Advertisement
premium-icon
football Edit

Takeaways from Wisconsin's 23-13 loss at Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS -- Another chapter of Wisconsin's resurgent season was dashed on Saturday inside Huntington Bank Stadium, and with it, the retention of Paul Bunyan's Axe.

UW's offense faltered and its defense allowed just enough significant plays to fall to Minnesota in a 23-13 loss on Saturday.

Wisconsin (8-4 overall, 6-3 Big Ten) will now see No. 16 Iowa represent the West Division in Indianapolis next week against No. 5 Michigan.

BadgerBlitz.com presents takeaways from what feels like a stunning defeat with UW's seven-game winning streak snapped.

BOTH TEAMS' RUN GAMES STRUGGLE

Wisconsin outside linebacker Nick Herbig and safety Scott Nelson
Wisconsin outside linebacker Nick Herbig and safety Scott Nelson (Dan Sanger/BadgerBlitz.com)

Both teams came in averaging over 200 yards on the ground, but each of their defenses also ranked among the best in the conference against the run.

Minnesota finished with 75 yards on 37 carries (a mere two yards per carry), while Wisconsin only mustered 62 yards on 2.8 yards per attempt.

"They were throwing some stuff at us, a little bit different than we'd seen," Graham Mertz said about Minnesota's defense against the run. "But they were definitely physical up front. We just got to win one-on-one matchups, so we'll learn from it."

True freshman Braelon Allen was bottled up to the tune of 47 yards on his 17 carries. His longest gain was a 14-yard run in the third quarter, and his last rush came with about two minutes left in the third quarter. That broke his streak of 100-yard rushing performances at seven, and he finished the regular season with 1,109 yards.

We asked in our five burning questions what would happen if both teams' rushing attacks were contained. What happened on Saturday? Well ...

MINNESOTA'S PASSING GAME WINS OUT

premium-icon
PREMIUM CONTENT

You must be a member to read the full article. Subscribe now for instant access to all premium content.

  • icn-check-mark Created with Sketch.
    Members-only forums
  • icn-check-mark Created with Sketch.
    Predict prospect commits with FanFutureCast
  • icn-check-mark Created with Sketch.
    Exclusive highlights and interviews
  • icn-check-mark Created with Sketch.
    Exclusive coverage of Rivals Camp Series
  • icn-check-mark Created with Sketch.
    Breaking recruiting news
Advertisement