The Wisconsin Badgers trail the No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers 10-7 in a close game at halftime, finding a way to maintain the latter’s explosive offense by controlling the clock.
Wisconsin came out with a 13-play drive that took up over seven minutes of clock, but Nathanial Vakos missed an opening-drive field goal for the second consecutive game.
Indiana responded with a nine-play touchdown drive, but the Badgers defense found a way to rally from there. Wisconsin forced back-to-back punts near midfield, getting some pressure on Heisman contender Fernando Mendoza, while limiting the run game after some early struggles.
Offensively, quarterback Carter Smith had his first career touchdown pass on an excellent 4th & 1 play-action playcall from offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes. Grimes has done a phenomenal job keeping things simple for Smith, finding ways to get the ball out of his hands quickly and getting the run game going to an extent.
Wisconsin is firmly in this game at 10-7, but the big question remains whether its offense can produce enough to get another miracle one week after upsetting the No. 23 Washington Huskies 13-10.
The Badgers defense will be crucial, and may need to force a huge turnover as they did last weekend, but we’ve got a ball game in Bloomington after one half.
Stay tuned as our second-half game thread is officially open!
