Badgers Ball Ruminations: Western Michigan Recap

Wisconsin is 1-0 after an uninspiring season-opening victory at Camp Randall Stadium.

I don’t plan on writing too much about the Wisconsin Badgers football team here, but I (against my better judgement) still watch every game and have Thoughts and Feelings about them that need to be removed from my brain. As such, I am starting a new column on this regularly updated (citation needed) newsletter. Welcome to the first edition of Badgers Ball Ruminations!

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Before Friday night’s game against Western Michigan my brother-in-law posed a fairly simple question that caused me much consternation: “what would a successful Week 1 game look like for [me]?” After a disappointing debut campaign for Luke Fickell, expectations were considerably lower entering Year 2, but I still struggled with what “reasonable” points I could enumerate.

(Photo by Tom Lynn/Wisconsin Athletic Communications)

Here is what I, eventually, came up with:

• Eliminate pre-snap penalties

• Get pressure on QB

• Improved offensive line play

• Beat WMU by multiple TDs

• Make 4th quarter academic

And here is how I think Wisconsin did in meeting these modest goals:

• Eliminate pre-snap penalties?

  • Not really, all three penalties were pre-snap. The Badgers were extremely disciplined in this game, but there is still considerable room for improvement. The mental mistakes, whether by the players or the coaching staff, killed multiple drives last season and it was more of the same on Friday night. Two of the three penalties were committed in the red zone and made it so UW had to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns. Against a better team that could’ve been the difference between winning and losing.

• Get pressure on QB?

  • No. Wisconsin recorded one sack (shoutout to transfer DL Elijah Hills) and one TFL (see: Elijah Hills sack) in this game. WMU quarterback Hayden Wolff didn’t have a dynamic game, but he also wasn’t under duress (completed 12-of-18 passes) at all. I think (read: hope) this will improve as the season goes on but I’m not as optimistic as I was a week ago.

• Improved offensive line play?

  • Yes, but last year’s bar was quite low to clear. Tyler Van Dyke was only sacked once and the Adj. OL Yards numbers for UW were over 100 yards, but I found myself wanting more. I am still confident that the OL will end up as a strength for Wisconsin this year.

• Beat WMU by multiple TDs?

  • Technically yes! The Badgers won this game by 14 points, which is two touchdowns for any Europeans reading this, and two is “multiple.” Let’s go, baby! National championship bound!!!

• Make 4th quarter academic?

  • Nope! With 12 seconds left in the third quarter the Broncos lined up to punt it away to the Badgers. The crowd was ready to Jump Around and propel UW to a game-clinching drive to start the fourth quarter and then…WMU ran a kickass fake punt and scored a TD to take the lead three plays later. Wisconsin’s first drive of the final period stalled out quickly, forcing the Badgers to punt it away. Thankfully Atticus Bertrams’ punt hit a WMU gunner and Austin Brown hopped on the loose ball which allowed Wisconsin to punch the ball in to the end zone and retake the lead with 10:33 to go. UW stopped WMU on 4th and 1 the next time the Broncos had the ball and then marched down the field to score another touchdown and put the game out of reach. I had to pay way more attention to this quarter than I wanted and I was very sleepy.

Here are a few other observations and frustrations from the game:

• Wisconsin was great on 3rd down (10-of-16) and 4th down (1-of-1) in this game.

• Bad red zone offense (six attempts, five scores, three TDs); last year went 29-of-46 on red zone touchdowns (63.04%, 56th best in country; overall redzone numbers at 84.78%, 64th best); 50% TD rate would’ve put them at 121st in the country last year (Nebraska 125th, Iowa 132nd last year); 83.3% scoring rate would’ve been tied for 75th best last year. I want Phil Longo placed in a soundproof box on gamedays so he can’t call plays.

• Nothing explosive on offense (long play of 17 yards; explosive play rate of 6% which was 24th percentile for the week nationally); Van Dyke, whose arm strength was praised during fall camp, never unleashed the dragon.

• Havoc rate of 4% (9th percentile) and only one sack, which was also UW’s only TFL as noted above; 22% run stuff rate (13th percentile).

• Absolutely fooled by WMU fake punt. This was a great call by Lance Taylor and co.

• Great stop on 4th & 1 in the fourth quarter. LB Aaron Witt (!!!) and CB Nyzier Fourqurean made the stop, but the whole defensive unit did their jobs perfectly on this crucial play.

• Heads up play by S Austin Brown to recover fumble on punt return when it hit a WMU gunner. Fumble luck is random, but it is a tiny bit less random when your players are in the correct position to make plays.

• Insane interception by true freshman CB Xavier Lucas. Not to put too much pressure on a guy who has played one (1) college football game but…Lucas looks like a Dude.

• I liked how S Hunter Wohler, NB Max Lofy, and CB Ricardo Hallman (never thrown at) played in the secondary; transfer LB Jaheim Thomas looked good too.

• WR Trech Kekahuna needs to get the ball more. His two-point conversion reception was impressive.

(Photo by David Stluka/Wisconsin Athletic Communications)

• RBs Tawee Walker and Chez Mellusi both ran hard; Cade Yacamelli is going to make it difficult for the true freshmen RBs to see the field; TVD’s running ability was better than expected.

• First TD drive (16 plays, 93 yards) was an old-school Wisconsin drive; per UW: Wisconsin collected two 16-play drives, marking the first time in at least 10 seasons the Badgers have accomplished that feat.