MADISON, Wis. – Rolling through offensive lightweights over the past month and a half, lifting them to its familiar perch on top of the Big Ten West Division, the University of Wisconsin was being given a gift by the conference schedule makers.
Nebraska was downtrodden and in disarray, but the Huskers still had Adrian Martinez under center, and the Nebraska quarterback spent most of the afternoon exposing flaws in Wisconsin’s pass defense.
Senior safety Collin Wilder did help shut the door with a pair of second-half interceptions and the Badgers made a critical fourth-down pass breakup inside their own 5-yard line in the final seconds, the only real mistakes Martinez made on a night where he threw for 351 yards in a 35-28 Wisconsin victory at Camp Randall Stadium.
Tailback Braelon Allen broke the career high he set the week before by rushing for 228 yards and scoring thrice, giving Wisconsin (8-3, 6-2 Big Ten) a rare Saturday when the offense helped bail out the defense. The Badgers extended their winning streak to seven games and put them a victory next week over Minnesota away from winning a fifth division title in seven years.
It also secured another year with the Freedom Trophy, a bronze statue the Huskers (3-8, 1-7) have never touched in losing for an eighth straight game in the series.
“It’s bittersweet,” linebacker Jack Sanborn said. “A win in November is always great. It’s tough to win in November, but we look back as a defense, we got to play better.”
There’s a lot of credit that should be deservingly passed around for Wisconsin resurrecting a season that appeared headed off the rails in early October, but the backbone of the program is still the defense. Tops in the conference in pass defense, scoring defense, total defense, and rushing defense (the latter two being the best marks in the country), the Badgers asserted themselves as the top program in the Big Ten West Division.
But perhaps giving up a season-high 412 yards in the home finale certainly raised some red flags for Wisconsin’s pass defense that got comfortable shutting down five Big Ten teams that ranked an average of 11th in the conference in total offense and ninth in passing offense.
“We had a lot of adversity to face in the game,” safety Scott Nelson said. “Offense helped us out a lot, 35 points and responding was huge. Turnovers helped us out a lot, and we had a big red zone stop that helped us out a lot, but I’m not concerned.”
The Huskers entered the penultimate game of their season heading toward another long offseason. Losing all their games by nine points or less, there will be no bowl appearance after a fifth straight season with a losing record. It was announced that head coach Scott Frost will return next year, but he purged his staff of four assistants over the bye week, including the offensive coordinator/receivers coach.
Even with all the upheaval, Frost still had Martinez, who has bothered the Badgers for years. In two previous outings against UW, Martinez had averaged 302 passing yards and had five touchdowns responsible for. He had perfected the offense’s unconventional route concepts and formations to have the offense ranked second in the Big Ten in total yards (459.2 ypg), fourth in scoring (29.8), and fifth in passing (264.8 ypg).
“We knew there was going to be stuff we’ve never seen before, and it was going to be good stuff for that offense,” Wilder said. “We knew there was going to be a challenge coming into this game. All the hard stuff we saw all week during practice, they ran that the entire game.”
UW hadn’t allowed a touchdown on an opponent’s opening drive all season. Heck, the Badgers hadn’t allowed a passing touchdown since October 2. But in the first quarter alone, Nebraska had pass completions of 42, 32, 27, and 17 yards. Receiver Samori Torure had 69 receiving yards on the first drive alone, setting up a one-yard TD plunge on a 74-yard drive that took less than two minutes.
It was foreshadowing for an afternoon where the Badgers would give up 10 passing plays of at least 15 yards, including five going over 20. In the previous 10 games, UW had allowed only 19 pass plays to gain at least 20 yards.
“It’s very unusual for us to give up that many points and score on the first drive,” cornerback Caesar Williams said. “We had to keep swinging because every team is going to try and take something from us.”
Martinez completed passes to all corners with the time he was given - moving the ball with throws to the flat, crossing routes over the middle, on sideline routes, and on deep routes when UW’s secondary broke down. Tight end Austin Allen – averaging around three catches and 45 yards per game – mainly torched UW over the middle for 143 yards on seven catches.
“They did a lot of things for us to confuse our communication and trick our eyes,” Williams said. “That’s why you see a lot of guys wide open … Their scheme fits well for what they do. We got to go back to the meeting room, draw it up, and fix it.”
Martinez’s run-pass offense drew in the defense and the secondary, causing a miscommunication that left Allen open for 33 yards on fourth-and-2. Instead of getting the ball and icing the game away, the Badgers watched the Huskers tie the score with 6:27 remaining.
It was the story of the game, UW going up by a touchdown but the defensive unable to get pressure on Martinez in the pocket to help the lead grow larger.
“Their scheme for our game plan, they found a gap for our game plan,” Wilder said. “Coach Leonhard likes to joke around (that) his biggest headache every year is Nebraska. It’s a big challenge for him to scheme up and it’s a big challenge for us to go execute. That’s what makes them such a frickin’ headache.”
It’s a common theme, the Badgers rarely being threatened in the Big Ten West. Since the Big Ten divided its conference into the current West and East Division alignment in 2014, the Badgers own a 37-8 (.822) record vs. the West and have been the division’s representative in the title game four times in six years.
But the Badgers don’t hang banners for division crowns and an overall conference title hasn’t been added to the Camp Randall facade since 2012. Part of the reason for those past downfalls could rear its head again in two weeks.
In UW’s four championship game losses, Wisconsin has given up an average of 290.8 passing yards per game and 12 passing touchdowns. Ancient history? Probably. But if the Badgers get past Minnesota, likely waiting for them will be Ohio State.
Not only have the Buckeyes won the last four conference titles and the last eight meetings between the two programs, Ohio State hung 56 points on No.7 Michigan State earlier in the day because quarterback C.J. Stroud threw for 432 yards and six touchdowns.
It’s a monumental task should the Badgers get there, made even harder if Saturday’s problems aren’t corrected.
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