Barrington, Ill. -- The fickle fall winds flew through Ross-Ade stadium, a perfect accompaniment for what surely was one of the most bizarre Big Ten football games in a generation.

"I've been in this racket a long time," Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez told Tom Mulhern of the Wisconsin State Journal after his seventh-ranked Badgers (7-0 overall, 4-0 in Big Ten play) had made off with an eerie 20-17 victory over No. 12 Purdue. "I don't know if I've ever been in a game like that.

"Playing against a great football team, I was very proud of how my players showed resolve. We were very effective in the first half on defense primarily because we were able to get pressure from our two defensive ends."

It was a perfect game for the season: Halloween. Goblins were everywhere. Injuries. Opportunism that swung the game to and fro. And, of course, a little heated controversy.

The two teams took off their disguises early, though. It was a classic study in Big Ten hardball, and in the first half, it had all the makings of another massive statement by Wisconsin that it indeed should be included in the U.S.C./Oklahoma/Miami elite mix.

Shutting down Heisman Trophy hopeful Kyle Orton is science lab overtime work. But when you had defensive ends like Erasmus James and Jonathan Welsh playing "Meet Me at the Quarterback," the job, for the first half, anyhow, got easier in a hurry. No pun intended.

Defensive coordinator Brett Bielema, knowing nobody had run successfully against the Badgers thus far, concocted a James/Welsh pass-rushing scheme that kept Purdue's talented offensive line off balance throughout the first half, which seemed destined to finish with a scoreless tie.

But John Stocco and the offense put together a very un-Wisconsinlike madcap drive that ended in Anthony Davis' six-yard touchdown bolt with 1 minute, 42 seconds remaining and the Badgers took a 7-0 lead to the locker room.

But by the time the third quarter began to unfold, both Welsh and James were out, victims of various forms of roll-blocks, particularly James, who appeared to have his ankles taken out by Purdue tight end Charles Davis, who unmistakably dove at them.

Alvarez begged off the controversy, but Bielema was pretty steamed afterward. "There's certain things that happen on the field that have no place in college football," he told Mulhern, telling the Wisconsin beat writer he saw some Purdue players celebrating Davis's hit, leading to the possibility it was intent to injure.

"You could see (Orton) had a lot more time to throw the football," Alvarez told the Chicago Sun-Times' Brian Hanley. "That was a huge difference. We played so well in the first half because we were able to get pressure.

"That's a different level of ballplayer, because I don't know anyone who's playing as well as 'Ras.'"

With the pass rush slowed down considerably, despite game efforts from replacements Brandon Kelly and Kalvin Barrett, along with second string tackles Jamal Cooper and Justin Ostrowski who saw extensive action, Orton guided the Boilers offense to a 17-7 lead.

He hit Davis on an 8-yard end zone fade pattern for a 7-7 third quarter tie on Purdue's first third-quarter possession, then after Ben Jones gave the Boilers a 10-7 lead with 13:43 left, Orton ran for a six-yard score five minutes later and the 65,196 Ross-Ade Stadium inmates erupted (save about 3,000 red clad invaders in two end-zone patches).

The campus had been a mobile party all day, with ESPN's "Game Day" zanies visiting Purdue for the first time, and the sideline frat boys were allowing themselves to envision a 2002-type Ohio State run at the national championship.

But then...

Back came Stocco, putting together an electric seven-play, 73 yard drive, hitting Booker Stanley on a middle screen for a seven-yard touchdown that brought Wisconsin within 17-14.

"That was a gut check," Stocco told the media masses.

More to the point, it was a major league study in coolness. But with 5:29 left and a remade Wisconsin defense out there, the thought process was Orton could somehow play keepaway.

When he circled right end on third-and-2 from the Purdue 37, Orton rolled to the first down, but was low-bridged by cornerback Scott Starks and hit high by safety Robert Brooks squarely at the 40.

"He (Starks) got pretty low on me," Orton told Tom Kubat of the Lafayette (Ind.) Journal and Courier. "I probably should have just dived to the side or tried not to take a head-on collision with him, but that's how it goes."

With it went the game. The ball popped out just a millisecond before Orton hit the ground and Starks, back up, saw opportunity up close.

"If the ball would have been bouncing around," he told Mulhern, "I probably would have just covered it. But it was just sitting there and I saw the perfect opportunity there."

At the end of this wild season, particularly if Purdue knocks off always-tough Michigan (6-1) next week in West Lafayette, that moment will flash in every Boilermaker's wouldda-couldda-shouldda memory bank.

Starks scooped it up and ran 40 unopposed yards for the winning touchdown. But this game was hardly over.

The middle of the Boilers' defense vaulted to block Mike Allen's conversion attempt, and wouldn't you know it, soon Orton had Purdue on the Wisconsin 25 with a chance to win it.

Ben Jones, previously Mr. Automatic from between 40-49 yards, seemed likely to force a 20-20 tie and overtime.

But this was a day where lots of things weren't as they seemed. And sure enough, his kick fluttered five full yards wide of the right post.

"The snap was good, the hold was good. I missed it. Nothing else to say, really," Jones told Kubat before elaborating as most college kids will.

"I just looked up, knew it wasn't good and turned my head," Jones said, recalling a missed 37-yarder in overtime at Ohio State that would have given the Boilers a shocking upset of the Buckeyes last year.

"I put it off my toe a little bit. Just caught it on the wrong part of my foot. The wind had nothing to do with it."

It was the last of a series of mind-bending events that

allowed the Badgers, not Purdue, to leave Ross-Ade Stadium with dreams of the biggest Bowl Championship Series plum dancing in their heads.

Notable: It was the fourth straight year the visiting team won in this contentious series...Preliminary reports indicate the rolled-ankles suffered by Welsh and James will respond fairly quickly and they should be ready when the Badgers host Northwestern (3-3, 1-2) at 11 a.m. Central, 12 noon Eastern Saturday...Purdue takes on Michigan (6-1, 4-0) at 2:30 (3:30 Eastern) Saturday...Wisconsin has come back to win all three road games, two in the fourth quarter.