Wisconsin and Nebraska played a Madison night game classic on Saturday resulting in a 23-17 overtime win for Wisconsin. They survived so much in this game from special teams errors, quarterback mediocrity and playing with more backups than usual. Badgers put themselves back in the race for the Big Ten West title, and the gauntlet has almost reached the finish line. Wisconsin will be part of the conversation for the playoffs. The only question is how high? More to come on that tomorrow. tat

Badgers have two bad quarterbacks – I shouldn’t say Alex Hornibrook is bad, but he’s not there yet as a starting quarterback. Bart Houston throws too many interceptions, but he does some nice things to keep the ball moving down the field. Wisconsin has to sort out their issues at quarterback if they want to keep this up in the month of November. At some point, you have to pick a quarterback and ride with him. My guess is this will be the last game that we see both quarterbacks play such a prominent role.

Jacobs and Connelly fill in well for Cichy – Loved what I saw from Leon Jacobs and Ryan Connelly at middle linebacker. Both players made big plays down the stretch to keep Wisconsin in this football game. Connelly made the tackle of the game on a second down run in overtime where he shot the gap and pulled down Terrell Newby by the ankle. Jacobs is one of the best examples of ‘for the team’ guys, and it’s good to see he’s finally getting a major opportunity.

Special teams is a disaster – Andrew Endicott missed a game-winning field goal from 32 yards out then he missed an extra point in overtime. Wisconsin was very close to losing this football game due Endicott’s miscues. Not sure what Chryst can do moving forward with the field goal unit. No one is going to come in from campus and be a solid kicker. It didn’t cost Wisconsin this week, but it’s going to hurt them at some point in the season.

Ryan Field demons – Not to look ahead, but Wisconsin heads to Ryan Field next week where they haven’t been successful in the past. Badgers haven’t won there since 1999. It will be a major storyline for the week as well as the screw job last year in Camp Randall which resulted in a Wildcats victory. There’s a mutual respect between the teams, but this is a game that Wisconsin will want badly.

Charlie.