The last time Ohio State played Wisconsin, the Buckeyes’ beatdown broke the 2014 season
An upset of No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday in Madison would be a kind of redemption game for the Badgers.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
No. 13 Wisconsin entered the Big Ten Championship against No. 5 Ohio State with just two close losses on the season.
Ohio State had just one loss: a 35-21 upset against Virginia Tech. The Buckeyes had an outside chance at the College Football Playoff, but ranked behind TCU heading in, with Baylor close behind.
The result was one of the most impressive, eye-opening, and ruthless destructions in recent memory. Ohio State absolutely dismantled Wisconsin, winning 59-0.
The showing was so impressive, Playoff chairman Jeff Long would admit it boosted the Bucks into the Playoff over the Big 12 co-champs, whose conference lacked a title game, or “13th game” in Long’s terms.
OSU would go on to win the Playoff, which it might not’ve even gotten into if it’d only beaten Wisconsin by a few points.
The odds were stacked against the Buckeyes
Head coach Urban Meyer found himself down to his third-string quarterback, Cardale Jones, a virtual unknown at the time. Braxton Miller had suffered a season-ending shoulder injury before the season even began, and J.T. Barrett broke his ankle against Michigan.
But the Big Ten Championship marked just the beginning of the legend of Jones, one that would grow to unfathomable heights after the Buckeyes capped off 2014 with a National Championship Game victory over Oregon. Jones’ first outing was nothing short of masterful. Against Wisconsin, the game’s MVP was 12-of-17 passing for 237 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
Ohio State holds a 57-18-5 all-time record against UW, with only one Badgers win in the series since 2004, but this looked like Wisconsin’s chance to score a huge win against a weakened OSU. Nope.
Ohio State put up one of the most impressive displays by any team in years
- Running back Ezekiel Elliot in the first half alone had 12 carries for 150 yards and two touchdowns. He would finish with a career-high 220 yards.
- Wide receiver Devin Smith had just four receptions, but had 137 yards and three scores in those catches.
- The Buckeyes handed Wisconsin its worst loss since 1979. That one was another 59-0 rout from OSU. It was also the first shutout for the Badgers since 1997.
- In total, OSU managed 558 total yards against the Badgers defense, which ranked No. 2 nationally in yards per game going in.
“This is not Wisconsin football,” UW running back Melvin Gordon said following the loss. “This is not how we play. I’ve never been a part of anything like that. It’s tough. Since I’ve been at Wisconsin, we’ve never lost by this much. It’s an embarrassment.”
Badgers safety Michael Caputo added that a 59-point loss “hits you like a freight train.”
In fact, this was the best win by any team in the entire 2014 season.
SB Nation’s Bill Connelly touched on just how incredible this win was in his preview of the OSU’s 2015 season, using the Adjusted Scoring Margin stat:
Ohio State’s performance in the Big Ten title game was one of the season’s 10 100th-percentile performances, but that doesn’t do it justice.
Adjusted Scoring Margin is intended to tell us how a team would have fared in a given week against a perfectly average opponent with average breaks.
Top 10 performances of 2014 by Adj. Scoring Margin
1. Ohio State vs. Wisconsin (plus-86.5)
2. Alabama vs. Texas A&M (plus-72.8)
3. Arkansas vs. Nicholls State (plus-68.9)
OSU scored on five of its first six drives, racking up 31 points before Wisconsin realized the game had started. The Ohio State defense held Wisconsin’s prolific offense to 106 first-half yards, forced two turnovers, returned one of those turnovers for a touchdown, and held Melvin Gordon to just 76 yards, his lowest total against an FBS opponent all season.
What does this mean for Saturday’s game?
Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst wasn’t on the sidelines for the 59-0 loss, and the lineups on both sides are different.
Some Wisconsin and OSU players were asked about the 2014 game earlier this week.
“Obviously, we looked back to the last time we played them,” UW running back Corey Clement said, via the Wisconsin State Journal. “and it was a disgusting, disgraceful feeling that we had. It wasn’t the type of game that we looked forward to playing. Now, we’ve got another opportunity to reclaim who Wisconsin is versus Ohio State. This will be a fun matchup.”
OSU expects a motivated Badger team, as well.
“Oh man, 59-0, that would stick with me for a while if I got another chance to play them,” Ohio State linebacker Raekwon McMillan said, via the Dayton Daily News.“If I didn’t have another chance to play them, I would have to let it go. But we jumped on them early and had the momentum swing in the game. That was more what happened in that game. Hopefully, we can do the same in this game.”
Urban Meyer is taking this game extra seriously:
Ohio State enters this year’s game undefeated and as a 9.5-point favorite
According to S&P+, OSU’s offense is No. 1 at points per trip inside the 40-yard line, and it’s averaging 53 points per game. Meanwhile, the Buckeye defense is ranked seventh in S&P+, allowing just 11 points per game.
Wisconsin, although it lost to 14-7 at No. 5 Michigan two weeks ago, has looked good defensively — the Badgers are ranked sixth per S&P+. The offense is a different story, ranking 100th in the country by the same metric. The Badgers’ passing attack has been solid, though, ranking 13th.
The 59-0 final score in a Big Ten Championship isn’t one that people have forgotten, especially with how much the performance helped the Buckeyes get into the Playoff. History is a hard thing to get away from, especially in college football.
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