Dairyland Madness: Top 2000s performance – Championship

We’re into the championship round of Dairyland Madness. This vote will decide the champion and top Wisconsin Sports performance of the 2000s.

It’s a championship-winning performance versus a record-breaking performance in the final round of Dairyland Madness. The two top performances are the winners of the Green Bay Packers’ region and the Wisconsin Badgers region.

In the Final Four, Aaron Rodgers’ Super Bowl MVP game beat Brewers’ region winner, C.C. Sabathia and his 1-hitter. Meanwhile, Melvin Gordon’s 408 yards beat Bucks’ region winner Giannis Antetokounmpo and his 44 points following the death of his father.

With there only being one matchup left, I’ll go a little deeper into each game and performance. Every round, I’ve just written a small paragraph about each game, but now that there are only two to write about, it’s time to get some more detail. But first, remember to find us on Twitter at Dairyland Express to cast your vote or follow the link at the end of the article.

Aaron Rodgers Green Bay Packers Super Bowl MVP

Stat Line: 24-39, 304 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs

Aaron Rodgers and his Super Bowl MVP performance has been one of the greatest Cinderella stories of a tournament ever. As an 11 seed, he’s faced some resistance but has come through each round of this tournament with the win. In the Final Four, he took home a whopping 81.7 percent of the votes against C.C. Sabathia’s 1-hitter.

This game is not one of Rodgers’ most amazing games statistically. We’ve all watched him throw for 300 yards more times than we can count. However, it’s the championship feeling that he gave to each and every one of us that’s gotten him through each round.

Rodgers kicked off the scoring late in the first quarter with a beautiful over-the-shoulder throw to Jordy Nelson to give the Packers the lead. With 2:24 to go in the first half, he threw a strike over the middle to Greg Jennings to extend the lead to 21-3. Early in the fourth quarter, he led a great drive ending with his final TD pass to Jennings. That put the game out of reach and the Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl XLV.

Melvin Gordon Wisconsin Badgers Record-Breaking Game

Stat Line: 25 carries, 408 yards, 16.3 yards per carry, 4 TDs

Melvin Gordon has had a much different path to the championship than Rodgers. The Wisconsin Badgers’ standout has gotten here off of a purely ridiculous statistical performance. So statistically ridiculous that it broke the FBS record for rushing yards in a single game.

And he’s beaten some great performances to get here. He beat Jim Sorgi and Lee Evans combined, Frank Kaminsky’s game to beat undefeated Kentucky, and in the Final Four he took down Giannis’ 44 points to honor his dad with 59.6 percent of the votes.

Gordon’s big day wasn’t just in some throw-away game either. The number 20 ranked Wisconsin Badgers had the 16th ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers in town that day. Gordon even let Nebraska get a 17-3 lead before really getting going in the second quarter with a 62-yard touchdown run. Wisconsin scored two more times in the quarter to take a 24-17 lead into halftime and Gordon had 234 yards, but only one touchdown.

Then in the third quarter, he scored three times from 1, 6, and 26 yards out respectively. I should mention that the 1-yard touchdown was set up by a 43-yard run by Gordon. After that, he had mercy on the Nebraska defense and let Dare Ogunbowale and Corey Clement take the carries in the fourth quarter. He finished the day with a total of eight rushes of over 25 yards.

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