16. Wisconsin 24, Iowa 22 (2019)

I come at you with the second straight game against the Hawkeyes. This was a monster game for both teams. Both teams came at 3-2 in the Big Ten and still had a puncher’s chance at a Big Ten West championship and trip to Indianapolis. Whichever team won the game needed the other team to knock off Minnesota in order to earn the spot in Indianapolis.

Both teams were coming off a bye, but the Badgers were limping in to the off week. Wisconsin was humming along at 6-0 and had shut out four of its first six opponents. But the Badgers fell on their face the next two weeks, including an embarrassing 24-23 loss to Illinois, a team Wisconsin had not lost to since 2008.

But Wisconsin came out strong and led 21-6 over Iowa, but the Hawkeyes came storming back and Wisconsin needed a two-point conversion stop to turn away the visitors before Jonathan Taylor took over and slammed the door shut on the Hawkeyes as Wisconsin won it by two.

Wisconsin just responded to an Iowa field goal with a field goal of its own to take a 24-16 lead in the important Big Ten West battle. However, it took the Hawkeyes all of one play to respond. Wisconsin native, Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley had great protection and threw a pass over the middle to Tyrone Tracy Jr., who slipped a Wisconsin tackle attempt and raced for a 75-yard score.

Iowa still needed a two-point conversion to knot up the score. On the try, Stanley tried a quarterback draw and looked like he would plow in. But at the goal line, he was stopped cold by a host of Badgers, led by safety Eric Burrell.

JT23 essentially ended the game with 42-yard run with a little over two minutes to play. With Iowa only having one timeout left, it pretty much sealed the Bucky win.

Wisconsin had the upper hand in the first half, but Iowa dented the scoreboard first. Midway through the first quarter with Wisconsin facing a 3rd-and-12 from its own 15, quarterback Jack Coan had the ball knocked out of his hand by defensive end A.J. Epenesa as he was getting ready to throw and the Hawkeyes recovered at the 16. But the Wisconsin defense held and Keith Duncan nailed a short field goal to give Herky the first lead.

The Badgers got those points back after a Stanley fumble, as Wisconsin traveled 59 yards to take the lead. On second down at the Iowa 17, wide receiver Danny Davis came on the jet sweep and raced around the left side for the score. Once he found the edge on the run, he out-raced Iowa cornerback Michael Ojemudia to the end zone.

Davis scored again late in the second to grow the advantage. With Wisconsin clinging to a 7-6 lead with 20 seconds left in the first half, Coan threw to an open Davis, but Iowa diagnosed it and Coan almost waited too long to throw it. But Davis came back for the ball and grabbed it in the end zone for the score.

Bucky led 14-6 at the break.

After a series of punts, Wisconsin created some distance. A bomb from Coan to Quintez Cephus for 52 yards moved the ball from the Bucky 14 to the Iowa 34. Three plays later, Coan called Cephus’ number again on a back shoulder throw from 27 yards out to make it 21-6.

Iowa responded with a touchdown of its own on a Stanley 3-yard pass to Nico Ragaini and followed that up with an interception on an ill-advised pass by Coan. The Hawkeyes had to settle for a field goal to cut it to 21-16.

Taylor began the next series with a 36-yard run, which set up the field goal to make it 24-16 and set the stage for the final series of events.

JT 23 ran for 250 yards on 31 carries and had some of the biggest runs of the game.

After this win, Wisconsin received help from Iowa the following week when the Hawkeyes beat the Gophers at Kinnick Stadium. That was the external help Wisconsin needed to win the West, as the Badgers rolled the Gophers in Minneapolis the final week of the regular season.