Prior to Friday night, the Western Michigan Broncos and Wisconsin Badgers only met five times in history. Yet, this matchup will always hold significant meaning to Western Michigan for one reason — it was the Cotton Bowl matchup to conclude Western Michigan’s prolific 2016 season which featured a MAC championship and an unblemished 13-0 start.
Wisconsin served as the opponent for Western Michigan’s most important game in program history, and the Badgers effectively concluded the Broncos’ bid at perfection, bathing in confetti after emerging in a 24-16 wire-to-wire result. Friday night at Camp Randall Stadium signified the first meeting between the Cotton Bowl participants since that fateful January afternoon, and the Broncos were eyeing to slay a giant that their best team in history couldn’t quite conquer eight seasons ago.
Although the numbers on the scoreboard Friday produced greater separation than the previous matchup in Arlington, TX, the Broncos were closer to pulling off an illustrious victory in the rematch. However, several miscues down the stretch allowed Wisconsin to escape with a 28-14 victory in Madison.
“I was really proud for our team tonight and how they fought for 60 minutes,” Western Michigan head coach Lance Taylor said. “We’ve got to learn how to finish, but I think you learn more in defeat than sometimes you do in victory, and it’s only failure if you don’t learn from it. I’m proud of the men in that locker room. There’s some things that we can clean up to get better and we will.”
The turning point transpired with 12 minutes remaining in the contest. Western Michigan established its first lead of the season several plays after Camp Randall Stadium partook in its “Jump Around” tradition to launch the fourth quarter. The jumping quickly halted as Western Michigan running back Jalen Buckley punched in his second touchdown of the night to claim a 14-13 advantage. Then the Bronco defense rode that momentum by producing a seemingly-pivotal stop, sending Wisconsin’s punt team onto the turf for the first and only time all night.
That punt turned out to be the best thing to happen to the Badgers. Atticus Bertrams’ punt landed deep in WMU territory and then bounced backward in the opposite direction of return man Jordin Parker. The pigskin then collided with Western Michigan cornerback DaShon Bussell after an odd ricochet, and Wisconsin pounced on the live ball at the 20-yard line.
“The ball got caught up in the lights and I don’t think Jordin got a great jump on it,” Taylor said. “He didn’t feel like he could field it cleanly so he made a decision we tell our returners to do — if you feel like you’re gonna put the ball on the ground, don’t put it in jeopardy. Then he’s just got to do a better job of pointing where the ball is because the guys who are blocking for him don’t know when the ball’s on the ground. They’re engaged with their block so obviously Bussell is playing the play and he’s not watching the play which is what we ask him to do. It was an unfortunate bounce. We had all the momentum at that point.”
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Four plays later, Badger running back Tawee Walker trucked a defender en route to the end zone and Wisconsin never looked back.
Western Michigan still received an opportunity to tie or take the lead, trailing by seven after the special teams disaster, but the Badgers stuffed a 4th and 1 handoff at midfield. Wisconsin rode its own wave of momentum for the remainder of the game after the pivotal punt, and the Badgers maneuvered their way back to the end zone with a game-sealing touchdown with 3:17 to go.
“You’ve got to create some energy and momentum,” Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell said. “It’s not because a ball hit off their leg but that’s one thing that does happen in the ballgame, and that’s the way we created that energy and momentum, and you felt a shift from there.”
Everything continued to unravel for the visitors after Wisconsin established its first multi-score lead. Wisconsin collected its first sack and first interception of the contest in those final three minutes and 17 seconds of clock, gaining a clear edge over Western Michigan after the teams were engaged in three-plus quarters of tightly-contested football.
“We’ve harped upon the fourth quarter and it came down to that,” Fickell said. “I’ve got to give (Western Michigan) a lot of credit. They came in with a plan and they did a pretty good job of sticking to the plan. I don’t know that we did enough to adapt and adjust their plan as the game got really methodical and it was very unique at halftime as you’re sitting there in a 10-7 game and you’re curious how you’re gonna create some energy and momentum.”
Perhaps the most promising aspect of a heartbreaking result for Western Michigan was its bend don’t break defense. The Broncos never yielded a single play that spanned more than 17 yards all right, remaining especially potent against the run — preventing any Wisconsin scamper from eclipsing 12 yards. Playing a contain-style defense was a strategy of Western Michigan’s, but its success was even more impressive considering the sheer amount of plays the Badgers ran.
“A lot of preparation and planning went into that,” Taylor said. “That was something Coach Power and I talked about a bunch this offseason that I talked to our defensive staff about was limiting explosive plays, playing bend but don’t break. I thought they did an excellent job. They were very well prepared. Other than not wrapping up on some tackles, I thought defensively we played really well.”
Wisconsin pierced into the red zone on each of its first four possessions, but the Badgers only mustered up 13 points from those drives. The first two drives lasted 16 plays and the next two lasted 14. But upon reaching the red zone, Western Michigan’s defense consistently entered another gear to generate stops. However, Wisconsin’s two red zone field goals felt incredibly relieving to the Badgers considering both transpired shortly after dropped interceptions by the Broncos.
“When it’s close games, it comes down to two or three plays and that’s what it came down tonight,” Western Michigan outside linebacker Boone Bonnema said. “We didn’t execute on those plays and we didn’t get the result we wanted, but I’m incredibly proud of the effort and the attitude and toughness that we showed throughout the entire game. There were a couple plays down there where we dropped a couple picks that led to some points for Wisconsin. It’s not one single person, one single play, but when it comes to close games, those plays matter.”
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The Broncos didn’t stop the Badgers prior to the red zone until the waning minutes of the third quarter. Defensive tackle Isaiah Green was instrumental in this sequence, recording Western Michigan’s only sack of the game and two plays later, landing a shoestring tackle on Wisconsin quarterback Tyler Van Dyke to prevent a massive pickup in the open field. Van Dyke coughed the ball up while falling to the ground and Western Michigan recovered.
“Those were two huge plays for us and he’s done an excellent job,” Taylor said of Green’s sequence. “The buy-in from our guys and the commitment has been excellence. Isaiah’s one of those guys who’s matured so much since he’s been here and really taken that next step in a leadership role, and I think that’s what we have right now is a group of guys who want to take ownership in what we’re doing, they believe in what we’re doing, and they’re bought in.”
Western Michigan capitalized on the first takeaway of the night by executing the special teams play of the night. On 4th and 6 from the Wisconsin 30, the Broncos ran an LSU Colt David-style fake field goal as holder Ryan Millmore tossed the ball behind his head to kicker Palmer Domschke. Domschke unleashed an impressive set of wheels, sprinting 26 yards inside the 5-yard line to set up the go-ahead touchdown.
“That was awesome. That’s something that we’ve been practicing for the past couple weeks,” Bonnema said. “Actually, I’ve ran that exact same play on NCAA the video game. And Palmer’s not slow in the game. So if NCAA’s watching this interview, you guys need to up his speed because he can run. I think he runs like a 4.5, 4.6 40, so he can move.”
Although the Broncos were close to the upset bid by generating a brief fourth quarter lead, they ultimately received the result of 0-1 after the fourth quarter Wisconsin takeover, dropping their seventh consecutive non-conference FBS matchup. The road in the near future doesn’t get any easier as Western Michigan prepares to battle No. 2 Ohio State in Columbus in Week 2. Still, the Broncos nearly registered an upset in front of 80,000 in Big Ten country, inspiring confidence in what this team is capable of accomplishing.
“I saw a lot of things out there tonight that gave me confidence, gave the team confidence, gave the coaches confidence that we can be a great team this year,” Bonnema said. “Our goal is to go win a MAC championship. Tonight’s loss didn’t affect that result at all. We’re still undefeated in MAC, so we’re gonna learn from this, we’re gonna put it to bed, and then we’ve got a big game next week versus Ohio State, so we’re gonna prepare for that.”
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