Run defense struggles against Wisconsin

Madison, Wis. — It took Wisconsin exactly one play to take the lead.

After intercepting sophomore quarterback Nate Sudfeld at the 7-yard line, Badger running back James White took the handoff.

He shed a would-be tackle by defensive lineman Raphael Green, and saw green in front of him.

Safeties Greg Heban and Mark Murphy gave pursuit, but it didn’t matter.

His blocker, Alex Erickson, escorted White to the end zone, “in case I decided to run slow and get caught,” White said.

White never looked back, and neither did the Badgers. The 93-yard touchdown run was the second-longest play in Wisconsin’s 123-year history.

The run sparked Wisconsin (8-2, 5-1) to a 51-3 win against IU (4-6, 2-4).

“We’re not going to beat them up over it,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said of how to move forward. “We got a lot of things to correct.”

Wisconsin amassed 554 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns. Four different Badgers recorded a rushing touchdown.

The offensive linemen for Wisconsin took pride in the performance.

“So after I got taken out, we looked up at the rushing yards,” Wisconsin offensive lineman Ryan Groy said. “It was awesome. It was awesome to see.”

White finished with a career-high 205 yards on 20 carries. Sophomore Melvin Gordon had 146 yards on just 13 carries. Corey Clement, the third string freshman, had 108 yards on 11 carries.

Even non-running backs were gashing the Hoosier defense. Senior Jared Abbrederis had 86 yards on three attempts for two touchdowns. Abbrederis is a wide receiver.

He burned the Hoosier defense for runs of 32 and 49 yards on reverses, something IU hadn’t seen on film.

“It’s something we didn’t prepare for,” Heban said of the reverses.

Rushing proficiency isn’t new in this series. In the last two games against IU, Wisconsin has run for 1,118 yards. Why have they had so much success against IU?

“(IU) doesn’t do a whole lot of fancy stuff,” Wisconsin offensive lineman Dan Voltz said. “They played 4-3 defense, which is what we love ... When you play a defense like that, the results are going to be pretty good.”

On the day, the Badgers averaged 11.1 yards a rush. In comparison, the IU quarterbacks averaged 4.01 yards per pass attempt.

“They have big guys,” defensive lineman Nick Mangieri said. “They’re good blockers. But I still feel like when we we’re doing our assignments. We were gap sound.”

Next week, the competition doesn’t get any weaker. Going into last week, No. 3 Ohio State was averaging 301.1 rushing yards per game, tops in the Big Ten.

“We gotta finish,” Heban said. “We’ve always been playing Ohio State pretty well. ... I’m excited.”

Follow football reporter Evan Hoopfer on Twitter @EvanHoopfer.