COLUMBUS, Ohio — When Wisconsin kept its first series alive with a fake punt turned into a 31 yard pass-play from punter Ken DeBauche to backup punter Paul Standring, it seemed that the Wisconsin coaching staff was trying to pull out all the stops to keep the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes on their heels.

“I wanted to do anything to get some energy, some momentum going,” Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema said.

Between offense and special teams the Badgers tried a handful of trick plays. The problem was because Ohio State didn’t blink, most of them backfired.

“We thought we could get on them, and they weren’t falling for it,” UW quarterback Tyler Donovan said.

Tight end Travis Beckum’s receiver option in the second quarter went nowhere. He got stuffed for a 9-yard loss. Daven Jones’ good return on a reverse on a kickoff was called back due to one of four block-in-the-back penalties.

The most costly of them all, however, came when Wisconsin wasn’t trying to be cute, but DeBauche thought it was. DeBauche was supposed to kick it away, but due to a mix-up in the playcall signals, he faked and tried unsuccessfully to run for the first down deep in UW territory.

“Blake (Sorenson) made the call, and I’m 14 yards away from the snapper, so whatever he said, I don’t hear,” DeBauche said. “The way we had practiced was if it was on, he would signal back to me, and he didn’t signal it on, and I didn’t get the signal off, so I assumed it was on. Me being unsure, I could have called a timeout.

“It was bad timing for that play.”

The play led to an Ohio State touchdown and put a damper on Wisconsin’s chances.

Essentially, none of the trick plays reaped any rewards as the Badgers gained 28 yards on the four plays, indirectly leading to 3 points, and more importantly, 10 points allowed.

Three more down

Already without three starters entering Saturday’s game against the Buckeyes, the Badgers lost three more during the course of the game.

Cornerback Allen Langford left the game midway through the first half with a knee injury. Soon to follow, right tackle Eric Vanden Heuvel was knocked out of the game with an injury to his right leg.

The final blow came on Wells’ second touchdown run of the game at the start of the fourth quarter. Defensive tackle Jason Chapman, who found himself sprawled out on the field on a few occasions accompanied by the UW training staff, was helped off the field for the final time. He did not return.

From the sound of it, both Langford and Chapman could quite possibly be out an extended period of time. Bielema didn’t mention the gravity of his tackles’ injury.

“I don’t know how significant it is, but I do know that Allen’s was pretty significant, [the trainers] feel, and they feel the same thing with Chappy,” Bielema said.

Return man David Gilreath also didn’t play much of the second half with what Bielema described as a tight hamstring.

Hill doesn’t play

Contrary to prior belief, starting tailback P.J. Hill was not going to play, period, Saturday due to a lower leg injury.

“Basically from Wednesday on, we had a feeling that P.J. wasn’t going to be able to go good enough to go on Saturday,” Bielema said following Saturday’s game.

Initial reports were that the sophomore would be a game-time decision.

Freshman Zach Brown started at running back in Hill’s place. He wasn’t fazed running against one of the nation’s stingiest defenses, accruing 63 yards on 20 carries.

“He’s not afraid of anything,” Bielema said. “He came in, he didn’t have big eyes. He mishandled a snap there at the end, but he did a pretty good job protecting the football, which was a concern for us.”

Stuffed

Somehow Wisconsin put up 17 points on the best team in the land despite Donovan getting sacked a mind-boggling nine times.

“They bring a lot of different looks — three down, four down, five down and they bring from the boundary, they bring it from the field, they bring it with man pressure,” Bielema said.

Defensive end Vernon Gholston finished with a school record-tying four sacks alone, helping to limit Donovan from finding open receivers, especially in the fourth quarter.
“There’s a reason why they’re the No. 1 team in the country right now. They’re just very fundamentally sound in all categories,” Donovan said. “Their D-line gets a lot of push up front. They’re really athletic and know how to play their coverages to their advantage.”