BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Wisconsin football team was leading 31-7 in the middle of the third quarter. The Badgers were in the middle of their second drive of the half with a first-and-10 from the Hoosiers’ 49.
Senior running back Montee Ball already had 150 rushing yards on the day but had yet to break one loose in the second half. With 49 yards to the end zone, Ball took the run on first down and scampered in for the score, giving the Badgers a 38-7 lead at the time.
The 49-yard run brought Ball’s net rushing yards to 198 with three touchdowns on 27 carries. The single play encompassed not only Ball’s day, but Wisconsin’s as well.
“Montee had a couple of runs that were out of his mind,” head coach Bret Bielema said. “He was breaking tackles, staying alive, elephant crawling with one arm on the ground – he was just possessed.”
With a 62-14 victory over Indiana (4-6, 2-4 Big Ten) on the road Saturday, Wisconsin (7-3, 4-2) officially punched its ticket to Indianapolis and the Big Ten Championship Game, even with two games remaining in the regular season.
The result overwhelmingly came from a bruising ground game. The Wisconsin running back corps put up 564 yards on 64 carries. On top of Ball’s 198-yard effort, junior running back James White finished with 161 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries; redshirt freshman Melvin Gordon had 96 yards and a touchdown on eight carries and, finally, redshirt freshman Jeff Lewis rounded out the day with a touchdown of his own and 11 yards on two carries.
The 564 rushing yards broke a school record set in 1974 against Northwestern (551 yards) and is only the third time in school history the Badgers rushed for more than 500 yards.
“It meant a lot. As running backs, we love it,” Ball said of the rushing effort, especially after UW gained just 19 rushing yards against Michigan State two weeks ago. “The offensive line did their job and we didn’t want to let them down, so we made the right reads and finished plays.”
With the running game flourishing, fifth-year senior quarterback Curt Phillips was able to sit back and manage the game in his first career start. Prior to the matchup with IU, Phillips had only played in six games, with seven completions for 65 yards.
As questions surrounded his mobility and just how comfortable he would be in the pocket, Phillips went 4-for-7 for 41 yards and a touchdown and took two sacks in the first half. Phillips’ limited passing game was part of Bielema’s game plan, as he didn’t want to put a lot pressure on him in that respect.
“I really could care less,” Phillips said about his passing effort. “As long as we’re moving the ball and scoring, I could care less.”
But where Phillips truly shined was in his own run game. He took seven carries for a net total of 68 yards.
“He just has no fear when a play is there; that’s the advantage of that play to take off and run, that’s what he does,” Bielema said.
While Phillips didn’t need to worry about a passing game, that’s all Indiana sophomore quarterback Cameron Coffman had to work with. Coffman completed 25 of his 46 passing attempts for 233 yards and two touchdowns, but he also threw two interceptions, each of which set up a Wisconsin touchdown.
Coffman showed moments of establishing some rhythm – particularly on IU’s two touchdown drives – but due to a staunch UW defense, he was never able to establish any consistency. As a result, the Hoosiers only managed 294 offensive yards on 70 plays.
The Badgers, on the other hand, outpaced the Hoosiers to 605 offensive yards – from the 564 rushing yards and an additional 41 passing yards – on 71 plays, holding onto the ball for nearly 20 minutes longer than the Hoosiers.
While Wisconsin certainly commanded the majority of the game, it wasn’t until a 69-yard touchdown run from White that the momentum was solidly in the Badgers’ corner.
Facing third-and-16 with about 40 seconds left in the half, White bounced to the left side, followed his blocks into green pastures and never looked back, picking up 69 yards and a 24-7 lead heading into halftime.
“James provided the spark again at the end of the half,” Bielema said. “We kept running it because we actually thought that was a pretty good shot at scoring – we were like one guy away on a couple of those big … runs to making it happen. Obviously before the half that was a huge momentum swing … kind of a dagger.”
“When James makes a play like that, that’s just ridiculous,” Phillips added.
In the second half, the Badgers started with the ball and never looked back, putting 38 more points on the board.
With the dominating win, Wisconsin will finish its season – first at home against Ohio State, followed with a trip to Penn State a week later – already knowing it will be playing for the Big Ten title Dec. 1. It’s something that was a goal for UW from the very beginning.
“It means a lot; it was one of our goals,” Ball said. “We finally got it and obviously it feels good. But we still have two games left.”
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