{"id":82306,"date":"2025-11-08T21:19:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T02:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=82306"},"modified":"2025-11-08T21:19:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T02:19:06","slug":"badger-run-defense-stifles-huskies-in-the-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/11\/08\/badger-run-defense-stifles-huskies-in-the-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"Badger Run Defense Stifles Huskies in the Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The snow began to fall with strength in the second half of Washington\u2019s game at Wisconsin. And with it, the Badger defense continued to play with strength within its front seven. Wisconsin’s defense accounted for nine tackles for loss, four sacks, and three quarterback hurries. As such, the Badger offense needed just 13 points to defeat Washington 13-10. It was Wisconsin\u2019s first-ranked win since 2021, and the team\u2019s first win in conference this season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wisconsin Defeats Washington 13-10<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Run Game Struggles<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Outside of Demond Williams<\/a>\u2019 36-yard scramble, the Husky offense had just 21 rushing yards in the first half. The Badger run defense was the team\u2019s strength entering the game<\/a>, and it showed up early. One play that exemplified this at its best was after Washington took possession after blocking a punt. Anthony Ward<\/a> got his hand on the punt, and the deflected ball rolled to the Badger one-yard line, where the punter jumped on it. The play gave Washington momentum midway through the second quarter. But the first play of the drive was a Jonah Coleman<\/a> run up the middle, where he was stuffed at the line of scrimmage. Coleman would end up exiting the game with a lower-body injury. Jedd Fisch said he was rolled up on during his screen pass catch and run.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interior defensive lineman Ben Barten<\/a>, who stands at 6\u2019-5\u201d and 325 pounds, made the play, keeping the Huskies out of the end zone temporarily. Washington would score on the next play, but that rushing stop on first and goal at the one would be the theme of the Badger defense all evening. Wisconsin\u2019s defense recorded four tackles for loss in the first half alone. Barten would also be responsible for a blocked field goal in the fourth quarter to ultimately help seal the upset.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Wisconsin front seven would continue to show its strength into the third quarter. An illegal block in the back penalty backed the Husky offense up inside its own 10-yard line after a Wisconsin punt. Washington pushed the football outside of its own red zone, but Mason Posa forced quarterback pressure, and brought Williams down, and forced a fumble. Posa jumped on it, giving Wisconsin the football inside the 10-yard line. It was the Badgers\u2019 first fumble recovery of the season. Two plays later, Smith took the football into the end zone to tie the game at 10.<\/span><\/p>\n

Opportunistic Badgers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There were several moments in this game where Wisconsin generated significant momentum. It wasn\u2019t in the form of scoring a lot of points, but rather in game-changing plays. Whether it was the fake punt for a 24-yard gain, the strip-sack to create a touchdown drive, or the blocked field goal early in the fourth quarter, this defense and special teams unit kept Washington on its heels all evening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those plays was the blocked field goal in the fourth quarter. Barten got his hand on Grady Gross\u2019 50-yard attempt, keeping the Badger lead at 13-10. \u201cWe felt like the wind was in our favor there,\u201d Fisch said after the game, regarding the decision to kick the long field goal. \u201cGrady felt really good about the distance.\u201d Instead, the block kept the Husky deficit at three points. And the fourth quarter ran under 12 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Six plays after the block, Wisconsin punted back to Washington. It pinned the Huskies at the five-yard line, a position the offense had to deal with frequently against the Badgers. \u201cThe field position today just felt like we were having to go 85, 90 yards almost every drive,\u201d Fisch said after the game. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a real challenge with a defense like Wisconsin\u2019s.\u201d The Huskies\u2019 average starting field position was their own 25-yard line. That\u2019s compared to Wisconsin\u2019s average starting field position of its own 45-yard line. Three of the Huskies\u2019 final five possessions began inside their own 10-yard line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Wisconsin controlled the field defensively all evening in Madison, and it translated into its ability to keep Washington out of the end zone. The Huskies turned the ball over four times tonight, two were on downs, and the other two were an interception and a fumble.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s defense played a solid game, allowing just 13 points on the road in treacherous weather conditions. \u201cI thought defensively we did a really nice job of really holding them down and keeping them to six points,\u201d Fisch said afterwards. He doesn\u2019t fault Ryan Walters\u2019 group for the short field touchdown in the third quarter. \u201cFumbling the ball at the six-yard line isn\u2019t really the defense\u2019s fault there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Huskies, now 6-3 on the season, turn the page to Purdue back at home on November 15th.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Image: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The snow began to fall with strength in the second half of Washington\u2019s game at Wisconsin. And with it, the Badger defense continued to play with strength within its front seven. Wisconsin’s defense accounted for nine tackles for loss, four sacks, and three quarterback hurries. As such, the Badger offense needed just 13 points to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":82311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,17,35612,35651],"tags":[1666],"class_list":["post-82306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-news","category-washington-huskies","category-wisconsin-badgers","tag-jedd-fisch"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82306"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82312,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82306\/revisions\/82312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}