Flashback Friday: Wisconsin earns first Big Ten championship since 1999

Wisconsin has another tough test this week as the Northwestern Wildcats come into Camp Randall Stadium to play the 3-2 Badgers. Wisconsin is coming off a bye and Northwestern is coming off a 40-30 loss in Evanston against Ohio State. The Badgers should have most of their players available, including Melvin Gordon, Kenzel Doe, Dallas Lewallen and Jacob Pedersen. For this flashback, I go back in time to the last time these two teams met in 2010 when J.J. Watt and the Badgers dominated Northwestern en route to a Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl berth.

It was Thankgiving weekend 2010 and three teams were trying to reach the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten representative. The day before, Boise State kicker Kyle Brotzman missed two makeable field goals, one at the end of regulation and one in overtime, as Colin Kaepernick and Nevada won in overtime 34-31 to cost Boise State a berth in the Rose Bowl. In the Big Ten, all eyes would be on Madison, Columbus and State College. Wisconsin had the inside track to go to the Rose Bowl. It had to win and have Ohio State win against Michigan or Michigan State lose at Penn State.

Wisconsin had the edge in BCS ranking, which is what the BCS would go by if it were to end in a 3-way tie. The Badgers lone loss that season was at Michigan State in the Big Ten opener 34-24, so if Wisconsin were to tie with Michigan State, the Spartans would have the edge. However, Wisconsin held the edge over Ohio State after the Badgers dominated No. 1 Ohio State 31-18 in Madison. The Buckeyes and Spartans did not play each other. Completely confusing, I know.

Both Michigan State and Ohio State played at noon EST, so Wisconsin would know its fate by the time it kicked off at 3:30. Wisconsin went back and forth between who to cheer for. At first, the Badgers cheered for Michigan and Penn State, but after Michigan State jumped out to a big lead, Badgers fans had to cheer for the Buckeyes.

Michigan State had to hold on against Penn State 28-22 and Ohio State drilled Michigan 37-7, so Wisconsin knew what it had to do. A win more than likely meant a Rose Bowl berth. It was nationally televised on ABC and the No. 7 Badgers were ready for the spotlight.

Wisconsin came into the game with a three-headed monster at running back in junior John Clay, sophomore Montee Ball and Big Ten Freshman of the Year James White. Wisconsin had a potent offense that ended up scoring at least 70 points on three occasions and more than 30 nine times (I said that in an Ed Rooney voice). Before 2010, the Badgers had not scored 70 points in any one game in their modern era.

On this day, junior defensive end J.J. Watt would be a one-man wrecking crew on defense. He had seven tackles with three being for loss, a sack, forced two fumbles, had a quarterback hit that resulted in an interception and blocked an extra point.

Wisconsin also showed how potent its offense could be, marching down the field and scoring on a Ball 32-yard touchdown run on the game's opening possession. Ball ran for 178 yards on 20 carries and scored four times, setting the stage for his magical junior campaign.

On just the second Northwestern play, senior safety Jay Valai intercepted an Evan Watkins pass. After a Wisconsin punt, the Badgers once again forced a turnover, as Watt forced a fumble that was recovered by Tyler Dippel. The turnover set up another Ball touchdown and the Badgers led 14-0. The lead would be 14-3 at the end of the first quarter.

Then the touchdown parade started. Seven touchdowns were scored with five of those being scored by the home team. Scott Tolzien threw four touchdown passes in the second quarter alone, including a pair to Nick Toon. However, the lone person to score a touchdown that quarter who is still on either team is Northwestern running back Venric Mark, who returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown. Wisconsin closed out the scoring on a Tolzien 11-yard pass to Toon with 14 seconds to play before halftime to give Wisconsin the 49-17 lead at intermission.

The third quarter provided much of the same, as Ball and White each scored a touchdown to put the Badgers ahead 63-17 before Northwestern scored one final time. The scoring was capped by an interception return by safety Aaron Henry to give the Badgers the 70-23 dominating victory. It also was the first time Wisconsin had won the conference title since 1999.

Wisconsin outgained Northwestern by nearly a 2-to-1 margin and forced an astounding seven Wildcat turnovers. Wisconsin had more rushing yards (329) than Northwestern had total yads (284). It was a dominating performance by Wisconsin, as it reached the 70-point mark for the third time on the season.

This game should not be as easy for Wisconsin, as the Wildcats come in with one of the league's most potent offenses. With Wisconsin struggling against the pass and Northwestern struggling to stop anything, it should be a high scoring game. It should provide some fireworks and be a wildly entertaining game Saturday evening.

Flashback: Jaguars upset Broncos in 1996 playoffs

The Jacksonville Jaguars are used to being heavy underdogs, especially this year. Jacksonville has only scored 51 points the entire season, while the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos scored at least that much.....in each of the past two games. Jacksonville comes into this week at 0-5, losing every game by double digits with three of them coming by at least 26. Denver, on the other hand, comes in at 5-0, winning four of them by double figures and has scored 230 points on the season. Denver comes in as a 28-point favorite, which would be the largest point spread in NFL history if it holds.

In the franchise's second year, Jacksonville made the playoffs. Led by quarterback Mark Brunell, Jacksonville made the playoffs with a 9-7 record. At their bye week, the Jaguars had a record of 3-6, but the Jaguars rebounded to win six of their final seven to reach the playoffs. All six of those wins came by one possession. That included a win on the last week of the season against the 3-12 Atlanta Falcons, in which Jacksonville needed to win to reach the playoffs. Atlanta had a 30-yard field goal attempt to take the lead with less than a minute to go by one of the all-time great kickers. Morten Andersen's kick sailed wide left and Jacksonville moved onto the playoffs.

Denver steamrolled through the AFC on its way to a 13-3 record. The Broncos won the division so early that they rested players down the stretch. They started out 12-1, but John Elway missed game 14 due to injury and Denver was destroyed by Green Bay 41-6. With starters being rested, Denver lost the last game to San Diego 16-10. Going into the playoffs, all of their players would be healthy. They thought the divisonal round game would be a tune-up.

Jacksonville came into the Wild Card round as huge underdogs against the Buffalo Bills, led by future Hall of Famers Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas. The latter claimed he did not know anybody on Jacksonville's team. He certainly would know the name of Jacksonville's runing back Natrone Means by the end of the game. Means rushed for 175 yards and a touchdown to lead the Jaguars, but the game would come down to a kick. Jacksonville's string of good luck continued. Second year kicker Mike Hollis nailed a 45-yard field goal that hit off the upright and went through. Top seeded Denver was next.

In the Rocky Mountain News the day of the game, they were called the "Jagwads." Denver Post columnist Woody Paige gave the Jaguars some bulletin board material, asking "Can we get a legitimate NFL team in here next Sunday?" He also made a remark about "How can people get worked up to play somebody called Jacksonville with a bunch of nobodies?"

Those comments fueled the Jaguars, as Jacksonville prepared to pull one of the biggest upsets in playoff history. Denver came in as 17.5-point favorites over the upstart Jaguars. Nobody gave the team from Florida any chance of coming into Mile High and picking up the win.

The first quarter went as most people thought, with Denver scoring two touchdowns, but missed the first extra point and missed the two point conversion on the second touchdown and Denver led 12-0 after one. But Jacksonville fought back in quarter two and the Jaguars took a 13-12 lead at halftime.

With Jacksonville leading 23-20, the Jaguars had one of the biggest plays in their history to put the game away. Brunell, who they had acquired from Green Bay the previous year in a draft day trade, threw a perfect 15-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Smith down the left sideline to give Jacksonville a 30-23 lead with 3:39 left in the game. Denver would score one final time, but the onside kick was recovered by the Jaguars and Jacksonville won the game 30-27 to advance to New England and the AFC Championship game.

Jacksonville lost at New England 20-6 the following week, but that does not take away from the magnitude of this win and what it did for the franchise. One can only hope the Jaguars can feel this way again in the coming seasons.