Five takeaways from an unbelievable Wisconsin comeback win at Illinois
With fifteen game minutes left, Wisconsin was staring down a 21-7 deficit on the road at Illinois. They were trusting a freshman quarterback in his first collegiate start, had barely moved the football, and had been having trouble stopping the rushing attack of Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer.
So, naturally, with everything going the Fighting Illini’s way, Wisconsin outscored Illinois 18-0 over the final fifteen minutes and walked out of Champaign with a 25-21 victory.
From a wild final drive, some questionable calls early, and a few game-changing moments, here are five takeaways from a Wisconsin win that got them back into the Big Ten West title picture:
All of a sudden, Wisconsin is back in it
Not only did the Badgers put together an improbable final quarter to improve to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten, but Iowa lost at home to Minnesota and fell to 3-2 in the conference. Wisconsin currently controls their own destiny in the Big Ten West, but Ohio State is looming next week.
How about Bradeyn Locke?
In his first career start, things weren’t going the freshman quarterbacks way early. Locke never wavered, even with a few key drops from his receivers and an offensive line that wasn’t always giving him the time needed.
There was a lot of pregame talk about the time Locke spent to prepare himself in the offseason in terms of learning the playbook, and it all paid off late into the game on Saturday.
The first career start looked like this on paper: 21-41, 240 yards and a pair of touchdowns with a lost fumble.
In the fourth quarter alone, however, Locke threw for 94 yards and a pair of touchdowns including a dot to Skyler Bell that set up the Nolan Rucci touchdown. It was an impressive never say die effort in your first career start.
Phil Longo was gutsy down the stretch, and it paid off
Two calls stick out from Longo on the game-winning drive, one that will be remembered forever and one that might fall through the cracks. Of course, you have the touchdown pass to an offensive lineman in Nolan Rucci that proved to be the game winner.
A call that really stuck out to me on that drive? 3rd-and-10 just across midfield and Longo dials up a run to Braelon Allen. Allen made a few men miss on his way to an 11-yard gain that kept the chains moving. Was it a perfect call? No, but it was trusting your best player to go make a play in classic Wisconsin fashion. The new era went old school for just a moment.
Johnny Newton's ejection changed everything
Illinois defensive tackle Johnny Newton will be playing on Sunday’s, and it was easy to see why. Everything changed when the Illini star went out due to a targeting call on a hit to Wisconsin quarterback Braedyn Locke in the second half. On that very drive, Wisconsin scored a touchdown and had a two-point conversion to keep themselves in it.
More importantly, Illinois lost their best overall player.
Wisconsin finally fed Braelon Allen, and it paid off
The Badgers fed their best player, resulting in 29 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown. Allen also had the aforementioned clutch run on 3rd-and-10, a play where an average running back likely gets stopped on first contact. Instead, Allen kept chugging and found himself across the first down marker.
It wasn’t all the coaching staff’s fault, as Allen was limited due to a few ailments earlier in the year, but today he had the green light and it paid off.
