Before the Wisconsin football team took the field Saturday, it had yet to put together a full four-quarter game. While it still didn’t accomplish that task in a 31-14 win over Illinois, the team did at least play a complete game in the fourth quarter.
The Badgers (4-2, 1-1 Big Ten) put up 21 points alone in the final quarter of Saturday’s matchup for their first conference win of the season over the Fighting Illini (2-4, 0-2).
“It’s nice to see our guys take control in the fourth quarter and kind of manhandle the guys up front,” head coach Bret Bielema said. “I think offensively there were some nice plays that were opening up for [us].”
Running back Montee Ball kicked off the scoring frenzy with a 9-yard touchdown run. He picked up a second touchdown later in the quarter – a 19-yard run – and ultimately finished the fourth with an additional 97 yards on his stat line. Heading into the fourth quarter, Ball only had eight carries for 19 yards, but he finished the game with 19 carries for 116 yards – an average of 6.1 yards per carry.
But what really epitomized Wisconsin’s fourth-quarter effort was the nine-second, two-play drive that resulted in a 59-yard touchdown heave from redshirt freshman quarterback Joel Stave to his favorite target – junior wide receiver Jared Abbrederis.
Stave racked up 254 yards through the air (a career high) for UW – 81 of which came in the fourth quarter – and went 16-25 with one interception.
“You want to make sure your quarterback is comfortable throwing to you,” Abbrederis said. “… We’ve got to make sure that he’s right no matter what. If the ball’s a little bit behind, if it’s a little high, we’ve got to make sure that we do our job to go up and get it. Once the ball’s thrown at us, that’s our ball in the air, so we’ve got to make sure we keep attacking it.”
The Badgers had 173 yards on the ground and 254 through the air, or 427 total offensive yards. The Illini, on the other hand, managed only 284 total offensive yards with 106 rushing yards and 178 more through the air. The Badgers’ defensive line also combined for four sacks throughout the game.
While the Badgers gelled on both ends of the ball in the fourth quarter, the rest of the game was much different. With a lethargic showing in the first half, UW’s run game suffered, gaining only 40 yards on 14 attempts.
With fans growing more disgruntled, the Badgers finally showed some life. Facing third-and-11 from the Wisconsin 31, Fighting Illini quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase dropped back in the pocket, only to be picked off by senior cornerback Devin Smith for Wisconsin’s first interception of the season.
Five plays later, on the ensuing drive, Stave dumped a pass off to White on a bubble screen, who followed his blockers to an open run down the sideline. Sixty-two yards and a Kyle French extra point later, and the Badgers finally tied the game up at 7-7.
“It makes my job a lot easier when I can dump 10 yards over to him and he takes it for [sixty-two] yards for a touchdown,” Stave said. “That’s really fun to see.
“I saw them all coming on me – which is obviously a good thing when everyone’s upfield you know that there’s a good chance that it will open up. I wouldn’t have guessed [the touchdown] would have happened but right when I was throwing it I thought ‘Aw, this could be a good play.’ … When [White] has a chance to see where he’s running at and is in open field, he’s a very good player.”
Before Stave and White connected for Wisconsin’s first touchdown of the day, Bielema added to the quarterback confusion. At the end of the first quarter and into the second, Stave was benched for three snaps as Curt Phillips, the third Badger quarterback to take the field this season, ran a package UW has been working on in practice.
According to Bielema, Stave was aware the package was going to be used prior to kickoff. But the special package failed – in fact, it eventually led to Stave’s interception on third down.
Phillips played for only three snaps, one of which was a completion to White for eight yards, but the play was called back due to an encroachment call on the Illini.
“The offensive coaches and myself wanted to give Curt an opportunity to get out there and show what he’s got,” Bielema said. “It wasn’t anything against Joel; we were going to do it on the third series, and that’s what happened. Obviously it didn’t work successfully.”
Despite a strong final 15 minutes, the Badgers were left still searching for a full 60-minute effort. But, nonetheless, the fourth quarter was a special effort from a team that has struggled to finish games this year.
“That would be perfect, if we could do that each game,” Abbrederis said.
Of note: Ball’s two rushing touchdowns in the second half moved him into a tie for third in NCAA history with Texas Tech’s Taurean Henderson at 69 career touchdowns. Ball needs 10 touchdowns to break the NCAA record of 78 held by Miami (Ohio)’s Travis Prentice; Abbrederis went over the 100-yard receiving mark for the third-straight game. The last Badger to accomplish that feat was Lee Evans in 2001; Wisconsin threw for a season-high 254 yards and surrendered a season-low 178 passing yards.
