Wisconsin's first play
On the Badgers' very first snap from scrimmage, Montee Ball set the tone for the entire afternoon, ripping off a 44-yard run that looked really easy.
First of all, Purdue's defensive tackles, Bruce Gaston and Brandon Taylor, were simply pummeled off the line of scrimmage, while end Gerald Gooden was forced inside, his back to the play as Ball ran off tackle right behind him. There, linebacker Will Lucas was waiting, but got occupied by a pulling lineman, allowing Ball into the second and third levels of the defense.
Josh Johnson and Logan Link could only dive at Ball's ankles as he sped through a hole and into the open, as middle linebacker Dwayne Beckford was held up (maybe literally) by a lineman, the two of them getting in Joe Holland's way and taking him out of the play, too.
Albert Evans gave chase, but may have gotten slowed up some by the official in his path. Wouldn't have mattered. Ricardo Allen finally ran Ball down from behind, lunging at his ankles from behind to haul him down inside the Purdue 20.
The rest of the day, though, was more of the same.
Wisconsin's first TD
After Ball's run, Wisconsin's dominant red-zone offense finished the job with Russell Wilson's short TD pass to tight end Jacob Pedersen in the back of the end zone.
On second-and-goal from the 2, Wilson faked a stretch handoff to Ball toward the right side. It was there from which safety Albert Evans came on a blitz off the edge, allowing Jacob Pedersen to run free off the line of scrimmage toward the back of the zone.
Before Evans got to Wilson, he was tripped up by Ball in pass protection, giving Wilson the extra second he needed to look back to his left and hit Pedersen in front of Allen and over the top of both linebacker Will Lucas and defensive end Gerald Gooden, who'd dropped into coverage on fellow tight end Jake Byrne.
Wilson didn't really have time to set his feet to throw, but he didn't need it. So many of his throws are just all arm and this easy throw was no exception.
Mostert's first return
Credit Crosby Wright, Brandon Cottom and Justin Sinz for all throwing good blocks to allow for the initial hole Raheem Mostert ran through on his 70-yard return.
That allowed Mostert to get to the sideline, where he was aided along by Chris Quinn pancaking a guy and Joe Holland and Reggie Pegram combining to swallow up another. That left the kicker, who Mostert beat easily at the Purdue 40, cutting inside at close to full speed.
The brief hesitation, though, Mostert needed to clear the kicker, gave three Badgers a moment to gain ground and they finally got in front of him and brought him down at the Wisconsin 40 or so.
Crosby Wright's TD
Credit Purdue for making the play, but something went very wrong for Wisconsin in allowing the Purdue tight end to be uncovered, resulting in his 30-yard TD.
Out of the shotgun, Caleb TerBush took the snap and faked a handoff to Ralph Bolden, then looked over the middle, a pretty standard quick-passing play Purdue's run a bunch this season.
Wright came off the line, as linebackers Chris Borland and Kevin Claxton stood flat-footed as if biting on the run fake. There was no one behind them.
Wright caught the ball at about the 17 and probably could have moonwalked into the end zone if he wanted to, though that probably would have been a penalty. The throw was behind him, but Wright had no trouble turning slightly to catch it.
Wisconsin did not blitz on the play, so it's difficult to tell what happened, beside the play fake working. A safety was leaning toward the sideline, accounting for Justin Siller.
TerBush's pass did just barely clear the outstretched hands of Borland, who leaped to challenge it.
Mostert's second return
After Wisconsin went up 14-7, Mostert struck again, with a 75-yard return.
This time he ran to the opposite side of the field.
This time, Cottom got just enough of his guy to spin him around so that when he was in position to meet Mostert in the hole, he was off-balance and backwards.
Wright threw a key block, and Mostert made the play happen by squeezing between kicker Philip Welch and Derek Landisch, breaking each player's tackle, then running east-west away from Derek Watt, allowing Tommie Thomas time to get out in front of him to get a hand on Derek Straus. But the traffic caused by that one last block stalled the return out just shy of the end zone.
Wilson's TD run
Wilson's scoring run on second-and-goal from Purdue's 5 following TerBush's first interception is not one Gerald Gooden will want to remember.
Out of an offset I, Wilson took a snap from under center and faked a handoff to Ball headed right. The QB then snapped back left on a naked bootleg, running past Gooden undetected. The defensive end was completely turned around by the play fake and actually didn't move until Wilson was a third of the width of the field away, running unthreatened into the end zone.
And for good measure, when Gooden did turn around, offensive tackle Ricky Wagner was right there to hit him.
It wasn't just Gooden, though. The whole defense bit hard on the misdirection. Replay shows that at the moment Wilson makes the turn toward the end zone, every defensive player on that side of the field is looking away from him.
Need we go on?
