Wisconsin Football: Instant Takeaways vs. Eastern Michigan

As they should have, the Wisconsin football program dominated from start to finish against Eastern Michigan to log their first win of the season. They are now 1-1 on the year.

Just as we always do, here is a look at my initial thoughts and takeaways from Wisconsin football’s performance, along with some highlights mixed in.

– Eastern Michigan came into this game having won three straight games against Big Ten opponents. Over the last few years, they have faced Rutgers, Purdue, and Illinois, beating all three.

– Earlier this week, I wrote how this was an ideal ‘get right’ game for the Wisconsin football offense, and that’s exactly what we saw take place. Graham Mertz was incredibly efficient and looked much more comfortable, while the offensive line looked much better as well.

– However, before the offense started putting points on the board, we once again saw them sputter in the red zone, failing to score on four opportunities inside the 10-yard line on their opening possession.

– Ben Kenney of Badgers Wire tweeted out an interesting stat during the game, stating that on the Badgers’ first 17 drives this season — not including the drives before halftime — that they made their way to the red zone on nine of them. That’s pretty darn good. They obviously need to get into the end zone more often, but it’s a good sign that they are getting to the red zone with such regularity.

– Chez Mellusi is going to put up some serious numbers this season. He opened the game with a 60-yard run on the opening drive and finished the game with 144 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.

– After not taking any snaps last week, we saw Jalen Berger on the field tonight, and he looked smooth. Berger finished the game with 15 carries for 62 yards and a touchdown. His performance again makes you wonder why he didn’t see any action a week ago.

– We might as well stick with the running back position, as Isaac Guerendo showed off that track speed of his on an 82-yard touchdown run. Also, the snap count breakdown between the three backs — Mellusi 20 carries, Berger 15, and Guerendo 4 — is similar to what I’m guessing many of us expected it to be this season.

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– Last season, this Eastern Michigan secondary allowed a completion rate of over 70 percent, and tonight we saw Mertz complete 14 of his 17 targets.

– On third and fourth downs, Wisconsin combined to go 6/14–a huge improvement over last week’s performance.

– Not that Eastern Michigan is a juggernaut by any means, but this Badger defense put together another highly impressive performance, holding the Eagles to less than 55 total yards for almost the entire game. Regardless of the opponent, that is ridiculous.

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– Once again, the Badgers did dominate the time of possession. In the turnover department, Chase Wolf would throw an interception in the fourth quarter, but a short while later, Wisconsin would come up with one of their own.

– It was nice to see some explosive plays from this offense. As I already mentioned, Mellusi had a run of 60 yards and Guerendo a run of 82. And while I wouldn’t categorize these passing plays as “explosive,” there were three passes that went for at least 17 yards.

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– Since Collin Larsh’s field goal attempt against Penn State was blocked early on in that game, he has made every kick since.

– Tight end Jack Eschenbach did leave the game with what is being called a right leg injury.

– Kendrick Pryor and Danny Davis combined for seven receptions for 84 yards, and we also saw Chimere Dike catch three passes for 30 yards.

– There was also a Braelon Allen sighting in the backfield as well, and he would find the end zone for his first collegiate touchdown.

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– Compared to last week’s nine reception performance, it was a quiet game for tight end Jake Ferguson with only three receptions–however, this game was dominated by the Wisconsin running game. The Badger quarterbacks would combine for only 19 pass attempts.

– Wisconsin now has a bye week to prepare for a big matchup with Notre Dame against their former quarterback Jack Coan.

All stats courtesy of ESPN