6 losses that still haunt Wisconsin fans
If you are a Wisconsin fan who relishes misery, you’ve come to the right place.
With the Badgers’ fourth-quarter collapse against Notre Dame as the backdrop, Saturday Tradition serves up a 6-pack of bad memories. Don’t feel isolated, periodically through this season we’ll serve up these bitter brews to many of the other Big Ten fanbases.
Given that this season has already served up some hard-to-swallow losses — vs. Penn State and the Fighting Irish — this seems as good a time as any to wallow.
The sad reality of the sports fandom life we have chosen is the losses are more memorable than the wins. After watching Saturday’s debacle unfold, I played some sad music in a dark room alone and recalled all the other times the Badgers broke my heart — like any normal, well-adjusted adult would.
It was a painful process, but after many tears were shed, I narrowed down the list of losses to 6, all of which are relatively recent and still sting upon recall the same as they did when they happened. We will go through these in chronological order, and to prove how memorable losses can be, I will tell you exactly where I was for each of these moments.
TCU 21, Wisconsin 19 (2011 Rose Bowl)
Wisconsin earned a trip to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 2000 behind the best offense in school history during the 2010 season, averaging 41.5 points per game. Against the Horned Frogs, running backs John Clay and Montee Ball combined to carry the ball 33 times for 208 yards, which is 6.3 yards per carry, and a pair of touchdowns.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Badgers marched down the field on a 10-play touchdown drive that included 9 rushes attempts, cutting the deficit to 21-19. On the 2-point conversion attempt, Scott Tolzein attempted to throw to a wide-open Jacob Pedersen in the end zone, but TCU All-America linebacker Tank Carter batted the ball down at the line of scrimmage.
This started a stretch in which the Badgers have now lost in 4 Rose Bowl appearances.
Where was I? My friend Chace’s house
Michigan State 37, Wisconsin 31 (The Hail Mary game, 2011)
The Russell Wilson-led Badgers outscored their first 6 opponents in 2011 by 301-48 and looked unbeatable heading into a matchup with Michigan State. The Badgers trailed 31-17 in the fourth quarter before scoring a pair of touchdowns to tie the game with 1:26 to play in regulation.
Michigan State’s final possession was aided by a pair of Wisconsin timeouts as Bret Bielema greedily schemed to get the ball back to his offense. After a couple nice gains, the Spartans had the ball at Wisconsin’s 44-yard line with 4 seconds left. Kirk Cousins’ last-second heave sailed high in the air above Badgers wide receiver Jared Abbrederis (playing defense as an extra safety), who mistimed his leap. The ball deflected off another player and into the hands of Michigan State receiver Keith Nichol. To make this even more devastating, the officials initially ruled him down at the 1-yard line, but replay reviews showed him to be just barely across the goal line for the game-winning score.
This was the first of consecutive heart-breaking deep balls for Wisconsin, as Ohio State executed a similar play with seconds remaining the following week.
Where was I? Basement of my parents’ house
Arizona State 32, Wisconsin 30 (2013)
Wisconsin went on the road to play Arizona State with a 2-0 record in Gary Andersen’s first season in charge of the Badgers. Wisconsin, trailing 32-30, looked to have set itself up for a game-winning field goal in the final seconds. With the ball on Arizona State’s 13-yard line, Badgers quarterback Joel Stave took the snap, rolled to his left, took a knee with 16 seconds left and placed the ball on the ground to make for an easier chip-shot field goal. Then madness ensued.
Stave was expecting to spike the ball on the next play, but Arizona State defenders jumped on it. By the time the officials spotted the ball, the game clock had run out.
Here’s a video version of what was a wild scene in true Pac-12 After Dark fashion.
Also noteworthy is in the aftermath of this debacle came the #karma tweet that came from the Twitter account of Bret Bielema’s wife that set Badgers Twitter off for years to come.
Where was I? College dorm room
LSU 28, Wisconsin 24 (2014 season opener)
I was never really sold on the idea anyway, but the season opener against LSU in 2014 was the official moment I realized Barry Alvarez made a poor hire with Gary Andersen. Wisconsin looked awesome for more than half of this game, and Melvin Gordon was running wild. After a 63-yard run on the first play of the third quarter to set up another Badgers touchdown, Gordon had 139 yards on 13 carries as Wisconsin extended its lead to 24-7.
LSU did not have an answer to stop Gordon, but for whatever reason, he received just 3 carries the rest of the game for a single yard. The Badgers did not score another point, as they let the lead slip away for a 28-24 loss.
Where was I? Main floor of my parents’ house
Ohio State 59, Wisconsin 0 (2014 Big Ten title game)
Ohio State was down to its third-string quarterback, Cardale Jones, heading into the 2014 B1G title game, but as you can see by the subhead of this section, that did not have much of an impact. Nothing went right and everything went wrong for Wisconsin, and that’s how you lose a conference championship game by more than 9 touchdowns.
One thing that does not get talked about enough looking back at this game: The Badgers were actually favored.
Just a few days after this game, Gary Andersen left to be the new head coach of Oregon State, and the stars aligned for Paul Chryst to return to Madison. A blessing in disguise.
Where was I? College apartment writing about the game for an internship
Ohio State 27, Wisconsin 21 (2017 Big Ten title game)
I had to scrub through which of the other B1G title game losses to Ohio State would be necessary to include here, and we’ll go with the 2017 version. Wisconsin entered with a 12-0 record and would have qualified for a spot in the College Football Playoff with a victory. Knowing this would be the biggest win in team history if it happened, I made the drive with a few buddies. After my experience, I am of the opinion that every major B1G event should be hosted at Indianapolis till the end of time.
Wisconsin trailed 21-10 at halftime, but the Badgers hung tough in the second half and had the ball trailing 27-21 late in the fourth quarter. They crossed midfield to Ohio State’s 43-yard line before a crucial play killed their momentum. The Badgers were called for holding, while a blatant pass interference call was missed on the same play — wide receiver Danny Davis was dragged down by a defender. This was followed by 3 consecutive incompletions, and Alex Hornibrook threw an interception on a desperation play on fourth down to seal the victory for the Buckeyes.
Where was I? Lucas Oil Stadium