MINNEAPOLIS, Min. — The Wisconsin Badgers traveled to Minneapolis to face the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the 133rd ever installment of the most-played rivalry in college football. Wisconsin won, 28-14, and captured Paul Bunyan’s Axe for the first time in three years.

In what could’ve been the final game for many of the team’s most valuable veteran leaders, the Badgers came ready to play. The Gophers kept it close early, tying in the first half, but were eventually overpowered in nearly every facet of the game in the second half.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from tonight's win.

Of all of Wisconsin’s players and coaches, nobody entered Saturday with more motivation than Braelon Allen.

Despite Minnesota being the Badgers' biggest rival, Allen has never really performed against them. He finished with just 47 yards as a freshman, then missed last year’s game with an injury.

“This is one of those games, that when the next season comes around, you circle,” Allen said after the game.

“This one’s really been building up for two years now. I just wanted to punish. I told Phil Longo I wanted 40 carries tonight, but I don’t think we quite got there.”

Allen had a modest start to the game, but his first impactful drive didn’t happen until the end of the first quarter. On that series, he rushed for 46 yards on 6.6 yards per carry, and capped it off with a touchdown.

Allen was also responsible for the biggest play of the day for either team. On Wisconsin’s second drive of the second half, Allen broke off a 50 yarder on the first play of the series to bring it to the goal line, leading to his second touchdown of the day.

What’s even more impressive is that he could’ve had an even better game.

On the Badgers’ following drive right after his first touchdown, they ran three straight inside zone plays that resulted in a three-and-out. Many of Allen’s biggest runs of the day went to the outside, or came as a result of him finding space in the defense, but Longo still insisted on running straight up the middle for the majority of the game.

All things considered, he still finished with 165 rushing yards (192 total) and two touchdowns on 6.3 yards per carry, including three runs of 20-plus yards.

“After [Chez Mellusi’s injury], I don’t know that I had felt energy from [the running backs] in particular. It’s had some games and some situations, and maybe some second halves,” Luke Fickell said after the game. “We all know what this program’s been built on, right? It doesn’t mean it has to change. Yes, it might look a little bit different, but it’s still about the physicality, it’s still about the line of scrimmage and it’s still about those guys in the backfield.

“If I’ve got the biggest smile on my face, it’s because of that. It’s because of the line of scrimmage, it’s because of the ability to pound it and wear somebody down. That’s the way I wanna live my life.”

If this was Allen’s final game as a Badger, he went out on a high note.

Like always, the Badgers opened the game looking absolutely deceased on defense.

It was the fourth consecutive week where they’ve allowed an opening drive-touchdown, and Saturday’s was full of even more mistakes. They left a receiver wide open on two separate plays, resulting in 49 total yards, and also committed a defensive pass interference.

Yet the defense improved immediately after the poor start, allowing just 31 total yards on the next three Minnesota drives.

Their second poor outing didn’t happen until the middle of the second quarter. Athan Maliakmanis underthrew two separate deep balls that both resulted in pass interferences, first on Nyzier Fourqurean, then on Hunter Wohler. Regardless of the questionable calls, they still allowed multiple wide-open completions, including the touchdown to Daniel Jackson.

Yet that ended up being Minnesota’s final score of the game, following that touchdown up with three punts, then three turnovers.

The defensive performance can pretty much be summed up with Minnesota’ fourth-quarter fumble, which felt like the ultimate dagger. Kaliakmanis completed a 30-yard pass to a wide-open Jackson, who was in the process of making a game-altering play, but was stripped by Jordan Turner.

“Ultimately, it comes down to how we respond and how we close the game and move on. Our response tonight was unbelievable,” Wohler said after the game. “The way that we fought after that opening drive, the rest of the game, that’s who we are. That’s what this team is. That’s what this defense is. So we just gotta find a way to channel that every single play.”

It was far from a clean performance, but Wisconsin’s defense ultimately controlled the Gophers.

Allen became the clear star of the day, but they simply could not have won this game without Tanner Mordecai.

Like the rest of the offense, he didn’t get off to the fastest start. But by the end of the first half, he was playing the best he has all season. He was solely responsible for one of Wisconsin’s best drives all year, when he went 4-4 for 75 yards in less than two minutes at the end of the second quarter.

Mordecai's final stat line ultimately didn’t look too impressive or gaudy. He finished with just 165 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, which came on a hail-mary at the end of the first half. But with the exception of a few drives, he looked more accurate than he has since coming back from his hand injury.

Mordecai made almost as many big plays on the ground as he did through the air. He navigated the pocket with ease, and even broke off a few big runs, finishing with 69 rushing yards on 7.7 per carry.

“The quarterback is the multiplier, let’s just be honest,” Fickell said. “If you have a guy on the team that’s a dude, he makes everybody better.”

“You saw tonight what Tanner Mordecai is, the competitor he is… It means something to him. This isn’t some place he walked in and rented. This is a place he deeply invested in and I’ll forever be grateful for that.”

He’s never played an Axe game before, but looked like he wanted to win as badly as anyone.

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