Stat Pack: Wisconsin Badgers vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers

Wisconsin retained the Freedom Trophy once again after its 37-21 win over Nebraska on Saturday inside Memorial Stadium.

BadgerBlitz.com returns its weekly Stat Pack series to break down some key numbers -- both good and bad -- from UW's victory against its Big Ten West divisional foe.

Wisconsin improved to 8-1 in the series between two programs since Nebraska joined the conference in 2011. That now includes seven straight wins, with the only Huskers' victory coming during the 2012 regular season.

UW has retained the Freedom Trophy since its inception in 2014 -- a streak of six consecutive seasons.

Overall, Wisconsin now leads the all-time series 10-4 and has won its last three contests in Lincoln.

Three games. Three 200-yard-plus performances for the now-junior back against Nebraska. On Saturday, Taylor ran for 204 yards on 25 carries with two scores on the day. According to UW's Brian Mason, that is the first time a Wisconsin player has gone over that threshold three times against one program in his career.

For that matter, this may not be the last time he does that. Facing Purdue next week, Taylor ran for 219 and 321 in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The Boilermakers allow 172.2 yards on the ground per game this season.

Looking broader, Taylor not only passed Archie Griffin to now be No. 2 all-time in career rushing yards by a Big Ten back (5,634), but he also surpassed Georgia's Herschel Walker to become the player who has the most yards in Division I/FBS history through his junior campaign.

BadgerBlitz.com already noted in its 1st-and-10 column on Thursday the precedent set for Wisconsin's rushing attack against Nebraska. Saturday's performance continued the dominant performances. Let's revisit the numbers once again, now updated:

*2011: 231 yards on 4.6 yards per carry, five rushing touchdowns

*2012 (regular season): 56 yards on 1.4 yards per carry, three rushing touchdowns (Wisconsin lost 54 yards, for what it's worth, based on the stats sheets)

*2012 (Big Ten Championship game): 539 yards, 10.8 yards per carry, eight rushing touchdowns

*2014: 581 yards, 11.0 yards per carry, seven rushing touchdowns

*2015: 147 yards, 4.3 yards per carry, one rushing touchdown

*2016: 223 yards, 5.9 yards per carry, two rushing touchdowns

*2017: 353 yards, 7.2 yards per carry, three rushing touchdowns

*2018: 370 yards, 7.7 yards per carry, four rushing touchdowns

*2019: 320 yards, 7.1 yards per carry, two rushing touchdowns

With the good stats come the not-so-pretty that went against Wisconsin. The Achilles' heel of this Badgers' defense has been allowing chunk plays against more spread-like teams on the road, and they allowed a season-worst 273 rushing yards on 7.4 yards per carry to Scott Frost's program. According to StatBroadcast, Nebraska accumulated 13 runs of 10-plus yards in the game, with eight pass completions of 15 or more yards as well.

With all the talk about Taylor's day, running back Dedrick Mills nearly rushed for 200 yards himself. He finished with 188 yards on 11.1 per carry with a touchdown.

Along with throwing for 220 yards and a touchdown to J.D. Spielman, quarterback Adrian Martinez gained 89 yards on 16 carries with a long of 45.

Paul Chryst's program has won this battle on both sides of the ball for most of this season. Going into the game, the offense converted 50 percent of their opportunities and the defense stymied its opponents (22 percent).

Against Nebraska, quarterback Jack Coan and the offense only moved the chains on that down on three of its nine opportunities. Chris Orr, Zack Baun and the UW defensive unit allowed Nebraska to start a fresh set of downs on six of 12 third down opportunities.

Nebraska allowed 21 sacks coming into the game. Wisconsin got to Martinez four times on Saturday to up its total to 37 this season.

That is nearly double from what UW recorded last season (19), and there would have been more officially against Nebraska. However, Jack Sanborn's sack on Martinez in the fourth quarter was wiped out due to a Donte Burton offsides penalty.

Orr tallied his 10th sack of 2019 in the first half, while Baun's two against the Huskers puts him at 9.5 on the season.