A controversial play with 3:19 left in the Outback Bowl held the game up for upwards of ten minutes, as replay officials tried to discern whether Wisconsin recovered a Tennessee fumble along the sideline.The reversal of the call on the field, which was a fumble by Tennessee and a recovery by Wisconsin, was a key in Tennessee's ability to hold on for a 21-17 win over the Badgers. Wisconsin missed numerous opportunities to win the game, just as the Vols missed out on more than a few chances to put it away earlier.
Jai Valai clearly was out of bounds before he had control of the fumble, and the reversal gave Tennessee a valuable first down and three more chances to run time off the clock late in the game.
Wisconsin's missed opportunities centered around their defense's stunning inability to get off the football field. Ten of Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge's 24 completions, along with 178 of his 340 passing yards, came on third downs. The Volunteers converted short, intermediate, and long third-down attempts in the game. The reversed fumble recovery call came after another third-down conversion where Wisconsin put up little or no resistance.
Offensively, Wisconsin was inept in their pass-blocking and lackluster in their all-around play. The defense was, frankly, as terrible as it was for most of the season. Ainge and his coaches did a great job formulating and executing a game plan that took full advantage of safeties for Wisconsin that couldn't fairly be described as "inadequate". They're worse than that. If it weren't for a couple of miscues, Tennessee would have won this game handily. They were clearly the better team on the field today.
(This, by the way, should not be taken as an indictment of the Big Ten. Wisconsin was probably the fourth-best team - perhaps fifth - in the Big Ten, while Tennessee deservedly played for the SEC Championship, then got bumped down the SEC bowl ladder by the Capital One Bowl's selection of Florida.)
Tennessee completed a ten-win season with the victory, while Wisconsin was denied a second straight season of double-digit wins under second-year coach Bret Bielema.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-01-2008 @ 3:06PM
mike d said...
What a piece of biased reporting! This guy took every opportunity to trash Wisconsin while praising Tennessee. I believe the SEC IS the superior conference to the Big Ten, but COME ON...........the game ended 21-17 and the Badgers nearly came out a winner. A little fairness in your reporting, my friend.
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1-01-2008 @ 3:33PM
Boris Knott said...
Everyone is playing as hard as they can and there is no cheating going on-right?
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1-01-2008 @ 3:35PM
Wahhhm said...
mike d - He said that the Volunteers exploited the weaknesses of Wisconsin's team, namely the defense in general, specifically their safeties.
One team identifies another team's weaknesses and capitalizes on them. That's the sport, homey.
And that's how it was reported, because that's how it went down.
Go cry somewhere else.
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1-01-2008 @ 4:01PM
Gail Griswold said...
From the story you would think that Wisconsin had lost by at least three touchdowns. It was a close game and until the last play they had a chance to win. Tennessee didn't score in the second half at all. I wonder what the slant of the story would have been if Wisconsin had completed that last pass. Ann
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1-01-2008 @ 6:02PM
Jim Samp said...
I am a Big Ten fan and I think the story here is completely fair and presents good facts. Tennessee DID squander a few chances to put up more points and Wisconsin did the same.
For me, the game came down to Wisconsin's botched fourth-down try. Going for it belied Bret Bielema's lack of faith in his defense to stop TN on its ensuing drive had he gone for the field goal. As it turned out, not such a great decision.
But, all in all, an entertaining game by what appeared to be fairly evenly-matched teams.
Isn't that why we watch college football?
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