While not as highly anticipated as Wisconsin’s night game against Ohio State two weeks ago, and while the matchup Nebraska felt similar to that OSU game, this time Wisconsin held on to beat a Top 10 team, winning 23-17.
Wisconsin opened up the scoring halfway through the first with a two-play, 51-yard drive capped off by a 21-yard rush by redshirt freshman running back Bradrick Shaw. The Cornhuskers tied it up in the second, but a stagnant UW offense could only muster a field goal, and went into the locker room up 10-7 at halftime.
With the exception of the one touchdown drive, the Badgers only had 80 yards and five first downs in the first half. The coaching staff switched back and forth between redshirt freshman quarterback Alex Hornibrook and redshirt senior quarterback Bart Houston, although neither could build up much momentum.
After a touchdown on their first drive of the second half, Wisconsin took a 17-7 lead, which would hold through the rest of the third quarter. Nebraska crept closer with a score early in the fourth. After a Hornibrook interception on the next drive, Houston was brought in only to throw one of his own.
The Huskers drove down the field but the bend-don’t-break Badgers defense held them to a field goal to tie the game with 3:43 left. Wisconsin marched down the field only to miss a 45-yard field goal and give the ball back to Nebraska with 1:43 left. The Huskers were unable to do anything, but UW didn’t have enough time to make anything happen either, and the game went to overtime.
Unlike two weeks ago, the Badgers were able to muster up some offense in OT and scored, but senior kicker Andrew Endicott missed the extra point. However, the defense saved Endicott a lifetime of Badger fan displeasure by shutting down the Husker offense to seal the victory 23-17.
Wisconsin faces the Northwestern Wildcats on November 5, with kickoff at 11 am.
