Wisconsin Football: Instant Takeaways v. Michigan

It was a rough start for the offense, to say the least, but after an impressive second quarter, the Wisconsin football team had new life. Unfortunately, that was short-lived, and an injury to Graham Mertz derailed any hopes of a comeback.

With the game just having finished up, here is a look at my instant takeaways from the Wisconsin football team’s performance.

– As I just mentioned, it was a rough start for the Wisconsin offense. They went three and out on their first four possessions, and at one point, they had -2 total yards. The run game was struggling, and Graham Mertz was flustered again.

– But credit to Mertz and this offense because the second quarter was impressive and what we saw gives us hope that that is the player that Mertz will become. He was decisive, got the ball out quickly, and was accurate. Those two passes on the touchdown drive to Chimere Dike were highly impressive.

– And with that improved play from Mertz, was some more creative play-calling by Paul Chryst and Co. as well–which was great to see.

– Speaking of Chimere Dike, he had only 24 snaps against Notre Dame–let’s continue to see him get more playing time and opportunities.

– Mertz has caught a lot of flack recently, and understandably so, but this offensive line hasn’t done him many favors. They’ve been disjointed this season with constant shuffling, and against Michigan, it resulted in Mertz taking a number of hard hits, one of which knocked him out of the game.

– The Wisconsin run game couldn’t get going once again behind this offensive line. As a team, they averaged less than three yards per carry.

– As I wrote recently, Jalen Berger’s usage this season has been head-scratching, but today, he had more carries than Chez Mellusi. What will next week have in store?

– In terms of production, it was freshman Braelon Allen who was the most effective ball carrier for Wisconsin, averaging nearly 5.0 yards per rush on a few attempts.

– Caden Lyles got the start at center today, and he had several snaps that were off target. Wisconsin also didn’t have much of an answer for Aiden Hutchinson, one of the better pass rushers in the country.

– Owen Riese of B5Q made a good point; offensive tackle Tyler Beach is a fifth-year senior and has given this Badgers football team a lot over the years, but it’s time to see what Logan Brown can do. It was a very rough day for Beach.

– Faion Hicks continues to be targeted heavily, just as he was a week ago against Notre Dame.

– More special teams blunders for the Badgers. First, there was the fumble on the punt return and then the kickoff out of bounds following a Wisconsin field goal. Michigan would eventually make a field goal of their own after the improved field position.

– Following the fumble on the punt return, Michigan began with the ball at the Badger five-yard line but the Wisconsin defense was able to keep them out of the end zone. In the end, it didn’t really make a difference in the outcome, but at that time, it was massive and allowed the Wisconsin offense to make it a close game.

– Michigan’s first touchdown came on a flea-flicker, which, credit to the Wolverines, was a well-designed and well-timed call.

– Given Mertz’s play this season, there have been some calls for backup Chase Wolf, but he isn’t the answer either, folks. We might as well let Mertz see if he can figure things out.

– Let’s hope that the injuries that Mertz and Jake Ferguson suffered are only short-term.

– Michigan totaled over 100 rushing yards but averaged under 3.0 yards per carry. Where the offense was able to find some success against this Wisconsin defense was through the air on a few big completions. At some point, when the Wisconsin defense is constantly put in bad positions and leaned on heavily all the time, there are going to be some breakdowns.

– Michigan was only 5/17 on third downs, but they were 4/5 on short-yardage fourth-down attempts.

– You aren’t going to win many, if any games when you lose the turnover battle 3-1 as the Badgers did. And their one forced turnover came in the final minutes when the game was out of reach.

– I love watching Nick Herbig play, that is all.

– We saw a lot of punter Andy Vujnovich today. He was solid, averaging 45 yards per punt with a long of 55.

– No, it didn’t mean anything, but a beautiful catch by Clay Cundiff at the end of the game.

– Wisconsin is now 0-8 in their last eight games against ranked opponents.

– The schedule does lighten up in the coming weeks with matchups against Illinois and Army coming up.