Rose Bowl Preview

A Guest Blog By Fanspeak Contributing Writer Tyler Fenwick

We’re seeing an unusual face in the Rose Bowl this year with non-AQ TCU. But they are a very worthy opponent, being the nation’s only other undefeated team.

The Horned Frogs bring arguably the best defense in the nation to this game. And the match-up everyone is looking forward to is the running attack of Wisconsin against the vicious TCU defense.

Wisconsin’s only flaw of the season was loosing Michigan State early in the Big Ten season. Other than that, though, it’s been lights out.

You can include so many things to the Badger’s season that made a lot of noise. You have the win over Ohio State, the close one over Iowa, and then the 83 point rout of Indiana.

There are three people responsible for this success: James White, John Clay, and Montee Ball. It is simply amazing to see the power/speed combination that nobody can stop.

TCU, on the other hand, boasts an incredibly good defense, especially when it comes to stopping the run. And this is one of those cases where you can’t fight it back with the “they play nobody” remark. This defense has seen its share of some good backs this year.

And of course, they had their monster game over Utah that really upped their status.

For Wisconsin to have success against the Hroned Frog defense, Scott Tolzein will play a significant roll.

I think the TCU defense is at least capable of slowing down Wisconsin’s three-headed monster. So Tolzein will have to come through from time to time and complete the third and seven.

I don’t know how much I like Wisconsin’s chances if Tolzein can’t come through occasionally.

For TCU, it’s pretty simple. They need to be capable of stopping the Wisconsin backs; and doing it all costs.

That means leaving the secondary a little weak, blitzing the weak side and leaving gaps for Tolzein. In my opinion though, it’s the only TCU can win this game.

But that’s not 100% of the equation. Andy Dalton (QB) needs to be able to execute, along with Ed Wesley (RB).

Wisconsin will put points up on the board no matter what, and it’s very important that TCU is able to match them and then leave it to the defense to come up with a stop.

What to expect: Expect to see the classic hard-nosed offense and defense. The three-headed monster for the Badgers will have a good game. And the senior quarterback in Scott Tolzein will be more than on top of things for this one.

You can expect to see TCU have moderate success on both sides of the ball. I’m not completely confident in their ability to stop Wisconsin. But I’m not completely confident in Wisconsin’s ability to stop the TCU offense, either.

If TCU can slow down the Wisconsin ground attack, we should see a good, close game.