The Buckeyes spend more years ranked in the Top 10 than not, and the Big Horseshoe faithful wanted in the worst way to believe their team had awakened with a vengeance from the previous week's nightmare on the North Shore, a revolting 33-27 upset shocker at lightly-regarded Northwestern.

For 20 minutes against a Wisconsin team you'll hear more and more from, the Buckeyes were playing typical Jim Tressel football, a style the third-year coach brought with him from Youngstown State, where his Penguins won four I-AA championships. The elements are basic...

Defense. Special teams. Mistake-free offense.

"We knew they had a big front four and linebackers," Buckeyes quarterback Justin Zwick said. "We wanted to spread them out a little bit and get our guys out and about, make some plays..."

For 20 minutes, it worked as the Bucks pulled out to a 10-0 lead thanks to a breathtaking 65-yard Ted Ginn, Jr. return of a Ken DeBauche punt and 42-yard Mike Nugent field goal.

But this year's Badgers team may be coach Barry Alvarez's best and when the sun began to hide behind the west campus in an eerie dusk, with the stadium two-thirds empty, they had won their sixth straight in most convincing fashion, 24-13.

In so doing, Wisconsin (6-0 overall, 3-0 in Big Ten play) cracked The Associated Press's Top 10 (No. 10, jumping five spots) and moved from 16th to 12th in the coaches' poll.

And won a great deal of respect, although some of that was tempered when a couple of Badgers decided to celebrate their win by dancing on the sacred "O" on the midfield turf, precipitating a scuffle for the second time in the past three Wisconsin visits to Ohio Stadium, all of which have resulted in Badgers victories.

"Wisconsin is who they are," Tressel waxed philosophic afterward, not referring to the midfield antics. "And that is why they're good.

Euphoria to euthanasia seemed an unlikely early step for the ambitious Bucks (3-2, 0-2), though, as they overcame poor offensive line play and the beginnings of a game-long ball possession disadvantage to take the 10-point lead.

Ginn's T.D. return featured a great Lydell Ross slide block and his hip-jiggle move that forced two Badgers to take a seat on the Ohio State 45. An exhilarating wind-sprint down the left sideline followed to put the Bucks up 7-0 with 8:33 to go in the first quarter. This while the offense was still searching for its first first down.

"Once I get my hands on the ball and I hit a seam, I'm basically gone," said Ginn, a consensus top 20 national player out of Cleveland powerhouse Glenville High who reminds many of the prior Buckeye who wore No. 7, All-American Chris Gamble. "I'm not going to get caught."

Not with speed that on some legit radar guns reached :04.17. The only respectable Buckeye drive followed, a 5-play, 46-yarder culminating in Nugent's F.G.

Zwick overthrew a wide-open Santonio Holmes down the left sidelines, what almost surely would have been a touchdown, just before Nugent bolstered the lead to 10-0.

With the fifth-largest crowd in Stadium history, 105,090, in full roar, many a team might have seriously considered bailing. But the Badgers are dreaming big this year.

And John Stocco, not a flashy Kyle Ortonesque quarterback, but one who will make three or four killer plays every game, never veered from the typical smashmouth gameplan Alvarez's staff assembles.

"I thought John Stocco played his best game in a very difficult situation," Alvarez assessed. "He's playing against a good defense, the crowd's loud. You have to manage all that and he threw it and made some plays for us."

Stocco coolly hit Owen Daniels and Darrin Charles for key short gainers before the Badgers were finally able to spring Anthony Davis for a 31-yard touchdown. Then he followed up with an 8-yard shot to Charles to cap a 78-yard march that gave Wisconsin a permanent lead with 3:30 left in the half.

Not even a record-tying 55-yard Mike Nugent field goal at halftime could fully repump the crowd.

"The last touchdown pass he threw (an acrobatic, diving left-corner grab by Jonathan Orr that pretty much sealed it), a linebacker (Bobby Carpenter) came right up the middle and he's going to get smacked," said Alvarez. "He was able to get it out of there."

"It was as great a catch as I've ever seen," Stocco said modestly. "It could not have come at a better time."

It was a day of challenges for the 6-feet, 2-inch, 220-pound sophomore and his ability to hold focus til the last possible second proved decisive, a play set up by Holmes' fumble of a punt on the Ohio State 17.

"I just wanted to step up in this game because I knew I had to," said Stocco, who completed 15-of-24 for 160 yards, with no interceptions.

"I think I definitely took a big step," Stocco said.

The Badgers, who do not play Michigan this year, took a giant leap as they look forward to what will certainly be their toughest road test, this Saturday at Purdue.

Most of the leaping came from a marauding defense that leaped over, around and past the Bucks' embattled o-line and regularly distracted Zwick and totally disrupted O.S.U.'s impotent running game.

Wisconsin sent Zwick an early message he could count on having plenty of white-shirted company in the passing pocket as maniacal defensive end Erasmus Jones continually bullrushed his way into Zwick's way and linemates Anttaj Hawthorne, Jason Jefferson and Jonathan Welsh took turns harassing the modestly-talented sophomore Buckeyes Q.B.

Five sacks. Seven knockdowns, tons of pressure. The bottom line result was Zwick going 15-for-31 passing for just 125 yards and in the instances when Holmes, Roy Hall or Bam Childress beat Wisconsin's secondary, he simply wasn't up to the task of delivering the ball.

"I want to forget about this one as soon as I can," Zwick said.

Good thinking. But while the Badgers think the same thoughts Tressel's team did two years ago, about muscling their way into the Bowl Championship Series' upper echelon and taking a hard shot at the national title, the Bucks' goals are much more modest.

"I think we are at a crossroads," Childress said. "Whenever you come off two losses in a row, you want to see how we react."

The visit to Iowa (3-2) will tell a whole lot Saturday. Gone for this year anyhow are thoughts of Big Ten title contention or any shot at a B.C.S. bowl.

"The clock," one unhappy veteran South end zone fan said as he headed to the exit, "is ticking."

"Huh?" his startled and more patient companion asked.

"Tressel. The honeymoon is over."

Welcome to THE Ohio State University.

Buckshots -- The game certainly wasn't without its controversy. As mentioned above, Wisconsin, led by d-back Chuckie Cowans, began a victory jig inside the "O" at midfield, a move that displeased both coaches and many players on both teams. "It's absolutely ludicrous to be stomping on our 'O'," Buckeyes safety Nate Salley said. But some insist the unsportsmanlike tradition began when O.S.U. players danced on the "W" at Camp Randall Stadium's midfield in 2000. "That was too good a football game to have something like that tarnish it," Alvarez said. "Like (Tressel) said to me, and I agree, it was probably 2-3 guys who started it."

The Big 10's replay system -- put in play only when a pressbox official recognizes a highly-controversial call needing review -- got a workout Saturday, as referee Dennis Lipski's crew blew one big time -- literally. With the Badgers only up 14-13 in the third quarter's opening minutes, Anthony Davis appeared to fumble the ball at the Wisconsin 38, setting up at least a likely Nugent go-ahead field goal.

On the T.V. replay, Lipski's communication to the pressbox was overheard and Lipski said on-air, "We're going to give Ohio State the ball." The crowd roared in anticipation, but one of the crew apparently contacted Lipski to indicate he'd blown his whistle right after the ball popped loose, to be recovered by A.J. Hawk. The inadvertant whistle -- an ever-popular officiating event -- brought a lengthy Lipski explanation and a thunderous explosion of boos throughout the stadium. Instead of a first down on the Wisconsin 41, the Bucks were forced back onto defense. Fortunately, Penn State was playing Purdue at exactly the same time. Because if Joe Paterno were watching, he most certainly could relate to yet another major officiating controversy.

Buckeyes defense, already hurting from the loss of one of the conference's best defensive backs, Dustin Fox, lost linebacker Mike D'Andrea for the season. Reportedly the 6-3, 248-pound junior from Avon Lake, Ohio, suffered a knee injury during practice the week of the Northwestern game and will likely undergo surgery Tuesday.