TCU defeats Wisconsin in Rose Bowl

The Texas Christian Horned Frogs struck a blow for college football's outsiders today with a 21-19 victory over the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl, finishing the season with a perfect 13-0 record.

The Mountain West Conference champion was the first team that doesn't play in one of the six conferences that automatically receive berths in Bowl Championship Series games to play in the "granddaddy" of bowl games since the start of the BCS in the 1998 season.

Linebacker Tank Carder, who preserved the victory by batting down Badger quarterback Scott Tolzien's pass on a two-point conversion attempt with two minutes to play, said he felt that Texas Christian proved a point.

"A lot of critics don't feel like the non-(automatic qualifying) teams should have a shot, but I feel that TCU has proven we can play with the best of them," said Carder, named as the defensive player of the game. "It feels a little better knowing that non-AQ teams can play with the best of them."

Quarterback Andy Dalton, who was named as the offensive player of the game for throwing a touchdown pass and running for a second score, said, "I don't think we were just playing for TCU, we're playing for all the non-AQ schools to show that these teams can play with anybody."

The Horned Frogs, who entered the game ranked third in the BCS standings, two spots ahead of Big Ten co-champion Wisconsin, won despite being outgained, 385 yards to 301, and having the Badgers possess the ball for 36 minutes, 35 seconds, to their 23 minutes, 25 seconds.

"It seemed like they rushed for about 1,500 yards and threw for over 2,000 in one ballgame," Texas Christian coach Gary Patterson said.

"We knew that we weren't going to stop them. We knew we were going to have to contain them and we knew we were going to have to get stops and we were able to do that in this ballgame."

Despite its yardage advantage, Wisconsin was only able to score two touchdowns -- the first on John Clay's one-yard run in the first quarter and the other on Montee Ball's four-yard run in the fourth.

The Horned Frog defense forced the Badgers, who ended their season with an 11-2 record, to punt three times and settle for three field goal attempts, two of which were made by Philip Welch. The field goal he missed left the Badgers two points short at the end of the game.

Texas Christian didn't appear as if it could stop Wisconsin on its final drive, during which the Badgers ran nine times for 67 yards to set up Ball's touchdown.

However, after having found success with the running game all day long, including a 40-yard romp on the first play of the game, the Badgers' coaches opted to pass for the two-point conversion that would have tied the game and possibly send it into overtime.

The decision to call a pass was based on "something we saw on film," Badger coach Bret Bielema said.

"Obviously, the guy was open, but you've got to get the defender's hands down in the situation," Bielema said. "Hindsight is 20/20. I felt confident with the call. (Offensive coordinator) Paul (Chryst) felt confident and we went with it."

Carder said he also expected a run. Patterson called for a blitz.

"I went to go blitz and got blocked and couldn't get through the hole," Carder said. "So I just stopped, backed up and saw him cock his arm back and I jumped and that was the end of it."

The two teams combined for 24 points in the first quarter, breaking the previous Rose Bowl for the highest-scoring first quarter.

The previous record was 17, initially set in the first Rose Bowl in 1902, which actually was played in two halves, rather than four quarters, then matched in 1960, 1971, 1986 and 1993.

It was the first time in the 97 Rose Bowls both teams scored at least 10 points in the first quarter.

The game then became the first Rose Bowl since 1936 where there were fewer points scored in the last three quarters than the first quarter.

The Horned Frogs received the Rose Bowl berth because of a rule change and Pacific-10 champion Oregon, ranked No. 2, qualifying to play in the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game against No. 1-ranked Auburn.

Auburn and Oregon will play in the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game Jan. 10 in Glendale, Ariz.

Under BCS rules, during the first year of the 2010-2013 cycle that the Rose Bowl loses a team to the National Championship Game and a team from the non-automatic qualifying group is an automatic qualifier, the non-automatic qualifying team will play in the Rose Bowl.

 The Rose Bowl traditionally matches the champions of the Big Ten and Pacific-10 conferences.