Brats & Beer

Badgers Close With Another Win In Minnesota

Maybe its wasn’t as dramatic as 2005, but the UW Badgers football team still made it interesting at the Metrodome yesterday. Wisconsin dug itself a deep hole early before gutting out a 41-34 win over the Minnesota Gophers to hang on to Paul Bunyan’s Axe one more year. Hopefully after this season, Bret Bielema and his staff will come up with a way to stop the spread offenses.

But how about that Zach Brown? The product of Royal Palm Beach high school in Florida rushed for 250 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries. Ridiculous! According to the UW sports web site, that’s the most for a true freshman since Ron Dayne ran for 246 yards against Utah back in 1996. I bet if P.J. Hill had been healthy enough to play, the total would have been double that.

Minnesota native David Gilreath also put up some pretty sick numbers with 226 return yards, including punt returns of 51 and 56 yards. Travis Beckum led the Wisconsin receiving corps with five catches for 89 yards before he was carted off with an injury sustained on a touchdown catch in the fourth quarter.

So with their season complete with a 9-3 overall record and a 5-3 mark in the Big 10, the Badgers await word of which bowl game they’ll be attending this holiday season. UW is all alone in fourth place in the conference with Illinois winning handily over Northwestern and Penn State falling to Michigan State. (Cue Nelson: “Ha, ha!”) The likeliest outcome would be a bid to the Alamo Bowl, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens the next week or so.