Wisconsin Football: Instant Takeaways from Matchup w/ Penn State

The Wisconsin Football team just took a hearbreaking week one loss to Penn State and, as always, there are plenty of things that stuck out during the game that can be noted.

In a hard fought, one possession game with another ranked opponent, there are always good and bad points to be made, so let’s dive right into the Wisconsin Football team’s performance.

– Chez Mellusi is decidedly this team’s number one running back, and he showed why today. He started right away with this carry early in the game that showed his power between the tackles, refusing to go down easily.

– The Badgers fed him the ball 31 times on the ground for 121 yards and a touchdown, making him the workhorse, a role which he craved after transferring in from Clemson. We didn’t see him break a big run and his long on the day was 19 yards and a lot of goal line carries brought his average down to just 3.9 yards per carry on the day, but he showed a lot in game one in a Wisconsin uniform.

– Jim Leonard’s twists and blitzes got home well, and he needs to do it more. Early in the game, we saw Jack Sanborn loop around the edge from the inside and get a sack and Leonard often dialed up pressure, even when he would just bluff a blitz and rush four. The biggest issues arose when they went to a straight three or four man rush and allowed Sean Clifford time to survey the field from the pocket. Overall, the pass rush looked improved from last year and at times they had Clifford running for his life, but lack of pressure on a few critical third downs proved fatal.

– The Badgers also didn’t force any turnovers and they gave the ball away three times. Losing the turnover battle by three in a close game makes it pretty tough to win. They had some chances too, especially when they pressured Clifford, but they couldn’t get that big defensive play.

– Graham Mertz is still a young and inexperienced quarterback and it shows. Multiple botched handoffs, intentional grounding calls, a near fumble as he was hit, and two interceptions show that he has a long way to go before being the polished quarterback Badger fans have been hoping and praying for since Russell Wilson left. The errors, especially in the red zone when they had to at least get three points on the board, are what cost them the game.

– This leads to my next point, which is Jake Ferguson will have tons of targets this year. Young quarterbacks always need an easy safety valve to go to and Ferguson is a perfect big body for him to get the ball to in tough situations. He had nine catches today and was the target on fourth down and goal with about 2 minutes left when Mertz threw his first pick.

– The secondary had way too many blown coverages in the second half. In the first half, they kept everything in front of them and Penn State couldn’t move the ball at all, but later in the game they started to cheat up and get too aggressive downhill and the Nittany Lions made them pay for it with huge plays to Jahan Dotson and KeAndre Lambert-Smith.

– Danny Davis could be a legitimate number one wide receiver for this team. He had eight catches and led the team in receiving yards with 99. His biggest catch of the day came on a third and seven when he dove and stretched out to get the first down on the one yard line late in the game. Ferguson may be Mertz’s favorite target, but Davis could be a game changer as an outside receiver

– The Badgers’ run defense is solid again this year. They allowed just 2.8 yards per carry and forced Penn State to go to the air much more often in the second half.

– Jack Sanborn is still one of the best at inside linebacker. Working without his usual inside partner Leo Chenal, Sanborn had to pick up the slack and he did it big time, flying all around the field in the run game and getting great pressure when he would rush the passer, including that sack he had early.

– Dean Engram has to know when to fair catch. Today it went Wisconsin’s way, getting two big penalties in their favor, but those were questionable calls and one of these times, the ball might come loose on a hit like that.

– Finally, Mertz and the Badgers have to learn to get over the hump. Last season, they only won one close game, which was in OT against Minnesota and that was on a field goal. This offense has to find a way to score in those big situations when the game is on the line, or we’re going to see the same story we’ve been watching for years: a team that’s good, but not good enough.