Wisconsin’s Defense Is Up to the Challenge

If not for a commendable effort by Wisconsin’s defense Saturday in its 17-9 Rose Bowl victory over Stanford, Badger cornerback Jamar Fletcher might have had to eat his words--and no amount of seasoning would have masked the bitterness.

When Fletcher heard last week All-American wide receiver Troy Walters had an injured wrist and probably would not play, Fletcher professed disappointment at being deprived of a chance to measure himself against the best. When Walters did play, Fletcher faced the possibility of having his wish come back to haunt him.

Instead, Fletcher took Walters’ presence as a personal challenge--and as the rest of the Badger defense did, met that challenge well.

“That pumped me up that much more, seeing him play,” Fletcher said. “I was already pumped.”

Wisconsin’s defense didn’t quite measure up statistically to last season’s Rose Bowl championship team, but this season’s edition played well when it counted Saturday in holding the Cardinal to a Rose Bowl team-record minus-five yards rushing and its lowest point total of the season. Walters made three catches for 52 yards, all in the first half, while the Badgers struggled to find their rhythm offensively and defensively.

“Walters is a great football player. He came out and played hard,” said Fletcher, who was matched against Walters on virtually all of Stanford’s offensive plays. “But it’s not like he’s tough to cover.

“We were able to stop the running game, and that allows you to do some things, knowing they were going to pass. We believed we could play like this, because we knew all along we had one of the best defenses in the country. . . .

“Now Wisconsin is on the map. People are starting to believe we’re a pretty good team.”

They knew they were better than they showed in the first half, which ended with Stanford leading, 9-3.

“We felt it was our ballgame to win,” left end Ross Kolodziej said. “We were kind of disappointed in ourselves, but we knew we had 30 minutes more to come out and play the best half of our lives.”

They did it with the formula that has long been the foundation of success for Big Ten teams: physical, punishing defense that focuses on blunting an opponent’s running game.

“We know they’re going to pass, because they can’t run, and we stuffed it,” defensive end Wendell Bryant said.

There was nothing fancy about it, nothing artful. What mattered was that it worked, and never better than on Stanford’s final possession, after the Cardinal moved the ball to Wisconsin’s 46-yard line. Stanford quarterback Todd Husak was sacked twice in that sequence, the final time on fourth and 12 with slightly more than a minute to play.

“They got their yards here and there, but we stuck it out,” said Bryant, who played a prominent role a year ago in stopping a last-possession drive by UCLA when he sacked quarterback Cade McNown to clinch the Badgers’ 38-31 victory.

“I think that last drive [Saturday] really showed what our team is all about. We showed some character. . . .People say, ‘You’re the favorite, you’re supposed to do this and do that.’ But they’re a good football team, or they wouldn’t be here. Hopefully, now our defense will get a little respect. We know in our hearts we’re a good football team.”

Stanford knows it too, and Cardinal Coach Tyrone Willingham praised the Badgers’ defense for shutting down his team’s running game and limiting its offensive options.

“It was kind of consistent, and not just in the second half,” he said. “We had a lot of problems with their down linemen. They played a lot better than we had seen them before. They did not allow us to do a lot of things we like to do.”

Said Wisconsin linebacker Chris Ghidorzi: “We were able to shut them down because we could read them and know a little bit about what they were doing. We pretty much knew what they were going to do in certain formations, and we talked at halftime that we had to step it up. We made some big plays, and we had a great second half. Everyone was on the same page.”

That page is in the Rose Bowl record book, as the first Big Ten team to win the Rose Bowl in consecutive seasons.

“That’s so special,” said linebacker and co-captain Donnel Thompson, who battled the pain of a twisted left ankle to make three tackles and assist on two others. “You think of Ohio State and Penn State, and they were never able to do it two years in a row. Last year was great, and I guess it’s a tossup which is better, that one or this one. Maybe I’d have to go with this one, because this is my senior year.

“This is a dream come true. This is a great way to go out.”