ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In a hostile environment, coming in as the underdog, with virtually every major college football expert and publication raving about the upcoming opponent, there's really one main thing that a football team can do to turn the tables in its favor: start out strong.

If the team that nobody expects to put up any fight comes out in the first quarter and the first half looking like the team that everyone figures to win easily, that's a huge advantage for the underdog. Especially on the road, where the crowd can be taken right out of the game with such an effort.

The Wisconsin football team did exactly that Saturday, looking very much deserving of an AP ranking name and quieting the 111,058 Michigan fans on hand.

Well, for a quarter and a half, at least. The Badgers can leave Ann Arbor with pride in turning some heads across the country — tied 10-all at halftime against the No. 6 Wolverines — but it almost hurts worse that UW actually gave itself a chance to pull the stunning upset, rather than getting smoked like everybody expected.

Things started swimmingly for the unranked Badgers, as a tip ball landed in the arms of UW cornerback Allen Langford. Not the prettiest of interceptions, but it counted, and was promptly converted into a 7-0 lead when John Stocco drove Wisconsin's struggling offense 60 yards in five plays.

Besides that, in the first quarter, the UW running game looked better than that of Michigan, Stocco looked as relaxed and poised as he had all year, and the Badgers defense kept the clamps on big-play threat Mario Manningham, whose muff led to that Langford pick.

The more than 111,000 people in the stands started to get antsy. Everything seemed to go Wisconsin's way in the early goings.

Well, the wheels didn't completely fall off for the visiting Badgers until after the break, but the game's momentum began to shift in the second quarter. First, Manningham made up for his early blunder by beating Langford on a 24-yard touchdown grab in the end zone, knotting the game at 7-all.

Then after a well-constructed 10-play, 66-yard drive resulting in a Taylor Mehlhaff field goal, Wisconsin committed their worst miscue of the game — effectively letting the Wolverines (and their home crowd) right back in the contest. Zach Hampton's fumble of a punt return led to three Michigan points going into the locker rooms and set the stage for the Badgers' devastatingly-poor second half.

Michigan got another long touchdown to Manningham, a 5-yard TD dash by Mike Hart, and another field goal on 173 offensive yards, jumping out to a 27-10 lead — all before the Badgers earned their initial first down of the second half.

The Wolverine offense put on a show, and it came at the expense at the UW defense that never seemed to get a chance to catch its breath. In the third quarter, Stocco did not complete a pass and the Badgers running game — a focal point in Wisconsin's game-plan coming into the match-up — mustered just 13 yards, not good enough to move the chains even once. The frustration continued into the final quarter, with no first downs coming until under four minutes remaining in the game.

Not the way you want to finish, and though Stocco did lead the UW offense to some more yards in garbage time, it was too late to undo the damage done. Six-straight three-and-outs after halftime, as UW head coach Bret Bielema attested, just isn't going to get it done against such a talented Michigan team.

"They have a lot of good players, and good players with good coaches just line up and do what they do best," Bielema said. "That's what they were able to do for four quarters and something we need to do with more consistency."

Manningham, who struggled early in his first minutes since scoring three touchdowns against Notre Dame the previous week, added greatly to Wisconsin's demise late in the game with seven catches for 113 yards and a pair of scores.

"We tried to warn our kids and put ourselves in a positive situation, but he was able to execute," Bielema said.

If the Badgers had maintained their first-half play into that third quarter, perhaps the outcome would have been different.

"You can't argue with the way we started," Bielema said. "It's going to be something that we can build upon, but I didn't like the third quarter."