Wisconsin Discovers Something Called 'Forward Pass', Beats Minnesota With It

Paul Bunyan's Axe will spend another winter in Madison after a game that might not appear on either team's season highlights video.

If you heard that the Badgers were held to 116 yards rushing by the Gophers, you'd probably assume the Badgers lost. But not today. The long-dormant Badger passing game didn't exactly explode today, but Dustin Sherer threw the ball well enough to make up for the largely absent running game.

Okay, it wasn't completely absent. PJ Hill did have 117 yards on 24 carries. And, with a 58% completion percentage, it's not like Sherer has anybody saying "Graham who?" Only the final score counts, though, and Wisconsin had the bigger one, 35-32.

If you only saw the first half of this game, you're little surprised by that. The Badgers fumbled four times in the first half and lost three of them. Minnesota could only turn one of those turnovers into point. though. The Badgers were lucky they were only down 21-7 at halftime.

Luck turned the other way in the second half. Two Wisconsin safeties, one on a fumbled kickoff and the other on a sack of Adam Weber, made the difference not just for the game but for both teams' seasons.

After racing out to a 7-1 start, Tim Brewster's team has now dropped three straight. They can no longer dream of a New Year's Day bowl; right now, it's looking like they'll be back in the Twin Cities before New Year's Eve.

Wisconsin is now bowl-eligible with their final game next Saturday against 1-AA Football Championship Subdivision Cal Poly. Before you go making assumptions, the Mustangs are 7-1 and ranked #3 in the FCS coaches poll. They could go all Appalachian State on the Badgers next week at Camp Randall.

Still, for Bret Bielema, this win swings the public opinion meter a little closer to "favorable." There's still no explaining the Michigan loss, but otherwise the Badgers have only lost to pretty good teams. Maybe this forward pass thing will work out for them in the future.

For Minnesota, however, this loss is as bitter as bile. They'll now need to beat Iowa next Saturday in the Gophers' last-ever game at the Metrodome or they could find themselves leapfrogged by just about everybody when the bowl bids are handed out. The story of how Tim Brewster turned around the Gophers is still compelling, but it grows a little less so week by week.