Initial reactions to a game in which one team scores 51 points tend to draw upon the given team’s ability to score so many points. While the Wisconsin offense was undoubtedly clicking on all cylinders in its 51-3 dismantling of Indiana Saturday at Camp Randall, the biggest story of the afternoon was not the Badgers rushing for 554 yards, nor was it Jack Russell connecting on all three of his field goal attempts. No, the story on this day was the Wisconsin defense and its ability to tame one of the most potent offenses in the country.
Coming into the meeting in Madison, Indiana (4-6, 2-4 Big Ten) was averaging 43.1 points per game, ninth best in the nation, and 527.1 yards per game – eighth best in the nation. Wisconsin (8-2, 5-1) held the Hoosiers to just three points and 224 yards, both well below Indiana’s season averages.
“This offense had us all worried and had us a little bit petrified,” Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen said after the game. “Our kids played lights out today, and my hat goes off to them.”
Part of the struggle teams have with the Hoosiers is their up-tempo style of play — one that had allowed them to score at least 28 points in a school-record 10 straight games dating back to Nov. 19, 2011. The Badgers knew their defense would be pushed to the limit against the Hoosiers and practiced all week preparing for the challenge.
“We practiced this whole week with the tempo,” freshman cornerback Sojourn Shelton said. “Sometimes it was even way faster than what we knew their tempo was going to be so that we knew what we were getting into before we took the field.”
The keys for stopping a high octane offense like the Hoosier’s, in senior linebacker Chris Borland’s opinion, is to get lined up and get the play calls in. Wisconsin executed both of those aspects of the game to perfection and it’s part of the reason for its success.
By halftime, the Badgers had permitted the Hoosiers to rack up just 84 yards of total offense and had forced two turnovers and five punts. Those two turnovers came in the first two possessions of the game where Shelton intercepted Indiana quarterback Nate Sudfeld – setting up a 93-yard James White touchdown run on the very next play – and redshirt senior offensive linebacker Brandon Kelly recovered runningback Stephen Houston’s fumble.
“To catch an interception on the first drive and then for James to come out and score,” Shelton said, “It kind of crushes the other team’s confidence.”
The biggest blow to Indiana’s confidence may have come in the middle of the third quarter when the Hoosiers, down 30-0, finally got their offense in motion as they marched down the field with a 14-play, 70-yard drive that took up nearly five minutes of game time. The problem was that 70 yards was not enough, as the Badgers made a huge defensive stopped inside the 10-yard line.
“For red zone defense, whenever you can hold an opponent to three or no points, it’s huge,” senior linebacker Conor O’Neill said of the goal line stand. “It was electric out there and it was awesome to see our defense stand up in that situation.”
Andersen called the goal line stand a tremendous accomplishment for his defense and added that it was a “big time defensive stop.” Wisconsin entered the game tied for the national lead, allowing opponents to score touchdowns on just 39.1 percent of its red zone trips. After Indiana went 0-for-1 on touchdowns inside the red zone, the Badgers have now allowed a mere nine touchdowns on 24 red zone trips (37.5 percent).
A key to the Badgers’ successful defensive showing was the ability to get off the field on third down. The Hoosiers were just 3-for-12 on third down conversions and were only able to pick up 14 first downs on the day – 10 fewer than their season average.
“When you’re able to stop someone on first and 10 and do the same on second down to put them in a third and long, it helps out tremendously so that we can put pressure in their face and disguise our looks,” O’Neill said. “What we were able to do today was confuse them and it helped us out a lot.”
Reflecting on the season thus far, this Badger defense is confident that it measures up with some of the best defenses in the country, and for good reason. Wisconsin is in the top six in the FBS in both points allowed per game (14.0) and yards allowed per game (287.9).
“As a complete defense, we’ve played well so far,” Shelton said. “Looking at how we’ve played against other teams, I think we stack up pretty well against any defense in the country.”
The Badgers will take a great deal of confidence from this Indiana game with them moving forward, both in their Big Ten meeting with Minnesota next week and wherever the rest of the season may take them.
“It’s a statement for our defense,” senior defensive end Ethan Hemer said. “I think it shows that we have found the ability to stop and shut down teams like this. It makes me excited for how we’re going to finish the year.”
