Wisconsin vs. NIU ended up not being a Showdown.

In fact, the Soldier Field Showdown II turned out to be a one-sided throbbing by the Badgers, as they trumped the Huskies, 49-7.

Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema applauded his team for composing themselves and executing its game plan in a “road environment,” despite there being as many, if not more, Badger fans in attendance at Soldier Field.

“It was a new venue, and it wasn’t Camp Randall [Stadium], and we needed to play well and that’s what happened,” Bielema said.

Wisconsin’s offense scored on its first drive, going 51 yards on four plays, as it was capped off by a 12 yard touchdown pass from quarterback Russell Wilson to receiver Nick Toon.

It wouldn’t be until approximately two minutes left in the first quarter when the Huskies would find the end zone.

NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish would hookup with receiver Perez Ashford for a 39 yard pass, and one play later, running back Jasmin Hopkins would take a toss from three yards out to tie the score at seven a piece.

With the score tied at seven, the Huskies elected to attempt some deception on the ensuing kickoff with an onside kick.

NIU’s kicker Matt Sims executed the onside kick nearly perfectly, creating a cluster of players wrestling for possession.

“I told our players that I was going to coach to win,” said NIU head coach Dave Doeren. “I told them if we scored, that I’d go for a surprise onside.”

However, after blows and tussles were exchanged within the pile of Huskie and Badger players, Wisconsin would end up recovering the football.

“It looked like we had it at first, but Wisconsin guys hit [one of our players] and it popped out again and I guess there was a scramble for [the ball],” said Huskies defensive end Sean Progar. “It definitely would have been a momentum changer, but we didn’t get it.”

From that moment on, it seemed as if the Badgers started pulling away.

“Credit goes to Wisconsin; they did a great job of slowing us down [on offense],”said NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish. “We just couldn’t get it going. It was just a very frustrating day.”

Wisconsin put together three more scoring drives before the conclusion of the first half, including another connection between Russell and Toon, and touchdown runs by running backs Montee Ball and James White.

Wilson orchestrated the Badgers to the tune of 621 total yards of offense, 384 yards in which he was responsible for. The dual-threat signal caller had three touchdown passes in the game.

For being known as a quarterback that extend plays with his legs, Progar pointed out that Wilson is more than just that notion.

“He’s just a good quarterback,” Progar said. “Everyone talks about his scrambling, yeah he got loose on us a couple time, but he’s just a good quarterback. He put the ball on the money to all of his wide receivers.”

After losing back-to-back games, the Huskies must now find a solution to get back on a winning track.

“We set up our team goals so we could win this conference – that’s what we want to do,” Doeren said. “There’s nothing we can do about what happened today other than learn from it and get better.”