“Players make plays, and players win games,” is a favorite motto of Wisconsin football head coach Gary Andersen.

But Andersen said Monday at his weekly press conference his players were not given that opportunity Saturday night against Arizona State after officials let time expire without allowing the UW offense the opportunity to run a final play.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Joel Stave ran off the right hash mark to the center of the field with 18 seconds left, took a knee and placed the ball down, attempting to set up a game-winning field goal. The officials subsequently did not let the Badgers spike the ball to stop the clock and did not penalize an ASU defensive linemen for laying on the ball, resulting in a 32-30 loss for UW.

“I am proud of the way our kids played at Arizona State, it was a very competitive football game,” Andersen said.

“All we’re looking for is accountability in this situation and an opportunity to let the kids finish the games, which has been said many times before, and let them be the deciding factor.”

Andersen said he would coach exactly the same way if they found themselves in a similar situation again. He also said a similar scenario is practiced throughout spring football and training camp.

“First of all, let’s make it real clear, he did take a knee,” Andersen affirmed. “By rule he does not have to take a knee…The idea of putting the ball on the ground is to give the officials the opportunity to get the ball spotted quicker and cleaner.”

PAC-12 Commissioner Larry Scott released a brief statement Monday morning describing in detail what occurred in the final 18 seconds during Saturday night’s contest. The report concluded, “We’ve determined the officials fell short of the high standard in which Pac-12 games should be managed.”

Andersen was asked whether or not the statement was sufficient, to which he replied “To me personally, no.”

“It doesn’t change the outcome, obviously” he said. “But it’s accountability, which at the end of the day is what we ask for.”

Andersen said he is moving forward from the game and the situation is one which the players must understand and learn from. He was also very pleased with how the players handled themselves.

“The way they carried themselves after the game was good, especially through the upperclassmen,” Andersen said.

Regarding the game before the final few seconds, he said he was impressed with the performance of the special teams, an area that was a key concern of Wisconsin’s entering the game.

“On special teams we won the game,” Andersen said. “We made some huge plays.”

Anderson was especially pleased with the touchdown the Badgers’ special teams scored in the second quarter after ASU botched the snap on a punt. He praised senior nose tackle Beau Allen, who recovered the bad snap in the end zone for a touchdown.

“That’s a big time game out of Beau Allen,” Andersen hailed. “He was active. He was physical. He played a bunch of reps. He appeared to be in very good shape.

“If he plays like that, he’s going to have an opportunity to move on and play at the next level.”

Looking ahead to the Big Ten

Andersen and his squad look forward to opening the Big Ten regular season with Purdue as the first conference foe coming to Madison this Saturday. The Boilermakers and first-year head coach Darrell Hazel are coming off a tough 31-24 loss to Notre Dame this past Saturday and look to display their new pro-style offense.

“There’s a lot of moving pieces to the pro-style offense,” Andersen said. “I like both running backs … number one [Akeem Hunt] and number 20 [Dalyn Dawkins].”