Buckeye Rosters

Recap

Columbus, OH — Led by Ron Dayne’s four touchdowns and 161 yards rushing, the Wisconsin Badgers upset No. 12 Ohio State, 42-17.

The Buckeyes jumped ahead of the Badgers early in the first half. On its second possession, OSU manufactured an eight-play, 72-yard drive that led to Michael Wiley’s 1-yard touchdown run. Wiley set up the touchdown on the prior play with a 17-yard completion on a halfback option to Steve Wisniewski.

OSU continued to play well on its next possession. Dan Stultz capped off a five play, 30-yard drive with a 35-yard field goal, giving OSU a 10-0 lead.

The Buckeyes added another touchdown on their next possession. Quarterback Steve Bellisari hooked up with split end Reggie Germany for an acrobatic 40-yard touchdown reception.

But the Badgers chipped away at the lead as Vitaly Pisetsky kick field goals of 42 and 25 yards to cut the lead to 17-6 at halftime.

The second half proved to be all Wisconsin, or all Dayne. UW scored on six of its seven possessions. On the second half kickoff, OSU fumbled at the 14-yard line. Two plays later, Dayne scored his first touchdown of the afternoon, a 3-yard run, to trim OSU’s lead to 17-12 (the two-point conversion failed).

On UW’s next possession, Dayne rushed for an 11-yard touchdown with 10:31 remaining in the third quarter to take an 18-17 lead (the two-point conversion failed).

The Badgers added a 27-yard Pisetsky field goal with 13:37 remaining in the fourth quarter. The drive consumed 7:32 on 16 plays.

UW stretched its lead to 28-17 with Dayne’s third touchdown of the afternoon. The eventual Heisman Trophy winner finished a 10-play, 65-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown rush.

With 3:44 remaining in the game, Eddie Faulkner scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to give UW a commanding 35-17 lead.

On OSU’s next play from scrimmage, UW’s Bobby Myers intercepted a tipped pass and returned it 48 yards to the OSU 2-yard line. Dayne put an exclamation point on his afternoon with his fourth touchdown of the game.

Defensively, the Buckeyes recorded four sacks on the afternoon. Middle linebacker Jason Ott paced the team with a career-high 15 tackles. Four other Buckeyes recorded career-high tackling efforts. Safety Donnie Nickey and outside linebacker Na’il Diggs each had 14 stops. Safety Percy King, in his first career start, responded with 11 tackles. Outside linebacker Courtland Bullard had 10 tackles.