Wisconsin Football v. Northwestern: Immediate Reactions & Highlights

It was a hard-fought game but the Wisconsin Football team comes away with the win over Northwestern. Here are the immediate reactions and highlights from the game.

The Wisconsin Football team and Northwestern each came into today’s game on very different trajectories at this point in the season. Wisconsin was 3-0 after three fairly dominating performances, including a win over then-ranked number 11 Michigan.

Meanwhile, Northwestern was 1-2 and was struggling terribly on both sides of the ball. Yet as it always seems to be when these two teams get together, it was a close, hard-fought game.

However, the Badger defense continued to play incredibly well and even though it was tough sledding for Jonathan Taylor at times, he was able to eclipse 100 yards. As a result, Wisconsin came away with the win and moved to 4-0 on the season.

As I alluded to, it wasn’t pretty but a win is a win. Here are the immediate reactions and highlights from what we saw from this Wisconsin Football team on the field against Northwestern.

• We knew this offense went through Jonathan Taylor but as I mentioned above, it was very difficult at times for him to find any space and as a result, the offense looked quite futile throughout the game.
• Speaking of Jonathan Taylor, he was finally able to get over 100 yards rushing in the game and this marks the first time he’s hit that mark against Northwestern in his career.
• A big contributor to Taylor’s slow day was the lack of push from the Wisconsin offensive front. This Northwestern front-seven really gave them fits.
• In the first quarter, the Badgers were up seven and just taking over around mid-field after a Northwestern punt. However, a penalty on Wisconsin negated the punt and resulted in a Northwestern first down. The Wildcats would then drive down the field and kick a field goal. That penalty ended up having a huge impact as it looked like Wisconsin was poised to go up by two scores early but it ended with Northwestern putting up points instead.
• Fun Fact: The Wisconsin “Hippo Package” has 2,500 pounds of blockers on the field at one time. All I have to say to opposing defenses is good luck.

• With an experienced coach in Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern’s style of play, they always give this Badgers team issues and that was evident today.
• We knew it was going to happen at some point, but Jack Coan now has his first interception of the season.
• After a very hot start to the season for Coan, he looked very pedestrian today against Northwestern with a stat line of 15/24 for 113 yards. With that said, he was still very efficient which is going to be key to winning games.
• With the offense struggling to move the ball, the Wisconsin defense comes up HUGE with two defensive touchdowns to help put the game away.

• Linebackers, Jack Sanborn and Zack Baun are literally all over the field making plays. This duo is incredibly impressive to watch.
• Meanwhile, Matt Henningsen just continues to make plays. Right after halftime, he came up with a big sack on third down and also recovered the loose fumble in the endzone.
• After being ejected for targeting and being suspended for the first half of today’s game, Eric Burrell comes up with what could be considered the play of the game. Burrell came flying off the edge as a blitzer and forced the fumble that resulted in a touchdown.

https://twitter.com/ESPNCFB/status/1178016361492013056

• This could be considered minor, but kicker Collin Larsh did hit a 36-yard field goal today. The significance of it is that Larsh was just 1/4 on field goals coming into today’s game. It was nice to see him hit one.
• Rachad Wildgoose was another Badger defender that had a very nice game. Wildgoose was flying around, making open-field tackles, and had some big hits as well.
• Before the Badgers defense blew this game open, field position was key and the Wisconsin defense and special teams unit made sure that they always had the advantage.
• Last week we saw the Badgers play fairly aggressively against Michigan and on the opening drive today, we saw the offense go for it on fourth down which ended in a touchdown. However, after that Paul Chryst became a little too conservative for my liking, I’d rather see them play more aggressive than passive.
• Defensive coordinator, Jim Leonhard kept dialing up blitzes and my goodness were they fast and effective.

• Taylor continues to play a role in the Wisconsin passing game as he hauled in three receptions with a long of 16.
• In the fourth quarter, the Badgers special teams looked pretty shaky as they muffed a punt which resulted in a Northwestern touchdown and then failed to recover an onside kick.
• Special teams errors and the offense’s inability to sustain drives in the fourth quarter allowed Northwestern back into the game and made it much closer than what it should have been.
• Give all the game balls to the Wisconsin defense. What a performance.

Well, we knew that not every game was going to be a convincing win but the important part is that the Badgers did move to 4-0 on the season. Next week they have a break in their Big Ten schedule and take on Kent State at Camp Randall Stadium.