Low-scoring football games are often referred to either as defensive slugfests or just plain ugly. Most of the time, the beauty—or lack thereof—is in the eye of the beholder.
Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium, it looked for most of the game as the Wisconsin defense would come out looking better than anybody else.
But then the Badgers (3-2 Big Ten, 6-3 overall) gave up a score in the last two minutes and another in overtime, and Michigan State (2-3, 5-4) will take the rosier view of things home to East Lansing, Mich. after a 16-13 win.
Regardless, this was not a contest for the offensively inclined.
“I thought we played really well defensively and did a heck of a job, obviously until the final few minutes there,” head coach Bret Bielema said. “We just kept putting our defense out there, trying to play a field position game.”
The UW defense held the Spartans to just 162 yards through three quarters and had allowed just 177 when MSU started at its own 25-yard line, trailing 10-3 with 6:06 remaining in the game.
Then, they engineered a 12-play, 75 yard scoring drive that culminated in a 5-yard shovel pass from junior quarterback Andrew Maxwell to senior running back Le’Veon Bell.
“It’s difficult, we haven’t seen much of that,” Badgers redshirt junior middle linebacker Chris Borland said of the shovel pass. “When that running back flows underneath [the quarterback], it’s my job as the Mike linebacker to get in between the linemen and get outside. I saw it fairly well, but there two linemen there [and Bell]. I didn’t make the play and I should have.”
Maxwell, who started the drive 15-28 for 135 yards, completed 8 of 9 for 69 yards on the march. When he found junior wide receiver Bennie Fowler for a game-winning 12-yard score in overtime, the UW defense’s effort was officially spoiled.
“History’s shown they’re very competitive team and they’ve kind of got our number the last couple years,” redshirt sophomore linebacker Ethan Armstrong said.
Both defenses had dominating stretches. When the Spartans took over at the Wisconsin 11-yard line after a botched punt in the second quarter, the Badgers used a holding penalty, an athletic pass breakup from Borland, a false start, a sack and an incompletion to push MSU out of field goal range.
The Spartans defense opened the second half with a tone-setting performance of its own, sacking redshirt freshman quarterback Joel Stave, stuffing redshirt senior running back Montee Ball in the backfield and then sacking junior quarterback Danny O’Brien to force a fourth-and-28.
“The plays that really probably hurt us in retrospect were just the negative-yard plays,” Bielema said. “We can’t play behind the chains and that was causing us to play off rhythm and not get ourselves in position on third downs to have success.”
In all, the Spartans forced negative yardage on 13 of Wisconsin’s 59 offensive plays, including 10 in the second half and overtime.
The Badgers mustered a total of just 40 yards in the second half and overtime and registered just three first downs after halftime. Those both came on a third-quarter drive that ended in a punt when Ball was stopped for an eight-yard loss on a third-and-one.
“It was very tough because after a seven or eight-yard run you would feel like the momentum was on our side and then the next play would be a loss,” Ball said.
Even when things went right in the second half, they ended up going wrong.
When the offense thought it had a big play in the works in their new “Barge” formation, redshirt junior center Travis Frederick’s snap got by junior running back James White for a 15-yard loss.
“When I sent Montee in motion the corner ran across the field with him and it was an outside play to the left, so it seemed like it would have been an open play,” White said.
“I actually think that play probably would have went for a touchdown,” Frederick added.
After recovering a fumble at MSU’s 18-yard line, UW went three-and-out and settled for three points. White scored from the “Barge” formation on the first play of the series, but sophomore tight end Sam Arneson was flagged for holding.
“I thought I had good hand placement,” he said. “I thought I let go but I guess not. It’s too bad, that’s really a big play and you can’t have that.”
“Penalties, especially in the red zone, just kill drives and really ruin the chance to score points,” Frederick added.
Any sort of negative play does, and the Badgers had far too many Saturday.
