It's safe to say no one saw this one coming, no seriously, if you did you can put your hand down now because you are simply lying or have the ultimate Cardinal and White glasses on. Either way there is no way around this one, Wisconsin simply curb stomped their way into the record books in a 70-31 route of Nebraska. It's safe to say that not many can say the Badgers didn't earn their way anymore with their performance tonight.
The records start with Wisconsin becoming the first team not named Michigan or Ohio State to make three straight Rose Bowl appearances as they will take on Stanford on January 1st in Pasadena. Wisconsin's 70 points were the most ever by any team in a conference championship game ever. Also, in dominating the Huskers the Badgers racked up 640 yards of total offense, 539 of which came via the rushing attack. The later of which was just 4th best all-time in school history.
It was truly a three headed monster for the Badgers as Big Ten running back of the year Montee Ball rushed for 202 yards and wasn't even the leading rusher on the night. That honor belonged to redshirt freshman Melvin Gordon, who had a coming out party with 212 yards rushing on just 9 carries for a 24 yards a carry average with one touchdown. Ball added 3 rushing TD's and regular backup James White added 109 yards and an unreal 4 rushing touchdowns to go with a passing TD as well.
Things were only interesting in general in the 1st quarter, or should I say the first 5 minutes of the 1st quarter as Wisconsin opened up a quick 14-0 lead on a 56 yard Melvin Gordon touchdown run that was followed up by a Marcus Cromartie 29 yard interception return for a touchdown.
It appeared that this would be a game shortly there after as Nebraska answered back with 10 straight points. The TD of which was a highlight play for the ages as Taylor Martinez avoided about a 15 yard loss on a sack and instead turned it into an unreal 79 yard untouched touchdown scamper. Despite that highlight reel play, a game it wasn't about to be. Instead Wisconsin took what was to be Nebraska's best punch and dealt them a knockout punch right back.
With the score 14-10 the Badgers began a complete domination of the Huskers as they scored 21 unanswered points to take a commanding 42-10 lead on the Huskers.
From there Wisconsin came out at the half, stopped Nebraska on their first series and scored on their own first series to run the advantage to 49-10 and the game was pretty much over from there.
Nebraska scored on another Taylor Martinez rushing TD to make it 49-17, however the Badgers had the answer again as they just increased their lead by scoring two more touchdowns on 58 yard Montee Ball TD run and a 68 yard James White TD run in what was already a pattern in this game.
In crushing Nebraska the Badgers put the college football world on notice that despite their 7-5 record they have the talent to play, beat, and dominate anyone they take the field.
With the win the Badgers take on Stanford of the Pac-12 in the Rose Bowl while the Huskers are likely to head to the Capital One bowl.
