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GREEN BAY, WIS – Turnovers have a funny way of telling the story of a football game. That old adage rang true during the Carmex Lambeau Field College Classic on Saturday afternoon.
A pair of Bart Houston interceptions swung a 13-0 Badgers lead to a 14-13 deficit, but it was a fourth quarter Rafael Gaglianone field goal and a LSU turnover in the final minute that gave the Badgers a memorable 16-14 win over the No. 6-ranked Tigers in front of 77,823 fans.
It was LSU’s first loss in a season opener since 2002 (a 26-8 defeat at the hands of Virginia Tech), while Wisconsin got off to a 1-0 start to its season for the first time in three years.
After dominating the first quarter on the stat sheet, Wisconsin appeared poised to score as the second quarter opened up. However, after leading UW on a 13-play, 56-yard drive down the LSU 10-yard line he threw in to coverage in the end zone and was picked off.
Houston opened up the game on fire, going 6-8 for 63 yards in the first quarter, but he couldn’t read the over-under coverage in the end zone and threw an ill-advised pass right in to the arms of free safety Rickey Jefferson.
Wisconsin returned the favor a few series later, with the UW defense creating another golden opportunity by recovering a fumble inside the LSU 40-yard line. This time Houston and Co. would not let the opportunity slip through their fingers.
Mistakes once again cost the Badgers seven points, but Rafael Gaglianone opened the scoring with a 30-yard field goal with 4:13 to play to put Wisconsin up 3-0. The field goal capped off a 9-play, 24-yard drive that only stalled out thanks to a badly timed time out and Clement slipping in the backfield on a would-be touchdown.
In a fitting end to the first half, Derrick Tindal picked off a deep Brandon Harris pass and the Badgers secured a 6-0 lead going in to the break.
It was more of the same for the Badgers defense to open the second half, stuffing Fournette on the opening series and forcing another shanked punt from LSU’s Josh Growden.
Wisconsin’s offense took advantage of its opening drive of the half. Most of it coming from Clement, who busted loose a few times and gave the Badgers their opening touchdown of the 2016 season with a 5-yard run just over the goal line to put UW up 13-0 with 10:55 to play in the third quarter.
Clement picked up 27 of Wisconsin’s 58 yards on the 5-play drive that took just 1:56 off the clock.
After bottling up Fournette for the first half, the Heisman Trophy hopeful busted loose in response to Clement’s impressive drive. He got his first big carries of the game on the ensuing drive, with a long of 30 yards before they took the ball out of his hands.
With an opportunity to tack on some insurance, the Badgers faltered. Facing 3rd-and-4 on his own 10, Houston tossed his second interception of the game. This one fell into the hands of Tre’Davious White, who returned it 21 yards for a score.
On the following drive, the turnover bug bit Bucky once again. Houston connected with George Rushing for what would have been a first down on a 3rd-and-9. However, Rushing was stripped of the ball and the Tigers recovered.
Just two plays later, LSU was in the end zone and in the lead for the first time. Harris connected with Fournette for a 31-yard strike on a wheel route. That set up on 10-yard scoring pass to Travin Dural, making it 14-13 in favor of the Tigers.
That score held until the 3:47 mark of the fourth quarter, when Gaglianone dealt the decisive blow with a 47-yard field goal , his third of the game.
With one timeout remaining, LSU started its final push on its own 25. Five plays later, the Tigers were threatening with a fresh set of downs and the ball on the Wisconsin 30.
A false start penalty pushed LSU back five yards. On the following play, Harris was able to escape the pressure of Vince Biegel. Rolling left, Harris fired the ball downfield, right into the arms of UW’s D’Cota Dixon.
“He dodged extremely well,” LSU head coach Les Miles said of Harris’ effort. “He was getting sacked and really got out of the grasp of the defender. but then he didn’t make the play he wanted to make, that is for sure.”
Following the play, Dixon got up and began running down the field to celebrate. He was promptly met by LSU lineman Josh Boutte who unleashed a high hit, sending Dixon straight to the turf. The late contact was flagged as a flagrant personal foul and resulted in Boutte’s ejection.
“I’ll have to see the film,” Miles said. “It’s very logical that he did not even know the guy had gone down and was just running. If you just came up on a guy who you thought was running the ball, you’d make the tackle. He’s not a malicious guy. I just can’t imagine he saw the guy go down and then he went and made the tackle.”
Vince Biegel and the Badgers didn’t have much in the way of a response to the hit. Instead, Biegel let us in on his favorite blitz call that led to the events that killed off the game for his team.
“Yeah, Justin (Wilcox) radioed in my favorite blitz call,” said Biegel. “It’s called a ‘Psycho Track’ and I came inside the tackle and I was surprised I was unblocked. I actually thought it was a screen at first because I was unblocked so much, but give credit to No. 6, he’s a very shifty quarterback. He ended up escaping my grasp and made a pass that fell right into D’Cota (Dixon)’s lap. Give D’Cota the credit, he was exactly where he was supposed to be at the right time. We’re not going to discuss what happened after the play. We’re happy to get a win today and move forward.”
While the focus for Wisconsin’s offense will be on Houston’s turnovers, his budding relationship with tight end Troy Fumagalli gave hope that UW has a consistent passing game in the fold.
Fumagalli finished with a career-high seven receptions for 100 yards, becoming the first Badgers tight end to get to the 100-yard mark since Lance Kendricks against Austin Peay in 2010.
Houston, while far from perfect, also showed he could be the type of quarterback this team needs — finishing the game 19 of 31 passing for 205 yards and the two interceptions.
“The one thing is that there were a lot of questions thrown out about this team,” said head coach Paul Chryst following the game. “We’ve only played one game, we didn’t answer them all, but the one thing I have been telling Justin (Wilcox) and Jimmy (Leonhard), two new coaches, I said ‘the one thing you’ll like about this group of guys, they’ll be ready to play.’ I thought that guys were ready.”
The post Wisconsin Badgers outlast LSU to take Lambeau Field Classic 16-14 appeared first on Madtown Badgers.
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