around the college football world set in.

EXPLOSIVE PLAYS ALLOWED BY THE BADGERS

Two touchdowns led to a significant chunk of Illinois' yards on Saturday and helped lead the team to a win.

A second quarter catch by Donny Navarro from quarterback Brandon Peters turned into a 48-yard touchdown reception after Wisconsin missed opportunities to tackle the wide receiver. At the end of the third quarter, running back Reggie Corbin ran for a 43-yard touchdown to cut the UW lead to 20-14. Those two plays combined to accumulate 91 of the 315 total yards by Illinois on Saturday.

According to StatBroadcast, the Badgers' defense allowed five passing plays of 15-plus yards and seven rushes of 10 or more yards.

VEGAS, BABY! (AGAIN)

Saturday was not only a historic upset on the field, but also with bookmakers in Las Vegas. According to ESPN, the spread closed at Wisconsin -30.5, and the outright Illinois win was the second largest outright upset in the last 40 years of conference history. After Wisconsin had covered multiple 30-plus point spreads throughout the year, they shock Vegas and the world by coming up on the losing end.

The over/under on Illini first half points was only 3.5, according to the Action Network, and that number also cashed in favor of Illinois.

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