[media-credit name=’Ben Smidt’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]TUCSON, Ariz. — The heat was expected to be unbearable.

The aridity was expected to be an issue.

The Wildcats were expected to be a pushover.

The Badgers were expected to be rolling.

But on a rainy day in the desert, almost nothing went as expected.

Said Badger offensive coordinator Brian White frankly, after the dragging four-hour and thirteen-minute matchup finally groaned to a halt, “That was a bizarre game.”

From the offset, it was clear that Saturday’s game between Wisconsin and Arizona at Arizona Stadium in Tucson wouldn’t go according to best-laid plans.

Marcus Randle El lined up at quarterback on second-down-and-one on the second play of the game, giving the Badgers the rare and unexpected look of an option offense. He easily gained a first down.

That, it turned out, would be one of the highpoints of the first half.

Wisconsin’s offense stalled on its second set of downs. Kenneth DeBauche knocked a 47-yard punt inside the Arizona 20. There was no return on the towering kick.

The Wildcats didn’t come out any more explosively than the Badgers had. Giving quarterback Kris Heavner early chances to exploit the oft-maligned UW secondary, Arizona wound up losing yards on its first possession — with an unproductive scramble, a pass deflection by defensive end Erasmus James, and a 14-yard loss on a James sack.

Arizona punter Danny Baugher crushed a 49-yard punt, which stayed low enough for all-time Wisconsin punt return yardage leader Jimmy Leonhard to add to his record total. A 23-yard return gave the Badgers the best shot they would have at the end zone for quite a while.

Though the UW offense had trouble getting any momentum together on the drive, Arizona’s defense played shabbily enough to keep the markers moving. A holding penalty gave the Badgers one first down; an offside penalty contributed to the next. Despite barely gaining any yards on the series, Wisconsin found itself on the five-yard line on third down with one yard to go.

Booker Stanley and Matt Bernstein were stuffed at the line of scrimmage on back-to-back plays.

UW’s next possession went three-and-out, leading to a 57-yard DeBauche bomb. Finally getting some steam rolling in the early second-quarter, Bernstein caught a John Stocco pass (the quarterback’s first notable completion of the contest) and ran for a gain of 18 yards.

But the upswing didn’t last long. True-freshman tailback Jamil Walker fumbled on the next play.

Then the game really started to take bizarre turns. Rainy season in the desert is long over and Tucson had seen no precipitation in weeks, but a tropical storm system off the California coast wreaked havoc. Lightning was on the horizon, creating hazardous conditions for players and fans alike.

A steady drizzle gradually became a downpour and the game was delayed indefinitely. It was the first game delayed at Arizona Stadium since 1993.

“We just wanted to get out there and go at it,” James said of the delay. “We were waiting for this all week long and we just wanted to get out there — the defense as a whole — and go after them.”

After 88 minutes, James and the Badgers got their wish. Wisconsin head coach Barry Alvarez and Arizona head coach Mike Stoops agreed to restart the game, foregoing half time for a 15-minute warm-up period.

The Badgers, though, didn’t look much better after the break. The offense managed to squeak out one first down, but was forced to punt after a seven-yard Stanley run and two misfired passing attempts by Stocco. DeBauche had his worst punt of the season in the wet weather, giving the Wildcats a nice opportunity to score before the half.

For the first time in the game, an offense converted on that chance.

On third down with nine yards to go, Leonhard slipped on the wet field, leaving Arizona’s Mike Jefferson wide open. Kris Heavner aired out a perfect leading pass and Jefferson sprinted 44 yards for a touchdown, giving the Wildcats a 7-0 lead.

“We showed some different things on third down — went with a cover look,” Bielema explained. “I didn’t see it — Jimmy said he slipped; he’s usually in good position there. But bottom line, we gave up a score right before the end of the half, the pseudo-half, and whatever happened, happened.”

An abbreviated halftime didn’t give the Badgers much of a chance to regroup, but they came back looking inspired nonetheless. Starks made a huge tackle on a screen pass to Jefferson on the second play of the quarter — part of a series in which the Wildcats couldn’t get anything going.

Stocco came out firing. He completed a perfect 16-yard pass across the middle to move UW into Wildcat territory. But, again, the Badgers made a crucial mistake to follow a big gain. Booker Stanley let the dripping ball slip out of his hands on the very next play. Carlos Williams recovered the fumble and the Wildcats’ momentum.

The Cats moved the ball slowly into field goal range, looking to take a two-score lead. But, kicking against the wind, Nick Folk sliced his 43-yard attempt wide right.

Wisconsin’s resulting possession ended in another punt; this time DeBauche pinned Arizona inside its own 10-yard line. As it has all season, the UW defense got up for the crucial series. On first down, James forced Mike Bell to the outside where Anttaj Hawthorne caught him for a loss of four yards. Starks got to Bell in the backfield again on the next down, setting up a third-and-15 from the Arizona five-yard line.

On third down Andy Crooks — not a Badger regular — ripped the ball from Bell’s hands and strolled into the end zone, seemingly, to tie the game. However, in a questionable call the officials ruled that Bell’s forward progress had stopped before the fumble.

The Badgers started their next drive on the Arizona 46-yard line. Stocco and Stanley started to click into clutch-mode and combined for two first downs, moving the ball to the Arizona 28 before the offense again stalled. Deciding to go for it on fourth-and-three, White called for John Stocco to run a naked bootleg to the left.

“Before the ball was snapped, I’m looking up ahead to see if there’s anybody blitzing or anything like that and I didn’t see anybody,” Stocco said. “We knew they were coming down hard all game and we knew it should have been a good play and it really worked out for us.”

Minutes later, just 39 seconds into the fourth quarter, Stanley found the end zone, but Mike Allen, who has struggled all season for the Badgers, couldn’t convert the extra point with the wind in his face and a possible bad hold — leaving UW one point down.

The game wasn’t over yet. After holding the Wildcats, the Badgers marched up field for a final go at the victory. A 23-yard Stanley run, a 9-yard Tony Paciotti reception, an 11-yard Darrin Charles reception and a beautiful Owen Daniels reception set Mike Allen up at a shot at redemption.

Allen hit a 23-yard field goal to put UW up 9-7.

Though the Wildcats mounted a surging last-minute drive, the Badger defense held strong, forcing a 47-yard field goal attempt with 43 seconds left to play. The kick sailed wide right, sealing the game for Wisconsin.

“I don’t want to leave it up to the fate of a kicker at the end of a game,” Bielema said. “[But] our guys are going to learn a lot from this. The thing I’m excited about is that our defensive guys were shown that they are not where they need to be to get everything done on every snap.”

“It was much better than doing anything we did in the first two ball games,” he continued. “We were faced with adversity. We were put in tough situations. We had to respond.”