Wisconsin Football: Gut Reactions & (a few) Highlights v. Ohio State

The Wisconsin Football team was looking to bounce-back this week but Ohio State was just too much to handle. Here are the gut reactions and a few highlights from today’s game.

After a disappointing loss to Illinois last week, the Wisconsin Football team had a tall task ahead of them as they had to travel to Ohio State to take on the third-ranked Buckeyes. It was a defensive battle to start the game with poor weather and two of the nation’s top defenses squaring off, but Ohio State was just too much to handle and would pull away in the second half.

As always, there are plenty of takeaways and here are the gut reactions and a few highlights from today’s game.

• Early on the Wisconsin defense was able to limit J.K. Dobbins for the most part, but doing that for four quarters is a tall task. Dobbins would end up rushing for over 160 yards with two touchdowns while also hauling in three receptions for 58 yards.
• The Buckeyes would not let Jonathan Taylor get going. The Badger running back had no room between the tackles, and the Ohio State defense was just too fast for him to get outside. Taylor was held to just 2.6 yards per carry.
• Ohio State defensive end Chase Young is a one-man wrecking crew and might be the best player in the country.

• If there was any hope that Wisconsin was going to pull off the upset, they had to win the turnover battle. Instead, they weren’t able to force any but fumbled twice.
• Other than a few nice plays, it was obvious that this Ohio State defense wasn’t scared of the Badger passing game at all and they dared Wisconsin to try to beat them through the air.
• As I just mentioned, there weren’t many highlights for the Wisconsin passing attack, but this throw from Jack Coan to A.J. Taylor was beautiful.

• You know moving the ball is difficult when you see Aaron Cruickshank lining up as the quarterback in the wildcat formation.
• Although Jonathan Taylor has improved in the passing game, he had a crucial drop in the third quarter as the Badgers were trying to keep the game within reach.
• Coming out of halftime down 10-0, the second half couldn’t have started any better for Wisconsin. They forced a three and out, deflected the punt, and scored a touchdown. But that was about all that went well.

• Once again, I have to give my weekly appreciation to Zack Baun and Chris Orr who each came away with a sack today and as we saw, bringing down Justin Fields is not an easy thing to do. Baun would also total over 10 tackles as well.

• In the end, this Ohio State team is just far more talented and Wisconsin would have needed a near-perfect game to pull off the win.

Now with two consecutive losses, this Wisconsin football team needs to find a way to get this season back on track as they head back to Camp Randall to take on Iowa on November, 9th.