Wisconsin suffered a heartbreaking 28-27 defeat at the hands of Oregon in yesterday’s Rose Bowl Game. Here are our top three takeaways from the game for the Badgers.
The Badgers have no one to blame but themselves.
There’s no doubt that Wisconsin was on the wrong end of some brutal officiating throughout the game, most notably the atrocious offensive pass interference call on Danny Davis late in the fourth quarter that basically killed the Badgers’ potential game-winning drive.
That being said, as my colleague Matt Zemek astutely noted on Twitter in the aftermath of the game, if you put yourself in a position where you can get destroyed by one poor call, you have no one to blame but yourself. Unfortunately, this is exactly what Wisconsin did.
The Badgers, specifically the offense, could hardly have done more to hand this game to the Ducks on a silver platter.
By most accounts, Bucky was in complete control of this game. For example, Wisconsin outgained the Oregon 322 to 204 and crushed it in time of possession, 38:03 to 21:57. The defense was outstanding all night long. The Badgers had a 17-14 lead at halftime after an 11-yard touchdown reception by Quintez Cephus with 11 seconds left in the second quarter. Coming into the game, Wisconsin was 45-4 when leading at halftime in the Paul Chryst era.
The Badgers also led at the end of the third quarter. Bucky’s record under Chryst when this is the case? 47-3 (now 47-4).
Unfortunately, Wisconsin blew the game as a result of their own errors. The Badgers committed nine penalties that cost them 79 yards, with a few of those serving as absolute drive killers. However, to find the biggest reason for their demise you can point to four brutal turnovers, which Oregon took full advantage of by turning them into 21 points.
This is the reason why last night’s loss ranks right up there among the most painful for Wisconsin throughout recent years. The Badgers had a chance to finally take home a Rose Bowl victory for the first time since 2000, and instead of Oregon beating them, they flat out lost this game on their own.