Wisconsin ends Nebraska’s undefeated season, and the Big Ten West could be chaos

No. 11 Wisconsin gave No. 7 Nebraska its first loss of the season Saturday night, triumphing 23-17 in overtime at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.

Wisconsin started the overtime period with the ball, and the Badgers quickly cashed in with a Dare Ogunbowale touchdown run. But Wisconsin kicker Andrew Endicott missed the extra point, meaning a Huskers touchdown and PAT would win the game.

That didn’t happen. The Badgers stood up the Huskers on their counter-possession, breaking up a fourth-down bid for the end zone from Tommy Armstrong Jr. to Stanley Morgan Jr. Safety D’Cota Dixon made the game-saving break-up.

The Badgers, finally, could breathe.

Nebraska still leads the Big Ten West with just one loss in the league, compared to two each for Wisconsin, Northwestern, Iowa, and Minnesota. But Huskers play a brutal road game at Ohio State next weekend, and it’s easy to see the West turning into a total logjam. That’ll be a fascinating race to watch in the season’s last month. Five teams are in the picture, though these two are right at the top.

The Badgers established the upper hand early on, and they played most of the game narrowly ahead, even as they shuffled between quarterbacks Alex Hornibrook and Bart Houston. A Hornibrook touchdown strike to Robert Wheelwright in the fourth quarter gave the Badgers a 10-point lead, their largest of the night, and forced Nebraska into a difficult climb uphill against one of the country’s best defenses.

The Huskers didn’t quit, though. Down 10, they mounted a 14-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a Tommy Armstrong Jr. touchdown run just after the start of the fourth quarter. Their defense firmed up, and a 35-yard Drew Brown field goal knotted the score at 17-all with 3:43 on the clock.

Wisconsin’s Endicott missed what would’ve been a go-ahead 45-yard field goal in the final two minutes of regulation. An ensuing Wisconsin defensive stop forced OT, just like one would later end OT and take Endicott off the hook.

They’re both the dominant collegiate presence in their Midwestern states. They both need to develop talent to win, because they don’t sit on particularly fertile recruiting ground. Athletic directors Barry Alvarez and Shawn Eichorst used to work, in various capacities, at the other guy’s school. Their uniforms look alike, and so on.

Technically, their series dates back to 1901, but Wisconsin and Nebraska have only played 11 times now. When the Big Ten put them together in a newly formed West division in 2014, they started playing for the Freedom Trophy, which Wisconsin claimed back-to-back to start things off.

There’s not a ton of history here, but it’s easy to see how Nebraska and Wisconsin could eventually have a pretty serious rivalry. This year was a continuation of that.