[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′]
[/media-credit]Little expectation led to considerable results.
Coming off two straight losses to darken its chances in the Big Ten title race, Wisconsin nearly pitched a complete game shutout against Northern Illinois (1-7, 0-4 MAC), winning 44-3 Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium for the 12th consecutive time.
The Badgers (7-2, 2-2 Big Ten) looked good on and off the field — linebacker Jonathan Casillas came out for the postgame interviews wearing matching pink square-toed shoes to go with his pink button-down shirt and tie.
“We started off playing with a lot of passion, a lot of energy, and it carried through all four quarters,” Casillas said.
From the outset, the Badgers had their way.
Electing to receive on the coin toss to “set the tempo,” they took the ball 65 yards in nine plays — capped by a 25-yard strike to tight end Garrett Graham — for the early 7-0 lead.
“We wanted to be the aggressors in the ballgame and, based on how we performed out there and how we finished, I think we did that,” UW head coach Bret Bielema said.
During the drive, senior wide receiver Paul Hubbard converted a key third down with a 14-yard reception — his first catch since straining his medial collateral ligament Sept. 8 against UNLV.
On Wisconsin’s next possession tailback, P.J. Hill broke a career-long 72-yard run to build the Badgers’ lead to 14. In the process of his 27th career rushing touchdown, Hill showed a mixture of power, agility and speed; he burst through the line, spun out of an ankle tackle, stumbled for a few yards and, with a great seal block downfield by Kyle Jefferson, chugged his way to the end zone.
“Everybody sees me as a power back, but I got a little something in my package,” Hill said with a laugh. “I have some moves, but it was an opportunity so I had to do something with it.”
He finished with 184 yards and two touchdowns to eclipse 2,500 yards for his career and 1,000 this season despite leaving at halftime to get three stitches after a helmet hit his knee.
Everyone seemed to get into the action for Wisconsin. Seldom-used fullback Chris Pressley bulldozed his way in for a 10-yard touchdown — the first of his collegiate career — on the first play of the second quarter.
“I told Press after he scored that touchdown, ‘You should buy a lottery ticket,'” Bielema said. “Anytime he catches a pass and scores a rushing touchdown in the same game is a rarity.”
Just a short time later, Hill’s backup Lance Smith capitalized on a great pancake block by right guard Kraig Urbik to scamper into the end zone for his first taste of paydirt this season and gave UW a 28-0 lead.
Wisconsin concluded the first half scoring with a 32-yard field goal by Taylor Mehlhaff.
Meanwhile, the Huskies could do nothing offensively. They couldn’t find a first down until there were less than two minutes remaining in the first half.
The Badger defense that had given up a voluminous number of yards and points all season long came through with energy, enthusiasm and, above all, sound fundamentals in coverage.
It bottled up the nation’s sixth-leading rusher Justin Anderson all game, not allowing him to get into the open field and make a play. He finished with 14 yards on 13 carries. As a team, the Huskies finished with minus-13 yards on the ground — the second lowest total gained by a UW opponent in program history.
“We knew we were playing against a great running back and a great rushing attack, and we just stepped up to the task,” Casillas said.
In comparison, the Badgers finished with 331 rushing yards.
Really the only blemish for the Badgers came near the end of the first half when quarterback Tyler Donovan, who was hit in the helmet as he threw, passed a ball right to the waiting arms of Huskies linebacker Cory Hanson.
With a new quarterback in Ryan Morris after the break, NIU moved the chains a few times thanks to a 6-yard run by Anderson and an Allen Langford pass interference penalty. But an athletic interception by UW safety Shane Carter, his second of the game, quickly killed anything the Huskies had going.
“They were gaining a little bit of momentum, but a pretty impressive catch there … I really thought Shane prepared the right way,” Bielema said.
Carter had a chance to score on the runback, but he stepped out of bounds at the 4-yard line.
Hill capped the three-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown to give Wisconsin a 38-0 advantage.
It wasn’t until its final drive of the third quarter that Northern Illinois put some points on the board when Chris Nendick booted a 34-yard field goal.
UW was helped all game by not only its ability to stop the NIU offense, but David Gilreath and its special teams. Gilreath averaged a career-best 19.4 yards per punt return and gave Wisconsin an average starting field position at its own 46.
With the complete game mindset at hand, and after last week’s loss during which the team seemingly quit following intermission, the starters remained in the game for the majority.
“You still want to finish football games as a unit, and today one of the statements this week was let’s make this a four-quarter game no matter what the score,” Donovan said.
