Huge Weekend for Wisconsin Sports

This past weekend was huge for Wisconsin sports. The Brewers, Badgers and Packers all had big wins on their way to an undefeated weekend.

Brewers


Friday night the Brewers began a three game series against the Florida Marlins. Going into the game the Brewers had a magic number of two to clinch the National League Central division, meaning they needed to win two games, or the second-place St. Louis Cardinals needed to lose two games, or some combination of the two.

The Brewers got on the board early on a solo home run by Prince Fielder in the second inning. The Marlins tied the game in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Bryan Peterson.

In the eighth inning Corey Hart doubled and Nyjer Morgan walked, bringing Ryan Braun to bat with two men on base. Braun worked Marlins pitcher Clay Hensley into a 3-1 count and sent the following pitch 431 feet into center field, putting the Brewers up 4-1.

"I think for me honestly, I live for that moment. You play the game to have the opportunity to play meaningful games down the stretch in September," Braun said after the game. "I truly expected to come through in that situation."

John Axford claimed his 44th save in the ninth inning to give the Brewers the victory.



With the Brewers' magic number reduced to just one, the Crew now looked to the Cubs/Cardinals matchup that was, at the time, in the eighth inning. 20 minutes later, the Cubs beat the Cardinals 5-1, ironically giving the Brewers their first NL Central division title since 1982.

The Brewers went on to beat the Marlins again on Saturday (6-4) and Sunday (9-5) to improve to 94-65 on the season. The Brewers' victory on Sunday gave the crew 55 wins at home in the 2011 season, a team record. The Brewers will also attempt to pick up their 95th win of the season on Monday night, which would tie the team record for most wins in a season.

Badgers

On Saturday the 7th ranked Wisconsin Badgers (4-0) faced off against the South Dakota Coyotes (2-2) at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.

After struggling in the first quarter, the Badgers exploded to end the first half and went on to steamroll the Coyotes 59-10.

Russell Wilson continued his dominance for the Badgers, completing 19 of 25 passes for 345 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Wilson found wide receiver Nick Toon seven times for a career-high 155 reception yards and two touchdowns. Jared Abbrederis also caught five passes for 101 yards and a touchdown.

Montee Ball amassed 15 carries for 88 yards and two touchdowns, and James White carried the ball 9 times for 95 yards and a score. As a team the Badgers collected 267 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns.



The Badgers finished out the non-conference schedule with their fourth straight win. They have outscored their non-conference opponents 194-34.

Wisconsin opens their Big Ten schedule next Saturday against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. ESPN College Gameday will come to Madison for the night game as the #7 and #8 teams face off.

Packers

The Packers traveled to Soldier Field on Sunday for a rematch of the 2010 NFC Championship Game against the Chicago Bears.

Green Bay opened the scoring in the first quarter when Aaron Rodgers found tight end Jermichael Finley for a  six yard touchdown pass. Rodgers found Finley again in the second quarter on a seven yard score to put the Packers up 14-0.

The Bears scored on a pass from Jay Cutler to Dane Sanzenbacher to make the score 14-7. Both teams added field goals near the end of the second quarter to make the score 17-10 at the half.

The Packers added another field goal in the third quarter, before going up 27-10 in the fourth on a third Rodgers/Finley connection, this time from from ten yards out.

The Bears scored again late in the fourth on a 32 yard pass to Kellen Davis to make the score 27-17. After a late-game punt return touchdown was called back on a penalty, the Bears were unable to mount a comeback and the Packers walked away with the victory.



Aaron Rodgers completed 28 of 38 attempts for 297 yards and 3 touchdowns, all to Jermichael Finley. Greg Jennings led all receivers with 9 receptions for 119 yards.

The packer defense held Chicago running back Matt Forte to just two yards on nine carries, and Morgan Burnett intercepted Jay Cutler twice.

The Packers return home next Sunday against the Denver Broncos (1-2).

Badgers Open Season In Style

The Wisconsin Badgers opened the 2011 NCAA season with a 51-17 routing of the UNLV Rebels on Thursday night.

The Badgers overpowered the Rebels in all facets of the game, accumulating 499 yards from scrimmage while limiting UNLV to less than 300 yards of offense.

Transfer quarterback Russell Wilson made the most of his Badger debut, completing 10 of 13 passes for 255 yards and two touchdowns, and rushing for 62 yards and a touchdown.

The running back tandem of Montee Ball and James White was stellar as well, as Ball rushed for 63 yards and three touchdowns and White ran for 64 yards and a score. Ball also caught 2 passes, one for a touchdown.

The Badgers play Oregon State next Saturday.

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.

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.