(MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.) — As the game clock ticked away in
Wisconsin’s matchup against Minnesota, the Badger bench stood along
the visitors’ sideline poised for overtime after coming back from
an 18 point deficit. However, in the final second of a great battle
the Badgers succumbed to an Englishman who would kick the game
winning field goal before he hurdled their bench to wield Paul
Bunyan’s Axe.
With the clock showing 00:00, the 35-yard field goal attempt by
Lloyd Rhys sailed through the uprights and gave Minnesota a
hard-fought 37-34 victory.
“I had a lot of confidence in him to make that kick,” Minnesota
head coach Glen Mason said after the game. “I put tremendous
pressure on him in practice everyday. We know we can always count
on him.”
In a game that saw its share of offensive fireworks, a 22-yard
pass completion late in the fourth quarter from Minnesota backup
quarterback Benji Kamrath to wide receiver Aaron Hosack made the
difference.
“When it came down to making a big play, their quarterback made
a good throw and had a jump ball down on the boundary [where] the
receiver made a great catch and did a nice job of keeping his feet
in bounds,” UW head coach Barry Alvarez said. “That was a third and
nine, where if he doesn’t make the play we get the chance to get
the ball and get ourselves in field goal range.”
The Badgers multi-positional Brandon Williams was in tight
coverage on the game’s last pass attempt, but failed to get his
body turned around to see the ball as it floated toward him.
“I like my chances with Brandon out there,” Alvarez said.
“Brandon competed with him, was battling with the ball, and the kid
made a heck of a catch.”
In a contest that saw the Badgers clearly out-played through
most of the first half, Minnesota’s offense appeared to be clicking
on all cylinders as they amassed a 24-6 lead when Thomas Tapeh
scored on a six-yard run with just over 2:00 remaining in the
second quarter. The Golden Gophers racked up 218 rushing yards in
the first half led by freshman Laurence Maroney who gained 102. The
Badger defense failed to wrap up the talented duo of Maroney and
Marion Barber III as both players seemingly ran through arm tackles
at will. Barber III led the Gophers with 143 rushing yards while
Maroney ran for over 100 (135) in his third-straight game.
“It was probably more of just missed tackles than them running
the ball on us,” defensive back Chuckie Cowans said describing the
defensive play in the first half. [We] just got to work on tackling
in practice this week and get better and not make as many missed
tackles.”
The Badger offense sputtered throughout most of the first half
advancing the ball inside the Minnesota 10-yard line on two
separate occasions, before being held to a pair of Mike Allen field
goals.
“Once we get down in the redzone we got to be able to score
touchdowns,” senior wide-out Lee Evans said. “The field goal is
almost the given; it’s the easy thing. But we’ve got to find a way
to get in the end zone … if we do that it’s a whole different
ball game.”
The Badgers finally ended a drive in the end zone when
quarterback Jim Sorgi marched UW 65 yards in 0:36 on the team’s
last offensive possession of the first half. Sorgi found a
wide-open Owen Daniels over the middle of the field for the 27-yard
score.
With momentum behind them, the Badger offense entered halftime
on a high note and the defense entered having knocked Gopher
quarterback Asad Abduhl-Khaliq out of the game and knowing what
they needed to do in the second half.
“The mood at halftime was no more than ‘we’re giving them
everything that they’re doing. Lets go out there, get fundamentally
sound again and just play our type of football,'” Cowans said.
UW strung together another quick scoring drive at the start of
the second half, as Sorgi needed only four plays before finding Lee
Evans for a 17-yard touchdown cutting the Gopher lead to 24-20.
Against a Minnesota defense that had only allowed 13 third-quarter
points in 10 games this season, the Badgers would earn their
fourteenth point of the quarter on a Mike Allen PAT following a
12-yard touchdown pass from Sorgi to Darrin Charles.
“[Jim] was able to stretch the field vertically, and [Minnesota
was] really conscious of making sure they were doubling Lee on the
outside,” offensive coach Brian White said. “[They were] vacating
the middle of the field, and Jim did a great job of recognizing it
and exploiting it.”
Sorgi connected with seven different Badgers on the day, ending
the game having completed 23 of 34 attempts for a career-high 305
yards and four touchdowns.
With the score tied at 27 the Badger defense began the fourth
quarter with a third down pass deflection by Anttaj Hawthorne.
Feeding off the noise from a large Badger fan base the offense took
the field with a chance to take the lead. A 17-yard pass play to
Daniels followed by a one-yard run by Dwayne Smith put the Badgers
at the Gopher 30-yard line. On the next play however, Brandon
Williams made a cut away from where Sorgi thought he would and the
pass was easily picked off and returned to the Minnesota 40-yard
line by cornerback Justin Isom.
The ensuing Gopher drive ended when Barber broke three Badger
tackles and scored on an 11-yard run, giving the Gophers a 34-27
lead. As a team Minnesota rushed for 341 yards, eclipsing the
300-yard mark for the fifth time this season.
“It’s probably one of the best running attacks I’ve seen, but it
all came down to missing tackles in the first half,” UW safety Jim
Leonhard said. “We’ve got to give them credit, they had a good game
plan and they executed well.”
The Badger offense answered right back, converting two third
downs and a fourth to keep a drive alive that ended with Daniels
second touchdown catch of the day on a 26-yard strike from
Sorgi.
“It was the same play both times,” Daniels said. “The second
time the variation was I was in motion and just ran between the two
high safeties and that was open all day for us.”
The Wisconsin offense got the ball back one last time with just
under five minutes remaining in the game but failed to make a first
down when Charles caught a pass three-yards shy of the marker.
“[We were] nine out of 15 on third down and a lot of them were
longs too so we’re really pleased with the way Jim played,” coach
White said. “Unfortunately we needed to make one more play when we
had an opportunity to and didn’t.”
Minnesota concluded the last drive of the game with a 35-yard
field goal from the left hash as UW fell to defeat for the third
game in a row.
“We were fresh, everybody wanted to play, everybody was into the
ballgame,” Sorgi said. “We’re playing two ranked teams coming up.
The Big Ten [title] is out right now, but two more wins will put us
in a pretty nice bowl game, and that’s what we’re shooting
for.”
