Wisconsin Badgers Football: What to watch for against Central Michigan

The Wisconsin Badgers play their first home game of the season against Central Michigan and this is what you need to watch for during the game.

The Wisconsin Badgers opened up their season with a dominating performance on the road against the University of South Florida with a 49-0 victory. Really it was about as well-rounded of a win as you will see as the offense, defense and special teams were firing on all cylinders that night.

Now, they welcome in Central Michigan to Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday. After an awful 1-11 season in 2018, the Chippewas hired former Colorado State and Florida head coach Jim McElwain to hopefully turn things around.

Last week they rolled to a fairly easy win over Albany 38-21, however, keep in mind that Albany is an FCS team. With that said, Central Michigan has a number of positives to carry over to this week’s game against Wisconsin.

So as we prepare for this week two matchup, here are a few things to keep your eyes on once the game begins.

Jack Coan’s development

Looking back at last week there really isn’t much to turn your nose at when looking at Jack Coan’s state line. He finished the game 19/26 for 201 yards with two touchdowns. However, he did miss a couple of deep throws down the field to Qunitez Cephus that he probably should have made.

But overall it was a very good performance. He stood in the pocket even when there was pressure in his face, delivered on-time passes, and he was very efficient. With the Wisconsin Badgers’ defense and running game, they don’t need Coan to be a super-star but in this game, we want to see his confidence continue to grow and another efficient performance.

Jonathan Taylor

I mean it’s impossible to not watch Jonathan Taylor when you’re watching the Badgers but this could be a particularly big game for him against this Central Michigan front-seven. Last season the Chippewas gave up an average of 216.3 rushing yards per game and since then, they’ve lost three starting linebackers and two defensive tackles. This could be one of those games where Taylor goes wild on the opposing defense.

More turnovers

A lack of turnovers was one of the issues facing this Wisconsin Badgers team last season but against South Florida, we saw that stingy Badger defense that we’ve become accustomed to over the years. Even against an FCS opponent in Albany, Central Michigan still finished -2 in turnover differential and this should be another great opportunity for the Badgers’ defense to force multiple takeaways.

Defensive pressure

Another issue from last season was Wisconsin’s inability to create sacks as they fell from 42 in 2017, to only 19 in 2018. Yet last week they were living in the backfield forcing four sacks, five tackles for loss, and two quarterback hurries.

As we look ahead to their matchup with Central Michigan, the offensive front is a question mark on this team – particularly as pass-blockers – and they would give up two sacks and five tackles for loss against Albany.

Central Michigan spread offense v. the Badger defense

There was some uncertainty prior to last week’s matchup in regards to how this Badgers’ defense would handle the South Florida spread offense. But as we saw, they dominated the game as they allowed no points and only 157 total yards. Let’s see them do it again this week against Central Michigan.

Can Wisconsin slow down Dormady and Ward?

To contain this Central Michigan offense, the Badgers will have to slow down quarterback, Quinten Dormady and running back, Jonathan Ward.

Dormady spent three years at Tennessee and it was in 2017 that he would see the most action completing 55.5 percent of his passes for 925 yards with six touchdowns and six interceptions. Against Albany, he would play quite well completing 27/37 passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns.

Meanwhile, the senior Ward has shown that he can be a difference-maker both as a runner and in the passing game. His best season was in 2017 where he totaled 1,024 yards on the ground, including 10 touchdowns and added another 470 yards in the air. Last week, Ward finished with 158 rushing yards and 53 yards receiving.

A balanced offense

We all know that the Wisconsin Badgers are going to be a run first team but against South Florida, we saw a very nice balance between the run and pass games. In total Wisconsin would pass the ball 26 times and run it 43 times, however, that number is a bit more skewed towards the running game given that the game was out of reach for USF and the Badgers were running the clock in the fourth quarter.

I hope this week we see a more balanced attack once again as we did over the first few quarters of last week’s game.

Tyrone Scott of Central Michigan

Tyrone Scott is a redshirt freshman so Central Michigan’s game last week against Albany was his first real action but he did impress. The 6’3″ receiver hauled in five receptions for 93 yards and two touchdown passes. The young Wisconsin secondary struggled in 2018 but fared much better last week, let’s see if they can slow down Scott.

The Wisconsin Badgers are heavily favored in this matchup and especially at home, they should cruise to any easy victory as they overpower the far less talented Central Michigan. But as the game unfolds, keep your eyes on these keys to the game.