EAST LANSING, Mich — Wisconsin traveled to Michigan State Saturday in search of its first Big Ten win of the year. The Badgers found exactly that at Spartan Stadium. In a game that was not even as close as the score indicated, UW topped the Spartans 42-24 in front of a sellout crowd Saturday evening.

The Badgers started the game with good field position but saw their opening drive stall when Jonathon Orr was unable to find a deep ball in the lights at Spartan Stadium. The moveable lights brought in for the game — only the fourth night game ever played at Spartan Stadium — wreaked havoc on Badger and Spartan receivers throughout the game.

“That is something that I will have to learn how to do better,” said Orr. “I’m not going to make excuses because a couple of those passes I should have had. They were a factor, but I should still have made the play.”

On the ensuing punt, Spartan return man Zielhl Kavanaght fumbled the ball after struggling to field the kick in the lights. Jake Sprague recovered the ball for UW on the MSU six-yard line.

However, Wisconsin was unable to convert the turnover into points as both Brandon Williams and Rob Tucker dropped would-be touchdown passes. UW attempted a field goal but couldn’t convert when Jim Sorgi mishandled the snap, and the score remained 0-0. With a case of the drops going around, Wisconsin turned to the run.

The Badgers began what would be the best offensive-line performance of the year on the next drive. Anthony Davis and the Badgers moved the ball 67 yards in five plays to the Spartan one-yard line before Bollinger punctuated the drive with a one-yard QB sneak for a TD with 9:20 remaining in the first quarter.

The Badger defense also impressed early, holding Michigan State to just 30 yards in the entire first quarter. All-American wideout Charles Rogers was held to just one reception in the first half.

“He is their go-to guy, and we just couldn’t let them get him going,” said UW defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove. “You saw how many times that happened last year and we wanted to eliminate that.”

After a Michigan State three and out Wisconsin began their next possession at the MSU 48-yard line. The Badgers made quick work of the short field. The six-play, 46-yard drive was capped off by Brooks Bollinger’s seven-yard touchdown run.

On the play, Bollinger faked the handoff to the left side and then rolled back to the right, forcing the linebacker and safety to play pass coverage or come up and challenge. Both played pass coverage and UW went up 14-0 after Mike Allen’s extra point.

On the day, Bollinger ran for 58 yards, with 51 of those yards coming during a dominant Badger first quarter. After suffering a concussion against Ohio State last weekend, there was uncertainty during the week about whether or not the senior quarterback would play, and if he did, whether he would be at all rusty.

The extra days off from practice seemed to have just the opposite effect, as Bollinger impressed on the ground and through the air, where he completed 10 passes for 135 yards and three touchdowns to go with his two running scores.

“If I told you that I run around and beat myself up at practice a lot, the other guys would give me a hard time,” said Bollinger. “I always want to be able to practice just to see all the different looks and sharpen up, obviously, but whatever was done worked pretty well.”

On the following Badger possession, Bollinger again faked left and rolled right, forcing the linebacker to choose between playing pass coverage or the run. This time, the MSU defender chose to come up and play Bollinger for the run. Bollinger then floated a soft pass over the defender’s head to a wide-open Mark Bell for a three-yard touchdown. The play ended a nine-play 80-yard Wisconsin scoring drive that left only 11 seconds to play in the first quarter.

At the end of one quarter, the Badgers led the Spartans 21-0. All three of the Badger touchdown drives took less than three minutes each, despite the fact that Wisconsin only threw the ball six times during the entire first quarter.

“We’ve worked so hard and fallen short three weeks in a row, and we had three tough losses,” said offensive coordinator Brian White. “A win in the traditional Wisconsin manner is certainly very validating. [Bollinger] played such an efficient game and was really sharp, he played fantastic.”

Michigan State began the second quarter by moving the ball 51 yards on 11 plays before Darius Jones killed the Spartan drive, by sacking Damon Dowdell on third and 10, that forced a 36-yard Dave Rayner field goal. Rayner’s field goal proved to be MSU’s lone offensive highlight of the first half.

The Badgers added one more touchdown just before the half. Wisconsin received the ball on its own 38-yard line with just 37 seconds remaining in the half. In a similar position last week, Wisconsin simply ran the clock out. This weekend, however, UW went for the jugular.

“I was so excited. When you get a few seconds on the clock like that and you have an opportunity, you have to take it and run with it,” said UW wideout Darrin Charles. “It just felt good to go in the locker room with that momentum.”

Bollinger went to the air during UW’s final drive of the half, hitting Charles for 27 yards on the first play of the series before moving the ball to the MSU nine-yard line on a 26-yard pass to Jonathan Orr. Bollinger then connected on his second touchdown pass of the night, hitting Brandon Williams in stride under the coverage running a slant into the end zone with just five seconds remaining in the half, to put the Badgers up 28-3.

Michigan State attempted to get back into the game in the second half against a Badger team that has been susceptible to comebacks this season. The Spartans moved the ball 84 yards in 13 plays to make the score 28-10. Of the 13 plays on the MSU drive, 11 were runs. One of the two passes was a seven-yard touchdown from Dowdell to B.J. Lovett.

However, this evening there was no comeback from UW’s opposition. Wisconsin’s offense continued to move the ball at will throughout the second half.

UW’s next possession resulted in a touchdown, pushing the score to 35-10. The ball never left the sure hands of Anthony Davis and Dwayne Smith on the five-play, 65-yard drive. Davis carried the ball four times for 42 yards before Smith broke off a 33-yard TD run. On a day when the UW offensive line was dominant, Anthony Davis ran for 170 yards while Dwayne Smith added another 110 yards on 14 carries.

MSU continued to move the ball with newfound ability on its next possession before Jimmy Leonhard broke on a ball that Dowdell attempted to force into Charles Rogers in the end zone. Leonhard intercepted the ball and downed it. The pick was Leonhard’s sixth of the season, good for first in the Big Ten.

Rogers was not held in check all game by the Badger defense, however. The next two Michigan State possessions ended in touchdowns for the 6-foot-4 inch, 205-pound burner. Rogers hauled in TD passes of 26 and 44 yards, with the second catch bordering on spectacular. Rogers finished the game with three catches for 88 yards, figures that Wisconsin coaches were pleased with.

Jonathon Orr added Wisconsin’s final score on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Bollinger with 7:49 remaining in the fourth. On the play, MSU brought a blitz off from the left side, leaving Orr singled up with the safety. The blitz was handled, and Bollinger stood in to float a beautiful ball in to Orr for the score.

“On that last touchdown, [Bollinger] recognized the blitz,” said UW head coach Barry Alvarez. “He got rid of the ball and the receiver did a nice job of protecting.”

With the victory, Bollinger becomes the winningest quarterback in the history of the University of Wisconsin, surpassing Darell Bevell and Mike Samuel with 28 total career wins.