Phillips, NU defense rattle Wisconsin's Clay

When Northwestern compiles its highlight reel for senior safety Brad Phillips, it'll include such hits as last year's helmet-rattling blow to Iowa's Shonn Greene and his shoulder-separating smash of Purdue quarterback Joey Elliott.

There also will be less bloodthirsty, but no less effective, clips from Phillips' effort against bruising Wisconsin tailback John Clay in Saturday's 33-31 win over the 16th-ranked Badgers.

"I bit his ankles all night," Phillips said with a laugh. "There's a couple times where I hit him up top and I'll feel it tomorrow. Going into the game, I knew I was going to hit his legs all game."

Phillips, one of 21 seniors making their final appearance at Ryan Field, led everyone with 11 solo tackles. He set the tone for Northwestern's defense when he blitzed in for a sack to halt Wisconsin's first possession, then celebrated the accomplishment with a rare show of emotion.

"(There were) a lot of guys that we had to make sure to coach 'em up on how to use that emotion and passion the right way," coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "We had to settle them down a little bit."

Yet it was a riled-up defense that limited the Big Ten's rushing champ to 100 yards on 23 carries - and the conference's leading rushing team (198.0 ypg) to exactly half of its average.

Northwestern defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz elected to give 230-pound sophomore Bryce McNaul his first start at outside linebacker. That gave the Wildcats more heft to plug the gaps against Clay.

But it was the other outside linebacker, junior Quentin Davie, who made perhaps the game's biggest play.

With Wisconsin facing third-and-1 from Northwestern's 46 with 1:50 to go - and needing perhaps 15 more yards to get into position for a game-winning field goal - Clay tried to blast through the left side for the first down.

Davie did his job by going low and plowing into fullback Mickey Turner. Clay banged into Turner and fumbled the ball to safety Brian Peters.

Wisconsin regained the ball with 42 seconds left, but cornerback Jordan Mabin intercepted Scott Tolzien's deep ball to Isaac Anderson to clinch a share of fourth place in the Big Ten.