By Art Spander
Special to NewsdayPASADENA, Calif. -- Gary Patterson goes home now, goes back to Texas, atop his figurative mountain, if not atop college football. He goes home knowing that his team, Texas Christian University, will be one of the last two unbeatens and believing it proved a point by keeping high-scoring Wisconsin from getting its usual share of points.
On the first afternoon of 2011, TCU -- outweighed but certainly not outplayed -- defeated Wisconsin, 21-19, in the Rose Bowl yesterday, showing that even though it isn't from a BCS conference (the Mountain West), it deserved to be in a BCS game.
"This is the climax of 10 years,'' said Patterson, who coached the Horned Frogs to a 13-0 record. "I've been telling people the last eight years there is parity in college football. I think 10 teams can claim the national championship.
"I'm looking forward to watching the national championship game, because I don't have to sweat, don't have to call a defense.''
That game will be played Jan. 10 in Glendale, Ariz., between unbeaten Oregon and unbeaten Auburn.
After TCU outmaneuvered Wisconsin (11-2) on both offense and defense, the suggestion was made to Patterson that maybe the Horned Frogs should have been involved.
"I'm going to have the opportunity to watch those two teams and see how mine compares,'' Patterson said. "I think we're better. My vote doesn't count.''
Wisconsin was one of the five Big Ten teams to lose a bowl game on New Year's Day.
The Badgers had the ball for 13 minutes, 10 seconds longer than TCU. They had 385 yards total offense to 301 for TCU, and the Horned Frogs ran for only 82 yards, 28 of those by quarterback Andy Dalton, who was named offensive player of the game.
TCU linebacker Tank Carder deservedly got the defensive honor. After Wisconsin scored with two minutes remaining, Carder slapped away Scott Tolzien's potential tying two-point conversion pass.
"I was in the right place at the right time,'' Carder said.
After TCU grabbed the subsequent onside kick attempt, Wisconsin's time was all but done, setting off a celebration among the purple-clad Horned Frogs fans who comprised more than a third of the 94,118 spectators.
When asked about the "Cinderella aspect'' of TCU, which has lost only three games in three years, Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema insisted, "I don't think they're a Cinderella story, because they proved it.''
TCU and Wisconsin, each averaging 43 points, each was held to its lowest total of the season. But the first quarter was the highest-scoring in Rose Bowl
history, with TCU going ahead 14-10.
After that, the Wisconsin offensive line, averaging about 320 pounds, went nowhere against TCU's 4-2-5 scatter defense, particularly on third downs.
Dalton, who went 15-for-23 for 219 yards and one touchdown, was not sacked. He was sacked only seven times all season.
"If we were going to win,'' Patterson said, "we were going to have to play a ballgame where we didn't do much to hurt ourselves.''
TCU didn't have a turnover. But neither did Wisconsin.
"I knew how important this game was to Andy [Dalton], because he was very hard on himself after [losing] the Fiesta Bowl a year ago to Boise State,'' Patterson said. "Now he's won 44 ballgames. He's the winningest active quarterback in college football.''
And now TCU is no worse than the second-best team.
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http://www.newsday.com/sports/college/college-football/dalton-defense-secure-tcu-s-13-0-season-1.2581393Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.
