Wisconsin Football: 3 takeaways from big win over Purdue in Week 13

Wisconsin football took charge of their Big Ten West fate in Week 13 as they improved to 9-2 with a big win over Purdue. Here is what we learned.

On a chilly day in Madison, Purdue squared off against No. 12 Wisconsin hoping to pull off an upset. The Boilermakers kept things close through the first half, and they went into the locker room down by only a touchdown against the Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium. Given they were forced to start third-string quarterback Aidan O’Connell, it was an impressive first half.

With bowl eligibility hinging on whether or not Purdue could win both of their last two games against the Badgers and against Indiana, Jeff Brohm’s team lost hold of that dream before Thanksgiving as they fell 45-24 in the end. Wisconsin proved the better team among the two over the course of the full 60 minutes, though they were unable to beat the spread against their visitors from West Lafayette.

Wisconsin nevertheless kept their hopes alive of reaching the Big Ten championship game for another shot at Ohio State, though. Thanks to Minnesota’s Week 12 loss at Iowa, next week’s Battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe will be a winner-take-all division championship game. Rivalries are always more fun when the stakes are increased, and they couldn’t get much bigger for these two longtime rivals.

The Badgers will head west to Minneapolis with tons of confidence after toppling Purdue. Here are three things to take away from Wisconsin’s ninth win of the 2019 season.