Davis, UW Rush by Illinois, 24-7
October 02, 2004 | Football
Tailback Anthony Davis scored three touchdowns in leading the University of Wisconsin 's 20th/20th-ranked football team to a 24-7 victory over Illinois in a Big Ten Conference game Saturday afternoon at Camp Randall Stadium.
After a three-game absence due to an eye injury, Davis made a triumphant return, running 27 times for 213 yards. He also led the Badgers (5-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) in catches, hauling in three passes for 37 yards.
Wisconsin's defense did not give up more than seven points for the fifth consecutive contest, and it allowed the Illini (2-3, 0-2) just 206 yards of offense, including 42 on the ground, and just 8-of-18 third-down conversions (.444 pct.).
'I'm very pleased with the win,' head coach Barry Alvarez said. 'When you put No. 28 (Anthony Davis) in the mix, all of a sudden you get better.
'I really thought that (Illinois) was by far the best offense and one of the better offenses we will see. I'm really very pleased with how our defense responded and how it played.'
Fullback Matt Bernstein added 13 carries for 37 yards as UW rolled up 258 yards in the running game. Wide receiver Owen Daniels had a team-high 43 yards of receiving from two catches.
Illinois quarterback Jon Beutjer ended up 12-for-27 for 85 yards before he was taken out toward the end of the third quarter. Third-string quarterback Chris Pazan put up the Illini's only score, a three-yard pass to Melvin Bryant in the fourth quarter.
Davis notched his first score on a 16-yard carry early in the second quarter, capping a nine-play, 73 yard drive for Wisconsin. Stocco and Davis had catches of 22 and 17 yards, respectively, in the drive.
Later in the same quarter, Davis had a rush of 27 yards to move the chains on third-and-one. Although the team did not advance any further, Mike Allen was able to boot a 48-yard field goal. The kick was the longest one Allen has made since a 46-yarder against Penn State last October and gave the Badgers a 10-0 lead at the half.
A 70-yard drive by UW that took up nearly five minutes resulted in another Davis touchdown, this time from seven yards out. A 26-yard run by Davis got the Badgers to the two-yard line, but an ensuing false start brought the ball back to the seven.
On the very next play, Davis angled right and had little difficulty finding the end zone.
In the fourth quarter, Illinois sacked quarterback John Stocco, caused a fumble and recovered at the Wisconsin 34-yard line. Six plays later, the Illini finally found themselves on the board.
But the Badgers put the game away when, on fourth-and-three on the Illinois 31-yard line, Davis went right and all the way to cap the 70-yard drive.
Illinois mustered one final drive, which got to the Wisconsin 13, but an 11-yard sack by Dontez Sanders, who also caused a fumble that Mark Zalewski recovered, prevented the Illini from having another scoring chance.
UW now hits the road for its next two games, first taking on Ohio State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9 in Columbus, Ohio. The game will be televised live on ABC.
NOTES
The 5-0 record to start the season is the first time Wisconsin has done so since 2002. UW is 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten first the first time since the 1998 season ... the Badgers have held each of their first five opponents to 7 points or fewer. It is the first time a UW team has held five straight foes to 7 points or fewer in a season since the 1951 team did it over its last seven games ... the 213-yard rushing performance by Anthony Davis today is the 20th 100-yard rushing game and the fifth 200-yard game of his career. It is the first for Davis on both fronts since he rushed for 247 yards against Akron on Sept. 6, 2003. It is Davis' first 100-yard game against a Big Ten opponent since gaining 301 yards vs. Minnesota on Nov. 23, 2002 ... the five 200-yard rushing games by Davis in his career ranks as a tie for the second-most in UW history along with Billy Marek. Ron Dayne totaled 14 200-yard games in his career ... with 42 punt-return yards today, UW's Jim Leonhard moved to within five yards of setting the Big Ten career record for punt return yards. Leonhard now has 1,167 career punt return yards. Bruce Branch of Penn State (1998-01) is the Big Ten's all-time leader with 1,171 ... the 42 rushing yards that Wisconsin held Illinois to today are the fewest allowed by a Badger team since it held Fresno State to 34 yards in the 2002 season-opener on Aug. 23 of that year. UW has held all five of its opponents under 100 yards rushing this season ... today 's attendance of 82,306 is the largest crowd in Camp Randall Stadium history. The previous record of 82,179 was set during last week's game against Penn State. Wisconsin has now drawn a crowd of at least 70,000 fans to 73 consecutive home games ... Illinois offensive coordinator Dan Roushar and his wife, Patti, gave birth to a son, Dan, this morning. Roushar drove to Champaign this morning at 5:30 a.m. but returned by game time via private plane. Dan Jr. was 8 lbs., 9 oz. and 21.5 inches long.
POST-GAME QUOTATIONS
Wisconsin Head Coach Barry Alvarez
Opening comment: 'First of all, I 'm very pleased with the win. I wanted to go into the game'and I challenged the guys all week'I wanted to come out of that game playing better, feeling better about all three phases of the game. I thought we did. Offensively, when you put No. 28 (Anthony Davis) in the mix, all of a sudden you get better. Anthony made some of his better runs, I just told him, some of his better runs were his 40-yard runs 'lot of yardage after contact. I thought he was a different speed than everyone else on the field. But John (Stocco) did some good things throwing the football and I think our offense improved today. Defensively, I thought they had a big challenge going into the game. I was not exaggerating when I talked to you during the week. I really thought that this was by far the best offense and one of the better offenses we will see. They have weapons and threats in all areas'all their skilled positions. I'm really very pleased with how our defense responded and how they played. Illinois max-protected to try to help on (Erasmus James), which we anticipated, but I was very pleased with how we stepped up in the running game. Kicking game, I thought we did a lot of good things in special teams. So, all in all, it was a good win and I feel good about it.'
Another opponent held under 10 points, how pleased are you with the defense' 'I was very pleased with it. They are schooled well and they play fast and they do a nice job. Let's be realistic, (Penn State) is playing with their third quarterback, too. They are kind of like us on offense, we 're down to fullback playing tailback, and they are playing with their third quarterback, so obviously, they were somewhat limited. They still have run the ball well on people. Those are two very good tailbacks and a veteran offensive line and our guys did a nice job.'
Did Anthony Davis give a lift to the offense: 'Sure he did. Sure he did, because he moved the chains. We moved the chains with him in there and a couple of those touchdowns may have been three, four, five yard runs for other people. It's quite a lift for an offensive lineman to see a big hit and you 've been blocking that way for a while and all of a sudden he runs through something and his speed allows him to get into the end zone, so absolutely it's a big boost for us.'
On that 4-and-2 call, by virtue of having (Davis) in there, are you making an easier call rather than opting for a field goal' 'Yeah, it makes it easier because he gives you different options. He can get it inside, he's going to find the seam or soft spot, he's going to get the first down. If they overload inside, he can bounce outside and really put the pressure on the corner. So, I felt much better with him on. It was an easier call.'
Did your defense answer any questions you had about them ' 'There is a lot of season left. They're playing very well. I honestly felt this is a very good offense we played today. They can move the ball. They can hurt you in a lot of different ways. So we had to be balanced, it couldn 't just be the D-line ... and they took, with maximum-protection, they took (James) and some of the D-linemen out of the mix because you can't get a lot of pressure on then and it puts the pressure on the linebackers and the secondary and I think they stepped up and did some good things today. We're getting better, I think I know the defense a little better now than I did a week ago, but they'll all be the first to tell you that we just continue to get better.'
Ron Turner, Illinois Head Coach
On the offense's performance: '(It was) not very good. Obviously we know we're going against a great defense. They 've got an experienced defense ' seven seniors, and I know most of them started against us two years ago. They're a very good defensive football team. We knew that coming in. They're tough to run the ball against, but if you can 't make plays in the passing game, or aren't making plays in the passing game when you have opportunities, then they're even doubly tough to run against, and that's what happened today. We had some opportunities to make some plays in the passing game that would have helped open everything up. We didn't make them, and if you're going to do that against this team, you're in trouble. '
On a missed opportunity down the sideline: 'It was a play that the guy had pretty good coverage on. I thought (quarterback) Jon (Beutjer) threw a nice ball there, and we had a chance to go up and get it, and we didn 't. And, we had a couple other times earlier where we had a shot behind him to make the throw, and we didn't get him. It seemed like every time we had the opportunity, we didn't make the play, and if you're not, like I said, it 's going to be a long day.'
On the drive at the end of the first half: 'In that situation, it was a 10-0 game, we felt we were still in good shape, so we wanted to see if we could get something going. But, be careful. They've got two great pass rushers, they've got an extremely good pass rush, and we knew that, so we tried to be smart where we didn't give them good field position and give them an opportunity to get something out of it, yet we wanted to see if we could make a play and give us something at the end. It was a third-down play, not a whole lot of time left. We wanted to take one shot down the field, try to hit a play against them, and if we didn 't, then we could punt it.'
On Anthony Davis: 'He's a special player. He brings the dimension of a home run every play. He's an outstanding player. We knew that. We knew that not only was he back and healthy, but he was back and healthy with fresh legs, and he's a special player, like I said. They were going to do what they do, run the ball and do all that, but he brings a different dimension. He brings a big-play threat. There were times it looked like we played pretty good defense, and it looked like we had the chance to get a tackle for a minimal gain, (but instead) it turned into a big gain. He's just a good player.'
Wisconsin Quarterback John Stocco
On how he feels after today's game: 'I definitely feel better, I feel like I improved a little bit and that's my main goal, to just get better each week.'
On having Anthony Davis in the offense: 'Well Anthony (Davis) has been a big part of this offense the last few years, he 's an explosive guy, so that helps us a lot. But at the same time we've had a lot of guys step up, Book [Booker Stanley] stepped up, Bernie's [Matt Bernstein] stepped up, so at the same time a lot of guys have stepped up for us. '
On the red-zone offense: 'We put the emphasis on the red zone all this week because we haven't been very good, and I think we scored a touchdown every time we were in the red zone this game, so that 's something we've focused on all week.'
How he feels thus far in the season: 'Obviously I can get a lot better, us as an offense can get a lot better, but we 're just trying to be 1-0 (each week).'
Wisconsin Defensive Back Dontez Sanders
On being 2-0 in the Big Ten: 'It feels great. Just going out there and playing hard, it's a lot of fun.'
On Illinois Offense: 'Coach Alvarez said that this was going to be the best team that we'd play so far. So we just went out there and played hard and played good.'
On what the team learned from this game: 'I guess that we can play against anybody. If we can just go out there and execute the game plan, then we'll win.'
Wisconsin Line Backer Reggie Cribbs
On giving up just two touchdowns this season: 'You never really want anyone to score, but sometimes it happens. So after that we can't let them score again so when they scored we just let it be that, but that was it.'
On the game against Ohio State: 'We 'll think about that stuff tomorrow. Today, we just want to enjoy the win. '
On seeing Anthony Davis playing again: 'Seeing AD out there was a beautiful thing; he gave our offense a spark that we really need. Seeing him run the ball again was a beautiful thing, something great, something special.'
Wisconsin Running Back Anthony Davis
Was it like riding a bike for you all over again ' 'I wouldn't say that. I had only taken, I think, 26 snaps before this game, so I didn't want to press too much when I got out there, just kind of let the game come to me.'
When did you go from feeling rusty to fresh: 'At the beginning of the game. The main thing I was focusing on was relaxing and not trying too hard. Like I said I just wanted to let the game come to me. Eventually, I just got lost in the game and I didn't think about rust and I didn't think about, you know, how many carries I had, nothing. Just let the game come to me, got lost in the game and things worked out well.'
You appeared to take a good hit on your first touchdown, did you notice that' 'I guess I did, I guess on the first touchdown. I don't know, I scored. I guess when I got in the end zone I didn't even realize I got hit, I was just excited about scoring, but I guess it was a pretty good hit. '
Do you think you and (Matt Bernstein) complement each other well' 'Bernie is a load to tackle and I see it when those guys hit him and they get tired of hitting that guy. You can get tired of hitting Bernie. Bernie 's 250, 260 pounds and those D-backs are getting tired of hitting him and then I come along and it makes them a step slower sometimes.'
