Whenever Wisconsin and Iowa get together, it’s rarely pretty. At the end of the game, however, the scoreboard looked like a supermodel to the visiting team from Madison.
The Badgers jumped out to a 16-3 halftime, then extended it to 19-3 with 5:33 left in the third quarter. The Hawkeyes, though, refused to rollover as they scored 21 of the next 28 points to pull to within two at 26-24 with just over five minutes remaining.
However, the Hawkeyes, down a controversial timeout that was taken from them by the officials, could not stop the Badgers on the last drive of the game, with UW picking up a pair of first downs to bleed the remaining five minutes off the clock and secure the 26-24 win.
Melvin Gordon, who saw the rushing record he set a week ago broken this afternoon, ran for an even 200 yards and two touchdowns on the game. Gordon now has 2,109 yards on the season, tying the single-season Big Ten record set by Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne in 1996. He’s also the 17th player in FBS history to surpass the 2,000-yard mark in a single season
Interestingly, Gordon was also the Badgers’ leading receiver as he caught four passes for 64 yards, both career-highs. His 10-yard touchdown reception late in the fourth quarter proved to be the difference in the game.
With the win and Minnesota’s dropping of Nebraska, UW set up a Week 14 play-in game to the Big Ten championship game. The Badgers will play host to the Gophers next Saturday, with the winner representing the West in the conference title game against East winner Ohio State.