It could not have been drawn up much better for the Wisconsin football team, which was looking for its first conference victory of the season. Running with resolve, passing with precision and defending with speed, the Badgers outclassed Indiana in every aspect of the game in Saturday's 52-17 rout.
Wisconsin quickly took whatever emotional high the Hoosiers were riding with the return of their coach from a two-week absence and deflated it with five straight scoring drives in the first half en route to a 35-0 halftime lead.
""I wanted our guys to go out and enjoy the day,"" head coach Bret Bielema said following the game. ""They play football. They put a lot of time into their preparation. I wanted them to come out and have fun today, set a tone that we controlled how this game progressed and how things happened during the course of the game. I really liked their attitude.""
The score reached 52-0 by the time the third quarter was over, and Indiana's points in the fourth came mainly against Badger reserves with the game well in hand.
By all accounts, it was a field day for the Badger offense, which had 539 yards against Indiana's suspect defense that gave little impression it could stop the run or cover the pass.
Senior quarterback John Stocco had the highest completion percentage of his career, converting 15 of 17 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns. All came in the first half, to three different receivers on three straight drives in a span of approximately nine minutes. It was a big showing by the receiving corps, which has been inconsistent this year.
""I think it was huge,"" Stocco said of the improvement of his receivers from last weekend to this week's game. ""All those guys caught everything today. They made some very difficult catches.""
After redshirt freshman running back P.J. Hill (23 carries, 129 yards, 3 TD) got the Badgers on the board with a one-yard run with 4:21 remaining in the first quarter, Stocco went to work. Late in the first quarter, he hit sophomore tight end Travis Beckum on a 35-yard pass, the first touchdown reception of Beckum's career.
Then, about five minutes into the second quarter, Stocco hit junior wideout Paul Hubbard for a 15-yard touchdown seconds after their previous connection in the end zone was negated by a penalty. It was a banner day for Hubbard, who had career highs in receptions (6) and receiving yards (122).
Only minutes later, after sophomore cornerback Allen Langford had his first career forced fumble and recovery, Stocco found junior tight end Andy Crooks for a three-yard score.
IU responded with their longest drive of the day, a 10 play, 59-yarder to the Badger 21-yard line, but turned the ball over on downs. The Badgers had one more scoring drive in them before halftime, as Stocco hit junior wide receiver Luke Swan for a season-high 58-yard pass to set UW up inside the 10-yard line.
The Badgers then threw the haymaker, as Hill punched it in from one yard out to give his team the 35-0 lead it took into intermission. With another one-yard run in the third quarter, Hill made Saturday the second time this season he has scored three touchdowns in a game. He now has nine touchdowns in this young season.
""It's not really surprising,"" Hill said of his early success. ""I just go out as a player and play my game.""
A 28-yard field goal by junior Taylor Mehlhaff put the Badgers up 45-0 late in the third quarter. On the ensuing Indiana drive, sophomore linebacker DeAndre Levy stripped Hoosier running back Marcus Thigpen, and sophomore defensive lineman Matt Shaughnessy brought the ball to the IU four-yard line. Freshman running back Lance Smith then took the ball four yards into the endzone, his first career touchdown run, for a 52-0 Badger lead.
The Hoosiers avoided the ignominy of a shutout by scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter, but this was clearly the Badgers' day. And, as Bielema put it, ""Our team needed a game like this.""
—The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel contributed to this report.
