Badgers Earn Last-minute Victory Over Huskies, 24-21
September 14, 2002 | Football
Led by quarterback Brooks Bollinger's two touchdown runs, the Wisconsin football team pulled out a 24-21 decision in the closing minutes of Saturday's game against Northern Illinois at Camp Randall Stadium.
The Badgers rallied back from a four-point deficit with two minutes left on the clock. Wisconsin marched 50 yards down the field on a six-play scoring drive capped by Bollinger's two-yard touchdown run. The Huskie defense helped the Badgers along in the game-winning drive with two interference calls, a set of errors that proved fatal to Northern Illinois.
'I'm very pleased with the win,' Wisconsin head coach Barry Alvarez said. 'To be honest with you, I really felt Northern Illinois outplayed us on both sides of the ball. I felt we were on our heels all day.
'Yet we did win and I have to give our players credit ... There was no quit in them, they kept battling and found a way to win and I'm proud of them. I'm not very pleased with the way we played and I know we've got to get better.'
Defense ruled a game that saw the Huskies sack Bollinger 10 times for 71 lost yards, while the Badgers damaged Northern Illinois quarterback Josh Haldi with five sacks for 33 lost yards. However, the Wisconsin duo of R. J. Morse and Scott Campbell helped the Badgers stay in the game. Morse averaged 41.6 yards on nine attempts with four of those punts pinning the Huskies inside their own 20-yard line. Teammate Campbell scored six points for the Badgers today with three extra-points and one field goal.
Northern Illinois opened up scoring at 6:33 in the first period after Steve Azar cleared the uprights for the first of his three field goals and the 3-0 lead. With just under seven minutes to play in the half, Ryan Aeillo sacked Haldi and jarred the ball loose. Anttaj Hawthorne recovered, setting up Bollinger's first TD run.
Haldi and the Huskies came back in their next drive for a second Azar field goal after capitalizing on their combo of tailback Michael Turner and receiver Sam Hurd. Turner finished the day with 34 carries for 160 yards, while Hurd had eight catches for 161 yards on the day. The Badgers maintained their lead heading into the halftime break after Campbell secured his own field goal with three seconds left in the half.
Following the break, Azar completed his third field goal on their first drive of the second half to cut Wisconsin's lead back to one point. But after being held to six carries for minus-1 yard in the first half, Anthony Davis and the Badger offense took advantage of an interception by strong safety Jim Leonhard, his fourth of the season, to bring the ball back into Huskie territory. Davis picked up his only touchdown of the game off a nine-yard carry on third-and-one, giving Wisconsin a 17-9 lead.
The Huskies roared back in the fourth with back-to-back touchdown runs by Turner, but Haldi failed in both of his attempts for the two-point conversion on those scoring drives. After Bollinger's second touchdown, the Badger defense ensured Wisconsin its fourth straight victory of the season. Defensive end Darius Jones cemented the win for the Badgers, sacking Haldi twice in NIU's last-gasp drive.
September 14, 2002
Wisconsin vs. Northern Illinois
Head Coach Barry Alvarez Post-Game Quotes
Opening Statement
'I'm very pleased with the win. To be honest with you, I really felt Northern Illinois outplayed us on both sides of the ball. I felt we were on our heels all day. Give them a lot of credit and I felt those kids played extremely hard, their coaches did a great job of game planning and preparing. I feel very fortunate to walk out of here with a win. Yet we did win and I have to give our players credit. Thought Brooks did a tremendous job on that last series, thought our defense had a hold when we had to punt the ball away with three minutes left, our defense had a hold. Our kicking team forced a hold to give us better field position and then we were able to take it down the field and I think that says a lot about the character of this football team. There was no quit in them, they kept battling and found a way to win and I'm proud of them. I'm not very pleased with the way we played and I know we've got to get better.'
Good teams use opportunities to find a way to win. Are you that type of team'
'I wouldn't say we're a good team right now. But I do know this, at the end of the year any good team that I've played with at the end of the year there have been some games that you've played poorly. And you're lucky to walk off the field. And I think anybody that ever goes through a season'I'm sure if you ask Miami last year they felt very fortunate walking off the field against Boston College. You can go through those. In 1988 at Notre Dame we won the national championship, we beat Miami, broke their long winning streak and we fought tooth and nail to beat a 1-10 Navy team and felt lucky to walk out of there with a win. It happens. I'm not saying we're a good team, I just know we 've got four wins right now. Our kids know that they didn't play well and I think that they'll tell you that. We've got a lot of things to correct, I think our attitude is good and hopefully we can correct it.'
Talk about the team overcoming adversity and showing poise late in the game:
'I just thought they knew what they had to do to win and I just felt like even though they had the lead, our defense went in there determined to get the ball back. They did. Our punt return team did the same thing. Did what they had to do 'Alex Lewis, we had a one man pressure on that and he forced his personal protector to hold him, 15 yard penalty against them and kicking out of the end zone. I think he hurried that next kick'Then the offense showing the poise to move down the field. I just like that. They knew what they had to do to win and were able to execute it.'
September 14, 2002
Wisconsin vs. Northern Illinois
Wisconsin Player Post-Game Quotes
Senior wide receiver David Braun on the huddle during the final possession:
'We all just looked each other in the eye and said, `We need to get this done.' We have to get the ball down the field and score, otherwise we are going to lose this game.'
Senior wide receiver David Braun on the character of the team:
'I think we just know how to win games. I think today showed it. No one is going to say we played a great game, but somehow we won the game and in the end that is all that counts.'
Sophomore defensive back Scott Starks on the slow start today:
'We came out kind of slow and we never really did pick it up. We played rather sloppy. All in all we did get the win. It wasn't pretty, but we did get it.'
Sophomore defensive back Scott Starks on the Northern Illinois' intensity:
'I was not surprised at all because we all know that coming from the MAC Conference that they would come out fired up.'
Freshman fullback Matt Bernstein on the game:
"We did not play as we should have played, and everyone could see it. With our offense we are looking to put up more points than we did.'
Freshman fullback Matt Bernstein on the running game:
"It is hard to know we are a running team and we had a real tough time running. That is something we are going to have to work on in practice this week and we will be back to were we were."
Freshman fullback Matt Bernstein on the character of the team:
It shows us that we know how to win. It came down to the last minute and our defense held them. We scored on the last drive and it just shows our team that we have character and we can win games.
September 14, 2002
Wisconsin vs. Northern Illinois
NIU Head Coach Joe Novak Post-Game Quotes
Novak on the Game:
'I don't know. I am not going to talk about officiating. I never criticize officials because simply they are closer than I am. So I don 't know. But there was some awful bad timing on some of those penalties. The holding on the punt'in 34 years of coaching, I don't know if I have ever seen that one before and that was pretty critical. But they might have been calls too. I am not sitting here whining and crying. But for a team that is not penalized very often we sure had a lot.'
Novak on his team:
'We went in there without six kids that started against Wake Forest. Six of them. Two of them were captains. Should of won the football game. They played good enough to win. You bet they did. You go up and look at those kids eyes. '
Novak on the most critical penalty:
'Well, we had some even in the first half too that were you know' and we turned it over too. We turned it over four times, and that is too bad. We had a nice reverse and fumbled it going down in there. And we can't do that. We killed ourselves too. And that is a good football team too we played. '
