Sports: Football
Hawks go ‘Greene’ on Badgers
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Also by Mike Ackerstein:
- Clay carries Badgers to win in O.T. (November 24, 2008)
- Safeties turn game around (November 17, 2008)
- Sharing carries OK with P.J. (November 12, 2008)
- Wisconsin runs past Hoosier 'D' (November 10, 2008)
- Valai's anger strengthens UW attack (November 10, 2008)
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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The mentality may be 1-0, but the Big Ten record reads 0-4.
Shonn Greene ran for four touchdowns and the Badgers were unable to snap their losing streak, dropping Saturday’s game at Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium 38-16 against the Hawkeyes, while remaining winless in conference play.
Wisconsin hasn’t lost four straight games since the 1996 season.
“There are no excuses for the way we’re playing right now” safety Jay Valai said. “You’ve got to make plays, it’s as simple as that.”
Down 14-3 at the half, Wisconsin (3-4, 0-4 Big Ten) briefly showed signs of life, cutting the lead to 14-9 midway through the third quarter before Iowa (5-3, 2-2 Big Ten) ran away with the game.
It was Greene that did most of the damage. The junior finished the day rushing for 220 yards and four scores on 25 carries.
“Shonn Greene made some nice moves and all,” Valai said, “but we’ve got to play better than that.”
After Philip Welch’s field goal cut the lead to five points with 6:15 remaining in the third quarter, it was Greene that dashed any hopes of a comeback.
With 5:06 remaining in the quarter, Greene capitalized on a Badger blitz by running for a 52-yard touchdown straight up the middle of the field.
The junior running back eluded Badger defenders all day as Wisconsin’s season-long tackling problems continued Saturday.
“Long runs obviously hurt, and missed tackles here and there,” safety Chris Maragos said. “That kind of stuff just piles up.”
Greene put together a couple of highlight-reel scores at the mercy of the Badgers’ defense. The runner made Allan Langford, Maragos and Valai miss on his 34-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
“[He’s a] big back, powerful back, kept his feet moving,” UW defensive tackle Mike Newkirk said. “That’s something that we needed to do.”
Wisconsin has struggled to bring down opposing ball carriers this season, and the weakness was once again exploited Saturday.
“It’s either a no gain, or it’s a gain for 15 or a gain for a touchdown,” Bielema said. “It was one way or the other.”
“I think, in particular, the two touchdown runs were really a poor display of tackling support — and also at the line of scrimmage.”
Iowa started the scoring when Greene capped off the Hawkeyes’ opening drive with a 12-yard touchdown run.
“He’s a great player,” Valai said of Greene. “He’s a powerful runner, and he gave it to us today.”
Following Greene’s 52-yard run, things went from bad to worse for the Badgers when punter Brad Nortman had his punt blocked with 5:06 left in the quarter.
“[We] let a guy go too early,” Bielema said, “and that kind of opened up the floodgates to put us in the situation that we faced for the rest of the game.”
The Hawkeyes started their ensuing drive at the Badger 33-yard line. and quarterback Ricky Stanzi’s touchdown pass four plays later put the Badgers away for good.
As the defense struggled to limit scoring, Wisconsin’s offense had difficulty putting up scores of its own.
Dustin Sherer, making his first career start, was unable to guide the Badger offense to a touchdown. Wisconsin’s lone trip to the end zone occurred on a Zach Brown touchdown run on a drive led by third-string quarterback Scott Tolzien.
Nothing ever seemed to fall into place for the Badgers, who were set back by penalties and miscommunications throughout the game.
“The team that’s beating Wisconsin the most is Wisconsin,” Bielema said.
After beating Fresno State Sept. 13, Wisconsin moved to No. 9 in the polls. The Badgers have yet to win a game since, and the team has been outscored 86-23 in its last two games.
“We’re going to take a very critical look at everything that we’re doing,” Bielema said. “We need to get better at something because right now we’re not very good in all areas of the game.”
As for the losing streak, Bielema believes it is not just one thing that’s preventing the team from getting out of its rut.
“It’s a mental thing, it’s a physical thing, it’s an everything-thing,” Bielema said. “We have to improve what we do in all three phases of the game.”
“When you’re down, you’re down,” Newkirk said. “Everything seems to be not going our way.”
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IP hash: 88bb5768
BB should be saving his money for his unemployment coming soon
IP hash: 138b36a6
go hawks
IP hash: f0d34039
Dear “Coach”,
Please go back to the basics - as in teaching and reinforcing blocking and tackling. If you have any questions, please see Barry Alvarez.
Sincerely, Concerned Badger
IP hash: 7ffbbec1
my high school team can play better than wisconsin did, what a shame…
IP hash: ba3e533f
Where is this petition that everyone is talking about that is calling for an intervention for BB. I want to put my name on it too!
IP hash: cf412194
sorry team brett
IP hash: cf412194
your missing lance smith go and get him from the memphis football team before next season before you see him on tv leading the nation in rushing next yea while your team is 0-4 again in conference play
IP hash: 7e9ece6e
fire bret bielema…as special teams coach. that’d be a start!
IP hash: caf2a40e
Maybe if the head coach wasn’t too busy trying to pick up 19yr old chicks at the bars he would have taught this team the basics. What a joker.
IP hash: b6fe6dd9
I enjoy seeing this very much :)
IP hash: ca34999d
www.firebretbielema.com
IP hash: c12ee638
As a season ticket holder for WI, I’m about ready to give my tickets to charity so at least something is done good with them. I can’t even think about going to the game this Saturday and leaving 0-5 in the Big Ten, because that is what is going to happen unless BB gets his crap together. This is NOT Badger football and if we end up 5-7 with only 1 win in the Big 10, someone needs to pay for that and it better be BB.
IP hash: 527ac57f
The team and coaches have talked for weeks about corrcting their mistakes on the field loss after loss. When is it going to stop???