The Badgers haven’t been overly impressive during league play, but downed Illinois 24-13 their last time out for a third straight victory and appear to be the only team capable of taxing undefeated Iowa in the Big Ten West. While Wisconsin lost at home to the Hawkeyes for its only conference loss, its defense has been dominant in Madison – giving up a total of 20 points in five outings.
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With Taiwan Deal working through injuries himself, the Badgers were pretty thin in the backfield.
Rutgers’ offense had no firepower without Leonte Carroo.
The Badgers held the Scarlet Knights to 165 total yards on offense, including 82 rushing yards.
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights may not want to come back to Wisconsin after their first trip out ended with another blowout loss.
Kevin: Man, is it good to have Clement back.
After wavering for two games about when to return, Clement was challenged to play by Chryst on Monday.
After Rutgers would punt on their first possession of the game, Wisconsin would take over where they quickly produced the game’s first touchdown.
– With Rob Wheelwright out, one question would be who would replace him in the lineup. Gillins was in early at wideout, although he was never targeted. Time is most definitely running out.
Wisconsin’s defense hadn’t missed a beat while Clement was away. Fellow running back Dare Ogunbowale, who actually got the official start at tailback for UW, complemented nicely, carrying the ball 11 times for 41 yards and a touchdown.
Wisconsin got a lucky bounce, too.
“It was a challenge (from Chryst)”, Clement said. His first touch went for just two yards, but he followed it with a 12-yard scamper to the north side end zone in front of his cold and wet classmates who found solace in the fact that their favorite player was back in action.
Despite missing those games, Carroo leads the Big Ten with nine touchdown catches.
– Tanner McEvoy became the first FBS player with at least one sack, two receptions, two carries and two interceptions in the same season since Kansas’ Charles Goodson in 2005.
– The confounding Stave continues.
There’s a lot of work to be done on both sides of the ball.
Gaglianone capped the first half scoring with a 27 yard field goal after the Badgers marched down the field on an 8 play 61 yard drive in the final 44 seconds.
The Badgers’ drives on average started at their own 47, while Rutgers on average started at its 25. Wisconsin’s was its own 46.
Clement looked good on the field, if a little out of shape. Laviano came into the game completing 67.2 percent of his passes. We’ll see a lot more of Clement and this game presents another opportunity for the offensive line to gain even more confidence heading into the latter part of the schedule.
Could it really be anyone but Clement? Quarterback Chris Laviano has six touchdown passes in his last three games to go with his 1,505 yards on the season. “It was just getting through the soreness”. Biegel’s motor was on full Saturday.
Corey Clement didn’t waste time making an impression in his return for Wisconsin. That, folks, is what happens when a bad offense meets a good defense.
“It felt like your first trick-or-treat”.
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“Obviously he gave us a big lift. He got us a few runs we haven’t been getting for a while”.
