Wisconsin Football v. Purdue: Gut Reactions & Highlights

It was a shaky start, but the Wisconsin Football team came away with a win over Purdue. Here are the gut reactions and highlights from their performance.

The first half of this game for the Wisconsin Football team had an eerily similar start to their game against Illinois. But in the second half they were able to prevail and they came away with the win over a not very good Purdue team.

Now the Badgers will prepare for their matchup next week with Minnesota in which the winner will head to the Big Ten Title game. However, before we get to that point, let’s take a look at the gut reactions and highlights from today’s game against the Boilermakers.

• As I just mentioned, this game was off to a very shaky start for Wisconsin and I’m sure we all had flash backs to the Illinois game that took place about a month and a half ago. Fortunately this time they were able to overcome their mistakes and came away with the win.
• To put it simply, Jonathan Taylor was Jonathan Taylor. He rushed for over 200 yards with an average of nearly nine yards per carry and a 51 yard touchdown run.

• We knew coming into this game that the Purdue offense liked to air it out and we saw that on full display today. Quarterback Aiden O’Connell threw the ball over 40 times today with two touchdown passes, and as a team, they had over 300 passing yards.
• The Badgers were able to eventually slow Purdue down, but in the first half they were able to move the ball almost at will against Wisconsin.
• This season, giving up the big play has been a huge issue and once again, it was a problem against the Boilermakers. Purdue would have plays of 27 yards, 38 yards, 27 yards, and 37 yards in today’s game.
• After falling behind, the Badgers marched down the field and regained the lead off a beautiful play-action pass from Jack Coan to Jack Dunn.

https://twitter.com/CFBONFOX/status/1198363941228941312

• As we’ve seen, if Jonathan Taylor does have a fault, it has been fumbling the ball and today he had another.
• Speaking of turnovers, the Badgers once again lost the turnover battle with three fumbles and an interception today and they were only able to force one. Wisconsin also fumbled the ball on two other occasions but luckily they were able to recover.
• How about that kick from Zach Hintze before halftime? 62 yards! What. A. Kick.

• The lone Badger turnover came in the second half off an Eric Burrell interception and it led to a Wisconsin touchdown which gave them a crucial two score lead.
• Although Purdue found some success through the air, they would finish with just 50 rushing yards at 2.5 yards per carry.
• We saw Wisconsin utilize the wildcat formation a number of times with Garrett Groshek and Aron Cruickshank to switch things up offensively.

• In the first half we saw Purdue pull out some tricks with a flea-flicker and a wide receiver pass that resulted in a touchdown.
• Jack Coan’s touchdown pass to Quintez Cephus was just an all around fantastic play. Cephus seems to make a play like this every game.

https://twitter.com/CFBONFOX/status/1198384213638168577

• The Wisconsin offense was able to put up nearly 600 yards of total offense!
• Not to mention that they were incredibly efficient on third down going 9-11 in today’s game.
• I can’t defend Jack Coan’s interception in the fourth quarter, that was just a poor decision. But other than that one pass he did have a very nice game, finishing 15/19 for 203 yards with two touchdowns.
• It was a BIG day for Kendric Pryor who had 56 rushing yards and another 47 through the air.

Wisconsin was able to survive their matchup with Purdue to improve to 9-2 on the season. They will now face Minnesota next Saturday in Minneapolis and the winner will be Big Ten West Champion and they will head to the Big Ten Championship game to face Ohio State.