MADISON, Wis. — From the hush of thousands came the roar of a few.

Camp Randall Stadium fell into silence after Northwestern tailback Damien Anderson scrambled untouched for a 12-yard touchdown in the second overtime. Silent, that is, except from the Wildcats sideline and the front seats along sections W and X, which held most of the NU faithful. The Cats gathered around Anderson and rejoiced, jumped and shoved — pushing members of Wisconsin’s marching band out of their territory.

The final scene of NU’s 47-44 double-overtime shocker over the two-time defending Rose Bowl champs and No. 7 Wisconsin (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten) Saturday came in the most dramatic fashion in recent NU memory. The Cats (3-1, 1-0), who entered the game as 16-point underdogs, excelled when it mattered most and humbled the Badgers in front of 78,597 fans.

“I just tried to hit the house as fast as I could,” Anderson said of his game-winning run. “At first I was happy, but then I got back to reality and looked for flags. After that, it was just one of those things — I was speechless, I couldn’t say anything.”

Added NU coach Randy Walker: “For a year and a half, I’ve been waiting to give them evidence that there’s a method to the madness — that there’s a reason for all the things we try to do and what we try to be about. And it’s just good today to collect on some of that evidence and to show them a vivid, graphic example that this is NU football and this is how we play.”

Camp Randall and the Cheeseheads were left in shock, as most folks donning red watched the Cats celebrate in their end zone. The Badgers were riding an 11-game winning streak, and the last time NU upended them at Madison was back in October 1996.

NU’s no-huddle, option offense and the 544 yards it compiled, however, didn’t stunned the Badgers.

“First let me congratulate Northwestern,” Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez said. “We pretty much had seen what they had done. They executed on offense better than we executed on defense. I thought our offense did a good job against their defense. There really weren’t any surprises.

“Their kids hung in there and did a good job.”

NU posted the first points on the scoreboard, thanks in part to Wisconsin’s Nick Davis, who fumbled a punt return in mid-Badgers territory. Using the audible to his early advantage, NU quarterback Zak Kustok dashed 28 yards for the first touchdown of the game.

Wisconsin responded moments later with tailback Michael Bennett, who collected a career-high 293 yards and two touchdowns in the game. Bennett, a Heisman Trophy candidate, collected 62 yards on the first two Wisconsin possessions with his cut-and-run style. Bennett’s first touchdown run gave the Badgers a 9-7 lead.

From that point, NU played catchup all along until Anderson busted out a 69-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

Anderson, who ran for 174 yards on 21 carries, broke to the NU sideline, and cut back inside at Wisconsin’s 45-yard line with great blocking by left tackle Leon Brockmeier. NU’s leading rusher broke several tackles en route to his sixth touchdown run of the season and a 24-23 NU lead.

Come clutch situations in the second half, Kustok’s right arm proved to be the difference. With NU down 31-24 and a fourth-and-8 at Wisconsin’s 29, Kustok initially looked left for wideout Sam Simmons, scrambled out of the pocket and fired to the wide-open Derrick Thompson in the end zone to tie the game.

And even when NU seemed out of time and options after Vitaly Pisetsky’s 47-yard field goal gave Wisconsin a 34-31 lead, Kustok and Co. marched down field with only 51 seconds left. With two seconds left, Kustok fired a 19-yard completion to Teddy Johnson at Wisconsin’s 28, setting up NU kicker Tim Long’s buzzer-beating, breathtaking 46-yard field goal that barely made it over the crossbar and sent the game to overtime.

Kustok, with an ice-packed shoulder after the game, shrugged off the last-second pressure.

“Even on that fourth-down touchdown pass to Derrick, I was just sitting back in the shotgun, had a little smile on my face and said, ‘God, just be with me on this play,'” said Kustok, who completed 21 of 41 passes for two touchdowns and a career-high 278 yards.

“I think the biggest thing about some of those clutch situations is I didn’t have any pressure on myself and I wasn’t overlooking things. I was just thinking, ‘OK. I’m making this play right now because I don’t have a choice. I have to make it or we’re going to be in trouble.'”

The last of NU’s troubles came in the second overtime, after Pisetsky’s 39-yard field goal secured a 44-41 lead for the Badgers. Because of overtime rules, the Cats would have lost had they not at least tied the game with a field goal.

But the NU defense proudly trotted off the field for limiting the Wisconsin offense to three points — knowing its counterpart would get the job done.

“We were on the sidelines thinking, ‘Yeah, we’re going to win this game,’ because by that point, we pretty much figured that our guys were capable of scoring touchdowns,” linebacker Napoleon Harris said. “We moved the ball pretty well out there and we were just trusting the guys to get the job done.”

Added linebacker Kevin Bentley, who returned a fumble in the third quarter for NU’s second touchdown: “We trusted in what we were and who we are, and this week, we got it done.”

With NU on Wisconsin’s 12, Kustok looked right to the sideline. It was a trap play, in which the guard opens a gap for Anderson to scramble through. The Cats had called the trap all day, mainly to the right.

Another audible. Kustok leaned forward to the NU linemen, confirming the play would roll left instead. Then, through the helmets, Kustok glimpsed at Anderson.

The two exchanged a simple glance amid Camp Randall’s boisterous crowd. It was all about “trust” — something Walker had preached all week to his team.

“We were like, ‘This one’s going in for a touchdown,'” Kustok said.

“It never crossed my mind that we wouldn’t win,” Walker said. “We keep working, trying to find a way to win. I expected us to win, if not on that play, on some play.

“I’m extremely excited for our kids. They’re the ones who put in the hard work, they’re the ones who had to take that leap of faith with our program, they’re the ones that dared greatly today.”