Stanford opened the game with two touchdown drives, including a three-yard run by Stepfan Taylor.
PASADENA, Calif. — The view was a sight to behold, the sun setting on the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance. Down below, the teams looked vintage, as the 99th Rose Bowl devolved into something familiar for Barry Alvarez: brawn, bruises and punts. A lot of punts.
But Alvarez’s 16 seasons as Wisconsin’s coach, a Hall of Fame induction, a previously perfect 3-0 Rose Bowl record, vintage red sweater vest and timeless sunglasses did not count for much on New Year’s Day. Not against Stanford, a program that flexed its staying power, slowly wearing out the Badgers, 20-14, on Tuesday.
It was Stanford’s first Rose Bowl win since 1972 and Wisconsin’s third straight loss.
In his final game, Wisconsin’s Montee Ball, the N.C.A.A. record-holder for career touchdowns (82), rushed for 100 yards on 24 carries and scored on an 11-yard run.
The second half was a tug-of-war between Ball and his Stanford counterpart Stepfan Taylor. Back and forth Ball and Taylor went, disappearing in a mosh pit of red and white bodies, out of sight to gain their yards. Taylor gained 88 yards on 20 carries and scored on a 3-yard run that gave Stanford a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
Trailing 20-14, Wisconsin mounted a final drive, but quarterback Curt Phillips’s pass was tipped and intercepted by Usua Amanam near midfield with 2 minutes 30 seconds remaining.
Wisconsin seniors had pleaded for Alvarez, the athletic director, to step in for Bret Bielema, who had left for Arkansas. Alvarez hired the Utah State coach Gary Andersen, but decided to take Bielema’s place in the Rose Bowl. Six assistants who will move on to new jobs stayed to assist Alvarez.
Stanford (12-2) opened the game with two touchdown drives, balanced and impressive, as it had looked with Andrew Luck at quarterback. Taylor pushed forward, and wiggled for extra yards. Kevin Hogan, who is often likened to Luck, looked as though this weren’t his fifth career start, marching the Cardinal 80 and 79 yards.
Hogan’s threat as a passer — and Phillips’s lack thereof — built Stanford a 14-0 lead. Though, it was a double-reverse pass from one wide receiver, Drew Terrell, to another, Jamal-Rashad Patterson, that netted 34 yards on the opening drive. Hogan followed by lofting a pretty, 43-yard pass to the tight end Zach Ertz.
It seemed Stanford could do no wrong, and Wisconsin (8-6) could and did.
On their second drive, the Badgers celebrated two touchdowns, yet did not score. On first and goal, Ball scored, but holding was called. On third and goal, Phillips hit the tight end Jacob Pedersen for a score. But after the replay review, Pedersen was ruled down at the half-yard line. The running back James White was smothered and turned back on fourth down.
Ball found the end zone on the next drive, and Phillips found a groove. He inspired some excitement, some hope, when he tip-toed down the Wisconsin sideline for a 38-yard scamper late in the second quarter. He capped that drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass, cutting Stanford’s lead to 17-14, 19 seconds before halftime.
As Hogan’s career may have been rising, Phillips’s was setting in a much different fashion. He twice tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, and overcame an infection to become the third Wisconsin quarterback to start this season, only because Joel Stave broke his collarbone on Oct. 27.
Phillips only threw 16 passes, for 83 yards, and handed the ball off 45 times. Hogan only threw 19 passes, for 123 yards, and handed it off 35 times.
Neither team scored in the third quarter, which featured three first downs and eight punts.
Already, some of the Rose Bowl’s shine had faded. Pundits, and surely conventional wisdom, thought Wisconsin to be somewhat unworthy of a Rose Bowl berth, having lost five games this season. Because Penn State and Ohio State were ineligible, Wisconsin played in the Big Ten championship and whipped Nebraska, 70-31.
So this 99th Rose Bowl was billed as brawn versus brawn. Stanford offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton remarked that he considered his offensive linemen “playmakers.” And Alvarez warned: “Better bring your big-boy pads.”
But the game wasn’t as nostalgic as it was, at times, boring.
Finally, in the fourth quarter, Hogan led a grueling 11-play, 51-yard drive that ended in a 22-yard field goal. It only padded Stanford’s lead, but it was something to cheer for as darkness fell.
