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5th Quarter Consensus: Badgers win third straight

Michigan at Wisconsin

Kickoff: 11 a.m. CT

Location: Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wis.

Weather Forecast: 53F, Cloudy, 20% chance of rain

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: WIBA-AM 1310, WIBA-FM 101.5 and the Badgers Radio Network

Coverage: A week's worth of coverage at Bucky's 5th Quarter

The Consensus

Jake Harris (8-1, +134): Wisconsin 42, Michigan 28

Adam Hoge (8-1, +137): Wisconsin 27, Michigan 17

Adam Rittenberg (ESPN.com): Wisconsin 31, Michigan 20

The Reasoning

Wisconsin is clearly the better team right now, having won its last two games and sitting pretty at 7-2 overall.  Michigan has lost its last five Big Ten games and has yet to win on the road this season.  Expect the Badger running backs to find success against a weak Wolverine defense.  John Clay is the conference's leading rusher, and he is healthy again after a head injury knocked him out of last week's game against Indiana. 

Offensively, Michigan is expected to give Denard Robinson significant playing time at quarterback, after Tate Forcier has proven somewhat ineffective the past several weeks.  Robinson is a gifted athlete, but Wisconsin's defense matches up well against him.  He has a very shaky arm, which may mask some of the Badgers' problems in pass coverage.  Wisconsin is tops against the run in conference play, so expect it to contain Robinson's ground game much the way it did Terrelle Pryor's.  Still, Michigan does boast the top scoring offense in the Big Ten, so they will likely put up points.  Carlos Brown and Brandon Minor are no slouches at running back, but wide receiver Martavious Odoms will be playing hurt.

The home team has won each of the last five games in this series, with Michigan dropping its last two at Camp Randall Stadium.  The Wolverines are playing for bowl eligibility, but the Badgers love beating Michigan and have played with a purpose this season.  The Badgers' proficient running game and stout defense will be enough in Madison.

Who has the edge?

Offense: Wisconsin

Defense: Wisconsin

Special Teams: Michigan

Coaching: Wisconsin

Intangibles: Wisconsin



-Jake Harris

Poll
Who you got Saturday, Michigan or Wisconsin?
Michigan by 1-9
1 votes
Michigan by 10 or more
2 votes
Wisconsin by 1-9
5 votes
Wisconsin by 10 or more
15 votes

23 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  Comment 2 comments |

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Comments

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And Jake gets a little separation in the standings...

It’s kinda crazy that we were only separated by three points after nine games. Nice prediction this week.

Bucky's 5th Quarter. SB Nation's Wisconsin Badgers community.

by Adam Hoge on Nov 15, 2009 12:43 PM CST via mobile reply actions   0 recs

It is crazy how similar most of our predictions had been to this point....

Readers should know that we actually do come up with them completely independently!

As for my accuracy this week, I think a lot of people underestimated how truly awful Michigan’s defense is, but how proficient their offense is.

They were recruiting poorly on defense even before Lloyd Carr retired, and Rich Rodriguez has basically acted like a highly-paid offensive coordinator to this point in his tenure at UM.

At the same time, the Wolverines did come into this game with the highest-scoring offense in the Big Ten. People lost sight of that because of how many games they have lost.

Given both of these pieces of information, I predicted something close to a shootout. I figured the Badgers wouldn’t be stopped offensively, having put up ridiculous numbers against much better defenses. Yet I knew Michigan would score points, because they have in almost every game.

Next week’s game at Northwestern will be tough to figure.

-Jake Harris

by Jbharris87 on Nov 15, 2009 4:49 PM CST reply actions   0 recs

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