The Badgers had Penn State right where they wanted them.
Players hyped up the student section as they headed into the locker room at halftime, leading 10-7. Running back Tawee Walker had just scored a go-ahead touchdown with less than two minutes remaining in the half.
But everything changed in the second half.
The Wisconsin defense forced a punt with just under eight minutes left in the third quarter, and its offense got the ball at their own 12-yard line. Quarterback Braedon Locke handed the ball off to Walker on first and second down, but he was stopped by Penn State’s defensive front behind the line of scrimmage.
On a third and long from inside the 10-yard-line, the Nittany Lions took a pick-six to the house to take a game-changing 14-10 lead.
Locke did the one thing he shouldn’t have done: throw a costly interception. After having a clean first half, he threw a pass directly to safety Jaylen Reed, who took Locke’s gift straight into the endzone. That turnover completely changed the narrative of the game. A once-roaring student section suddenly became quieter than Memorial Library.
A demoralized defense no longer had answers for Penn State’s offense. After Wisconsin’s offense scored a field goal to cut their deficit to just one point, the Nittany Lions ran away with the game. They scored touchdowns on their next two possessions, putting the game out of reach for the Badgers. Wisconsin fans left Camp Randall stadium defeated, wondering how they let that one slip through their fingers.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t take advantage of obviously an incredible atmosphere and crowd and things like that to finish the thing off and be able to execute when it counts the most,” head coach Luke Fickell said in a postgame interview.
The disastrous ending against Penn State wasn’t the first time Wisconsin has struggled in the second half against a tough opponent this season. They blew a 21-10 halftime lead against the USC Trojans, a game they had within their grasp. They were competitive against Alabama until the final two minutes of the first half before the Crimson Tide ran away with the game in the third quarter.
These second-half woes have been the Badgers’ kryptonite in these big games. They seemingly cannot finish the job when they have the chance to put their opponents in a chokehold. If Fickell and the Badgers want to beat the best, they need to tighten things up in the third and fourth quarters.
The Badgers need to win one more game to clinch a bowl game and keep their bowl streak alive. But their schedule does not get any easier down the stretch.
Wisconsin has a primetime matchup against Iowa in Iowa City on Saturday, followed by a matchup with the No. 1 Oregon Ducks in Madison. After that, they play Nebraska on the road before closing out the season with the ‘Battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe’ against Minnesota at Camp Randall.
This will be no cakewalk. Wisconsin will have to play cleaner football in the second half from this point forward because these Big Ten opponents will take advantage of the Badgers’ mistakes.
Fickell’s Badgers will look to get back on track this Saturday night against Iowa.
Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.
