There is an old truth about sports worth mentioning after the Wisconsin Badgers defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday. Yes, we’re going to turn our attention to the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Big Ten Championship Game soon enough, but we still have a few things to say about the win over Minnesota, which will remain a highly satisfying memory through the offseason when it arrives in early January.
We begin with the old truth referred to above: Sometimes, HOW one wins a competition is just as important as the win itself. I strongly think this truth applies to Wisconsin’s 38-17 victory in Minneapolis. I also think a lot of Wisconsin fans can intuitively understand this statement, but let’s flesh it out just to make sure:
First, Wisconsin maintained its identity in this game. Jonathan Taylor didn’t run for 200 yards, or 150, or even 100, but Wisconsin’s offensive line was still strong. We saw Paul Chryst get the ball to fast receivers on handoffs, something he loves to do. We saw Jack Coan surgically pick apart an opposing defense with a passing game which never seemed to be taking undue risks. Wisconsin won within the structure of its offense. It didn’t have to be something it wasn’t in order to flourish in this game. Wisconsin won in bad weather, something it takes pride in. Winning in nasty conditions is something every Big Ten team enjoys doing.
Wisconsin maintained its identity in this game. What it also did was beat Minnesota to a pulp. This was a beatdown. It was decisive. It’s not as though this was a game in which a huge turnover or a series of lucky breaks enabled Wisconsin to survive a rough first half, after which the Badgers regrouped. Yes, the Daniel Faalele injury to Minnesota hurt the Gophers’ chances, but Wisconsin had less-than-fully-healthy players in its secondary, and the Badgers’ back line of defense still controlled Minnesota’s NFL-quality receivers. Wisconsin was just better, stronger, faster, tougher. No one can dispute that. It was a butt-kicking, and not a game in which the Badgers escaped or survived. They THRIVED.
Let’s say this game had gone down to the final minute, or let’s say this game was more of a pure track meet, and Wisconsin had improbably won by a narrow margin when playing a style of football it probably wouldn’t have preferred. In either of those hypothetical scenarios, P.J. Fleck and the Gophers could have said to themselves, “We lost Faalele, we played in bad weather, and we still gave Wisconsin a run, showing we could play the style of game we wanted to play. We just didn’t play our style WELL enough to win.” Minnesota could have taken a lot more confidence from such a turn of events… but that isn’t the turn of events we saw.
Winning this particular game in this particular way is as meaningful for the Badgers as the win itself. Given how much the win itself means, I’d say the meaning of the method — the way in which the Badgers battered the Gophers — matters quite a lot. It is the perfect emotional fuel to take to Indianapolis against Ohio State.