Wisconsin football at Nebraska: Preview, predictions, live stream
Wisconsin football will visit Lincoln, Nebraska in a critical Big Ten East matchup between two teams looking to push ahead in the standings.
Since the Nebraska Cornhuskers joined the Big Ten in 2011, they have enjoyed a decent amount of successful seasons. Sprinkle in a couple bad losses and the firing of a coach, but other than that the Huskers have been a reasonable pick year and year out to compete for a Big Ten West title.
Unfortunately for Nebraska, their quest for a West title has not gone so great, thanks in large part to newly acquired rival, the Wisconsin Badgers. Since 2011, the Badgers have beaten the Cornhuskers in all but one game, including a Big Ten Championship shellacking of Nebraska in 2012, scoring 70 points en route to a 70-31 victory.
The stage is set for Nebraska to pull off a much-needed upset on Saturday as the team is off to a 2-0 start in conference play after wins against Rutgers and Illinois. Wisconsin on the other hand, overcame a shaky start in their conference opener and used a big defensive play late to go 1-0 in league play with a 33-24 victory over Northwestern.
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Wisconsin is currently 5-1 against the Huskers since Nebraska joined the conference, but has only seen just two games in Lincoln, posting a 1-1 record on the road. Saturday night has been a date many Nebraska fans and players have been looking forward to all year and with a “Black Out” taking place in a night game atmosphere, Memorial Stadium should be electric.
Date: Saturday, Oct. 7
Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
Location: Lincoln, NE
Venue: Memorial Stadium
TV: Big Ten Network
Live Stream: BTN2Go
Keys to Victory
The Badgers’ offense came off a bye week looking sloppy and unenthused in last week’s victory over Northwestern. In the first two touches of the game, the Badgers saw fumbles by Jazz Peavy and A.J. Taylor– fortunately just one was lost. Wisconsin will need to take care of the ball much better in a tough, road environment on Saturday and take the crowd out of the game with their run game.
Hopefully for Wisconsin, they will return preseason All-American Troy Fumagalli– who missed last week with an injury. His presence will help alleviate the pressure from quarterback Alex Hornibrook and make the run game much more effective.
The same applies for the Huskers. Looking at their two losses to Oregon and Northern Illinois, turnovers were killers for the offense and ultimately the whole team. Two pick sixes against Northern Illinois proved to be the deciding factor and the four turnovers against the Ducks put them in a hole too deep to climb out of.
Wisconsin’s defense is tough enough to score on as it is, so the Huskers will need to play smart and try to wear down the Badgers’ defense with long, methodical drives.
Prediction
Nebraska will enter Saturday night’s matchup as double-digit home underdogs for the first time since 2008, but the hype surrounding the game will make you think otherwise as the pre-game student excitement and night game feel will be a lot to take in for both teams looking to make a statement win in a competitive Big Ten conference.
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Tanner Lee and the Huskers come out fired up and get on the board first, keeping it close at half. But as proven all year, the Badgers come out in the second half focused and use strong defense to take over the game for good. Freshman running back Jonathan Taylor bounces back and grabs another 100 yard game and Fumagalli secures a big second half touchdown to ice the Badgers win.