Roses are red...

The Wisconsin Badgers all but sealed up a Rose Bowl bid with a victory against the Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday afternoon.

The Badgers (11-1, 7-1 Big Ten) defeated the Wildcats (7-5, 3-5 Big Ten) 70-23 to finish out the season. With the victory, Wisconsin joins Ohio State and Michigan State as co-Big Ten Champions, the first title for Wisconsin since 1999.

Montee Ball had another huge game for the Badgers, carrying the ball 20 times for 178 yards (8.9 yards per carry) and 4 touchdowns. He joins Ron Dayne as the only two Badgers in school history to record 4 rushing touchdowns in back-to-back games. James White was stellar as well, carrying the ball 20 times for 134 yards and a score.

Scott Tolzein came out hot in the first half, completing 14 of 18 passing attempts for 180 yards and 4 touchdowns. He added a pass for 40 yards in the second half to bring his game total to 230 yards. His performance was good enough to earn Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors. On the season, Tolzein completed 74.3 percent of his passes, smashing the Big Ten and team record of 67.8 percent set by Darrell Bevell in 1993. (Bevell won a Rose Bowl that season...)

Nick Toon had 5 receptions for 62 yards and 2 touchdowns. Lance Kendricks added 4 catches for 80 yards and a score, and David Gilreath caught 4 passes for 75 yards and a touchdown.

The Badger defense absolutely humiliated the Wildcat offense, forcing 7 turnovers in the game. Mike Taylor, Jay Valai, Anthony Fenelus, and Aaron Henry all recorded interceptions, Henry returned his pic 50 yards for a touchdown. Valai also forced a fumble.

JJ Watt was a force once again. Watt had 7 solo tackles, 3 tackles for a loss, a sack, 2 forced fumbles, a blocked extra point, and had 3 quarterback hurries that led to interceptions. (For those of you counting, that makes 5 turnovers directly related to Watt). Watt was rewarded for his performance with the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week award.

With the victory (and losses by Boise State and LSU) the Badgers moved to number 5 in the BCS Standings. Barring anything crazy, the Badgers should be headed to the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day, and would likely face TCU.

The Badgers finished the season on a hot streak, scoring 201 points and amassing 1715 yards over the past three games.

The Badgers also recorded their three highest scoring games in the modern era (since 1946) this season. (70 against Austin Peay, 83 against Indiana, and 70 against Northwestern)

They will need to keep that fire burning in the month off before a BCS bowl game.

This Is Why I Love Rick Reilly

Washington Post columnist John Feinstein accused Washington Redskin's head coach Mike Shanahan of being racist for benching Donovan McNabb for Rex Grossman after the Redskins lost to the Detroit Lions.

Listen to Feinstein's accusations here, starting around the 2 minute mark of the video.

Rick Reilly wrote an excellent column in response. Check it out here.

Al Harris Released, Claimed by Dolphins

The Green Bay Packers released 12-year veteran cornerback Al Harris on Monday. After passing through waivers unclaimed, Harris was signed to a one-year deal with the Miami Dolphins on Wednesday.

Harris, 35, came into the 2010 season after going through knee surgery. He was placed on the physically unable to play list (PUP) at the start of the season, but was never activated after the PUP expired at week six.

Here's my favorite Al Harris moment...

Packers Embarrass Struggling Cowboys

The Green Bay Packers (6-3) demolished the Dallas Cowboys (1-7) on Sunday night. The 45-7 final score marks the second worst road loss in Cowboy history, and Dallas' 1-7 start is their worst 8 game start since 1989. The poor start prompted the firing of head Coach Wade Phillips on Monday afternoon. Defensive coordinator Jason Garrett is taking control of the team from this point on.

The Packers and Cowboys went scoreless in the first quarter before Aaron Rodgers and the Pack exploded for 28 points in the second quarter. The Cowboys scored their only touchdown of the game with 16 seconds left in the first half.

The depleted Packer defense stepped up once again to dominate the Cowboy offense. The Cowboy offense was held to just 205 total yards. The Packers forced four turnovers, including two that resulted directly in touchdowns. Dallas quarterback Jon Kitna started in place of the injured Tony Romo, and was held to 183 yards passing. Kitna threw two interceptions and had a quarterback rating of just 63.6.

Clay Matthews added several stats to his Defensive Player of the Year resume. Matthews had a sack, two tackles for losses, 2 deflected passes, and an interception returned 62 yards for a touchdown. Matthews joked after the game that his Lambeau Leap wasn't acceptable...

"I think I might actually hang back and work on my Lambeau Leap skills," he said.






Charles Woodson added five solo tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble, and Sam Shields recorded his first NFL interception.

Just before halftime Nick Collins recovered a fumble after a Packer kickoff and returned it for a touchdown. Even though the runner was likely down by contact, Dallas could not challenge the play because they wasted all their timeouts earlier in the half.

The Packers played just as well on offense. Aaron Rodgers was stellar, and threw for 289 yards and three touchdowns on 27 of 34 attempts for a quarterback rating of 131.5. Rodgers also ran the ball 5 times for 41 yards. John Kuhn added 13 carries for 50 yards, and Brandon Jackson carried the ball 13 times for 42 yards and a touchdown. Jackson caught an eight yard touchdown pass as well.

Greg Jennings and James Jones had big games with Donald Driver out with a quad injury. Jennings caught seven passes for 80 yards and a touchdown, and Jones caught eight passes for 123 yards and a touchdown. Seven different Packers caught at least one pass.

The Packers didn't take the struggling Cowboys lightly, and were able to humiliate them by controlling the ball, forcing turnovers, and limiting penalties.

"This is a big win for us, regardless of the record and regardless of who came in here tonight," said Charles Woodson. "It's a positive for us to go into the bye week like that. It will be good for us to reflect on this game and know what we're capable of as a whole team. If we play the whole game, all three phases of the game, we can have dominant performances like this."

The Packer win keeps them on top of the division going into a much needed bye week. The Packers will have an extra week to get healthy before heading to Minnesota for the second matchup with the Vikings.

Badgers Top Boilermakers, Move Up In BCS Standings

The Wisconsin Badgers (8-1, 4-1 Big Ten) beat the Purdue Boilermakers (4-5, 2-3 Big Ten) on Saturday.

Purdue came out hot and was all over the Badgers for most of the first half. After trailing the Boilermakers 10-6 at halftime, the Badgers held Purdue to just a field goal and scored four touchdowns in the second half on their way to a commanding 34-13 victory.

"Give credit to Purdue, they came in all jacked up," Bielema said. "At halftime, we regrouped, I changed my jacket. I think we just wanted to take a different approach to the second half and relax. I told the guys that we didn't need any superhuman effort, we just need to go out there and execute the fundamentals of what we do."

The Badgers calmed down in the second half and stuck to their gameplan to come away victorious.

Once again, defense and the running game led the Badgers to victory. The Badgers forced four turnovers, including three interceptions. Cornerback Antonio Fenelus had a career high nine tackles, recovered a fumble, and returned an interception for a touchdown. Fenelus was named a Big Ten co-Defensive Player of the Week after his efforts Saturday (award shared with Penn State linebacker Michael Mauti).

Linebackers Mike Taylor and Culmer St. Jean added interceptions, and Taylor, JJ Watt, and Pat Muldoon each picked up a sack.

The Badger offense saw most of its production come from running back Montee Ball. With James White out with an injury and John Clay not quite 100%, Ball saw the majority of the carries on offense. Ball had 21 carries for 127 yards and found the endzone twice.

"I knew I was going to play this game, get more carries than I did before in a game situation," Ball said. "I knew the team was going to look at me and expect me to carry the load. I didn't want to let them down at all."

Clay gained 42 yards on 12 carries.  He needs just 71 yards to reach 1,000 yards on the season, and has three more games to accomplish this feat for the second straight year.

With the victory the Badgers moved from #9 to #7 in the BCS standings. The Big Ten currently has four teams (#9 Ohio State, #11 Michigan State, and #13 Iowa the other three) in the top 13 teams in the nation.

Next weekend the Badgers face Indiana (4-5, 0-5 Big Ten) at home.

Funny New ESPN Ad

You gotta love Bango and Young Buck in this witty ESPN ad!

Wisconsin Sports Update

Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks opened the 2010-2011 season by winning just one of their first three games. Saturday night's win was significant, though, as point guard Brandon Jennings had his first NBA triple-double in the win over the Charlotte Bobcats.

Jennings scored 20 points and added 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

"This is my best game since I've been in the NBA, just the fact that I had a nose for the ball and I was being unselfish and I was everywhere," said Jennings. "I was being a floor general tonight."

The Bucks play Portland on Tuesday night and travel to Boston to face the Celtics on Wednesday.


Wisconsin Badgers


Despite not having a game this weekend, the Badgers jumped up a spot in the BCS standings. Now at #9, the Badgers are the highest Big Ten team in the standings. Michigan State, previously #5, was decimated by Iowa and dropped to #14. Iowa sits at #16, with Ohio State at #11.

The Badgers play at Purdue this weekend.

Green Bay Packers

The Packers relied on strong defensive play to take down the New York Jets on Sunday. The Jets came into the game after their bye week, riding a five game winning streak, and tied for the best record in the NFL. The Packers, who are struggling through several key injuries this season, felt this game was a statement about the team's drive and desire.

"We wanted to come in here and prove to everybody what we're all about,"said Clay Matthews. "We've had a few close losses that we thought we should have won. We let our play do our talking."

Turnovers and penalties were the name of the game. The Packers had their first turnover-free game of the season, and had just three penalties for 15 yards. Both Charles Woodson and Tramon Williams ripped interceptions away from Jet receivers. Williams also recovered a fumble.

Special teams were huge in the Packer win. Mason Crosby hit three of four field goal attempts for the only points of the game. Punter Tim Masthay pinned the Jets inside the 20 yardline five times out of eight punts. On a windy day the field position battle was huge.


The Packers, now 5-3, have sole possession of first place in the NFC North. The Dallas Cowboys (without Tony Romo) come to Lambeau on Sunday night.