Wisconsin Football v. Michigan State: Gut Reactions & Highlights

The Wisconsin Football team cruised to another victory, this time over Michigan State. Here are the gut reactions and highlights from today’s win.

After a dominating win last week against Kent State, the Wisconsin Football team welcomed Big Ten rival Michigan State to Camp Randall today. And just like most games this year for the Badgers, they were able to cruise to an easy victory.

As a result, the eighth-ranked Badgers moved to 6-0 on the season and could move up in the national rankings as well. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, here are the gut reactions and highlights from their performance on the field against the Spartans.

• After working diligently all offseason, Jonathan Taylor continues to make an impact in the Badgers’ passing game. Today against Michigan State, he would total three catches for 22 yards.
• The Wisconsin Football team has been very effective on their opening drives this season, however, today we saw some sloppy play on that first series. A holding penalty and then a fumble by Jack Coan would result in a punt.

• Credit to the Michigan State defensive front that was able to slow down Jonathan Taylor for the most part. Taylor would average just 3.1 yards per carry.
• With Taylor bottled up, there were a number of significant plays that fell on the shoulders of Jack Coan and boy did he deliver. Coan made some crucial third and fourth down completions early on and ultimately finished 18/21 for 180 yards and a touchdown.
• Even though Taylor may not have had a big play, receiver Kendric Pryor ripped off a big touchdown run with a mean stiff arm.

• I absolutely love coach Paul Chryst’s aggressiveness this season. And today against Michigan State he would go for it on fourth down on two separate occasions. I hope we continue to see this aggressive mentality.

• Speaking of fourth downs, the Wisconsin Football team is a perfect eight-for-eight on the season. Wow!

• Also, how about that catch by Quintez Cephus? My goodness!

• It is one of the many reasons that he is so good, but Jonathan Taylor’s vision and ability to squeak through small gaps is second to none.
• It was certainly a nice day for tight end Jake Ferguson who led the Wisconsin Football team in receptions and receiving yards with a whopping average of 15.5 yards per catch. He also would have had a touchdown if it wasn’t for the Turf Monster.

• This Badger defense is just smothering and continues to prove that they are the best in the country. Today they held this Michigan State offense to just 149 total yards and forced two turnovers.
• The Wisconsin offensive line did a very nice job of giving Jack Coan time to survey the field and make his throws from a clean pocket. Without a doubt that was a huge contributor to his success.
• Linebacker Zack Baun came up with a spectacular pick-six and it won’t be long before we see him making plays on Sundays.

• Incredibly, Wisconsin has outscored their opponents in the first half, 152 to 3!
• On the defensive side of the ball, the Badgers have posted FOUR shutouts in six games!
• A big key coming into this game was slowing the Michigan State passing attack and receiver Darrell Stewart Jr. Prior to the game, Stewart  Jr. had 41 receptions for 624 receiving yards, both of which ranked as the sixth most in the nation. Well today, the Wisconsin defense would hold Stewart Jr. to just five receptions for 59 yards and a couple of those receptions came in garbage time.

This Wisconsin Football team continues to impress and next week they will be on the road against Illinois. Although they should win that game fairly easily, things get difficult after that with games against Ohio State, Iowa, and Nebraska the following weeks.