Wisconsin's defense buries No. 16 USC 24-7 as Badgers climb to 3-1 in Big Ten

Wisconsin beat No. 16 USC 24-7 at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday, and the game was never as close as the halftime score suggested. The Badgers sacked Jayden Maiava five times, intercepted him twice in the first quarter and held the Trojans to minus-17 rushing yards, Yahoo Sports reported. Fans rushed the field afterward.

The win moves Wisconsin to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten. In a weekend full of league upsets, that puts Luke Fickell's team near the top of the conference. ClutchPoints called it the first statement win of Fickell's tenure, and the way Wisconsin won it was old-school: 142 rushing yards, a pass rush that kept coming, and long, slow possessions.

USC scored first, on a second-quarter touchdown. Wisconsin answered on its next drive, then scored again to open the third quarter after a big fourth-down play by Chris Brooks Jr. USC's best chance to get back in the game ended in a mess. After a 22-yard sack in the fourth quarter, a fake field goal was wiped out by a delay-of-game penalty for a late substitution. Lincoln Riley, who said he had been trying to call timeout, then sent Caden Chittenden out for a 58-yard try that fell well short. Chittenden missed both of his second-half attempts, and one of them was blocked. Bryan Jackson II set up a late Wisconsin touchdown, and the defense stopped USC on fourth down in the red zone to finish it.

"Pretty ain't pretty, but that's who we are," Fickell said on the NBC broadcast, per Yahoo Sports. Maiava threw for 258 yards but was also flagged twice for intentional grounding. According to the broadcast, the seven points were the fewest any Riley-coached team has scored. ClutchPoints noted that former USC star Keyshawn Johnson questioned Riley publicly after the game.

What it means next week

Wisconsin heads to No. 15 Iowa on Oct. 31 (Fox). The Hawkeyes also lost this weekend, according to ClutchPoints. The Badgers have won four of their last five, and in that stretch they have allowed 20 points or fewer in every game. The one loss was 17-7 at No. 12 UCLA, where the offense stalled. Points could be hard to come by in Iowa City.

USC drops to 6-2 and gets no break. No. 3 Ohio State comes to the Coliseum on Oct. 31 (NBC). Before Saturday, the Trojans had scored at least 25 points in every game, including road wins at Penn State and Rutgers. Their other loss was 41-27 to Oregon.

On this site's board, Ohio State is favored at all five venues. Novig has the Buckeyes at -292. The shortest price anywhere is Fanatics at -245, so the five venues are far apart on this game. On USC, Novig lists +203 and FanDuel has the longest price at +270, which pays $67 more per $100 than Novig. DraftKings has Ohio State favored by 7 points at -105, and totals range from 52.5 to 53.5. For USC, it is the first of three remaining games against top-10 teams, with Indiana and UCLA still to come.