There’s not much to say after a lopsided shutout. The Wisconsin Badgers scored early, then often against the Oregon State Beavers en route to a 35-0 Badger victory.
“It’s a tough loss,” Oregon State quarterback Sean Mannion, who finished 27-for-40 passing for 250 yards, said. “But all we can do is move forward and try to get better as a team.”
And healthy. A team already battling a few key injuries left this game with an even bigger limp. Oregon STate wide receiver Jordan Bishop suffered a foot sprain, wide receiver Markus Wheaton has a “rib injury” and guard Josh Andrews who was helped off the field has an MRI on his knee scheduled for Monday.
Adding insult to injury, the game was never close.
“We could never really respond,” Riley said after the game against the No. 8 Badgers. ” (We) never really did anything offensively.”
It didn’t help that the bounces weren’t going their way. It’s not too often that a punt – not punt return – changes the face of an entire game, but a the second Oregon State punt of the game from Johnny Hekker went off the side of his foot and out of bounds, four years behind the line of scrimmage at the Beaver 14-yard line.
The excellent field position led to Wisconsin’s first score. A pass from Badger quarterback Russell Wilson to tight end Jacob Pederesen. Before the Beavers could blink they were behind 7-0.
Wilson finished the game 17-for-20 for 189 yards and three touchdowns.
Now, historically, unless you have a red W on the side of your helmet, it’s pretty hard to play “good” football at Camp Randall Stadium. The Badgers had won 10-consecutive games at home. Oregon State head coach, Mike Riley, said coming into the game the team would have to be “perfect” in order to compete.
The punt was the first of a few costly miscues. Add to that a kick return that was run out of bounds at the five and a fumble that bounced right into Badger hands. And the Beavers were left with – as Riley put it – one thing: “just bad football.”
“In the first half, I felt good about (our defense),” Oregon State defensive end Scott Crichton said. “But in the second half we let them go.”
The Beavers bad football really reared it’s ugly head in the second and third quarters. Oregon State only moved the chains five times and tallied six yards on the ground. In the same span, the Badgers had 14 first downs, went 5-of-7 on third down and accumulated 175 yards rushing.
The Beavers just couldn’t get off the field. The Badgers used that to their advantage, scoring three times to pull ahead 28-0.
“They are good on third down,” Riley said. “Wilson, if he didn’t have it (throwing), he could run for it.”
The Beavers, to their credit, did hold Wilson in check on the ground. He finished with only 11 yards rushing.
“There were some good things,” Riley said. “We’ve got to have a great week of practice. I really have hopes for this team. I think there was a lot of (good) stuff today, particularly defensively, so we can build on that.”
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