Matt Henningsen

Zach Baun

The Wisconsin Badgers had six members of their defensive unit named all-Big Ten on Tuesday, led by linebackers Zach Baun and Chris Orr.

Baun was named a first-team selection, while Orr was named to the second-team.

Safety Eric Burrell, defensive ends Matt Henningsen and Isaiahh Loudermilk and cornerback Faion Hicks were named honorable mention on defense.

Baun had two sacks and nine tackles in the Badgers 38-17 win at Minnesota last week. He leads Wisconsin with 18 1/2 tackles for loss and shares the team lead in sacks with Chris Orr (11 1/2).

Wisconsin’s return specialist, Aron Cruickshank was a second-team pick as a return specialist.

The league will announce the their offensive selections on Wednesday.

Ohio State’s Chase Young, who led the Big Ten in sacks with 16 1/2 was named the Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year.

Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck was named the Hayes-Schembechler Coach of the Year, selected by the Big Ten’s coaches. Ohio State’s Ryan Day was the Dave McClain Coach of the Year, picked by the media.

Zach Baun

The Wisconsin Badgers scored a touchdown on their opening drive for the fourth straight game, then saw their offense disappear for the remainder of the game. Yet UW, thanks to their defense, pulled out a 24-15 win over the Northwestern Wildcats to improve to 4-0 on the season and 2-0 in the Big Ten.

The offense went 54-yards on 10-plays to go up 7-0. Over the next 12 possessions, the Badgers managed one field goal.

The Northwestern defense made Jonathan Taylor work for everything. He finished with 119 yards on 26 carries with the games opening touchdown. It’s just the first 100-yard rushing day for Taylor against the Wildcats in three tries. He has now going over 100 yards 26 times in 31 games. Taylor also moved into fourth place on the Badgers career rushing list with 4,730 yards, moving past Anthony Davis (4,676).

The Wildcats spent much of the game in a zone defense, making life difficult on Badger quarterback Jack Coan. [Read more…]