Normally, I’d start with Taylor in the positives department, but this time, I need to start with Nick Nelson. Coming into the game, Maryland’s D.J. Moore led the Big Ten in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. Nelson held the the star to just three catches for 44 yards and kept him out of the end zone. That is only the second time this year that Moore was held under 80 yards receiving and at least one touchdown. He had just six yards on two catches before grabbing a 38-yard pass late in the third quarter. Derrick Tindal also matched up against Moore some and did well as well. That 38-yard pass was also not against Tindal/Nelson, but against a combination of safeties Natrell Jamerson and D'Cota Dixon. The junior cornerback had a stupid penalty to give the Terrapins a first down and a poor tackling attempt on a Maryland fourth down that helped the Terps get the first down, but overall had a great game. The pressure, especially early in the game, affected Maryland’s passing attack. I said Moore had to have a great day in order for Maryland to have a chance, and he didn’t. It was a tremendous effort by Nelson to shut Moore down.
Another game, another very good performance by Taylor. He did not have any big runs like he had in previous weeks, but he was able to grind out 126 yards and more than five yards per carry. The true freshman lacked big runs, which is why he didn't have another 200-yard day, but he was consistently gaining five, six, seven yards. It was a very workmanlike effort from Taylor, as even though he averaged 5.7 yards per carry, his longest run was only 15 yards. The way he can break tackles is incredible. He constantly turns negative yardage or short yardage plays into positive plays for Bucky. With his performance in the win, he is the sixth freshman running back to run for 1,000 yards in his first seven games. The list he joined includes NFL Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith and Marshall Faulk and future Hall of Famer Adrian Peterson. That list also includes former Wisconsin standout P.J. Hill. I am running out of adjectives to describe the tremendous freshman. Even when Maryland stacks the box, Taylor was able to grind out 126 yards and nearly six yards per carry. He is the fastest Badgers freshman to hit the 1,000-yard mark in terms of carries. He beat James White’s previous record by eight. Among all players, Taylor is second to Melvin Gordon, who accomplished the feat in 104 carries.
As a unit, the defense was impressive once again. Even without two of its top three defensive ends and losing starting linebacker Chris Orr during the game, the Badgers defense held Maryland to 268 yards of total offense, its third lowest output this season. I mentioned how great the Badgers played against Moore, but the pass defense as a whole was tremendous. Bortenschlager was just 13-of-30 for 125 yards for just 4.2 yards per attempt. In contrast, Hornibrook’s yards per attempt was 9.4. No Terrapins wide receiver broke 50 yards receiving, and Wisconsin was able to bring down Bortenschlager a pair of times at big points in the game. The first time was Olive Sagapolu bringing down the Maryland quarterback two plays before Edwards’ pick six and after Maryland started its first drive running the ball well. The Sagapolu sack forced the Terps to pass and the Edwards pick six was a result of having to throw the ball. Finally, this defense amazes me when being backed up. Once again, the Wisconsin offense turned the ball over deep in its own territory, as Taylor fumbled at his own five. The three plays following the sudden change gained no yards, including two passes intended for Moore, and the Terps settled for a field goal to cut it to 7-3. The Badgers scored on their next two possessions to make it 21-3 heading into the break. Wisconsin has turned the ball over nine times in Big Ten play (I said that in an Ed Rooney voice) and has allowed only 16 points off those nine turnovers, and seven of those came on the pick six against Nebraska. Out of those other eight turnovers, three started inside Wisconsin territory and two inside the 25. Still, no touchdowns allowed. Kudos to the defense.
Let’s give some props to kickoff man Zach Hintze. The kickoff man was a big weapon against Maryland’s return game. The Terps came in 25th in the country in kickoff return average at 24 yards per return, but Hintze made sure the return game of the visitors would not be a factor. In his seven kickoffs, Hintze booted four touchbacks and the three that were returned went for an average of just over 20 per and the Terps fumbled one of the returns. Well done by Hintze. As good as Maryland’s return units are, the Badgers completely took them out of the game.
Now, for some negatives. I will spare Hornibrook because he played really well outside of the bad interception early in the game. However, the mistakes seemingly happen every game. Earlier, I mentioned the Badgers have turned the ball over nine times in Big Ten play (four games). That is just too many. Many of them either put the defense in a bad spot or took points off the board. Hornibrook’s interception was terrible. He overthrew A.J. Taylor by a good five yards and it was returned across the Maryland 40. If a better throw was made, the Badgers would have picked up a first down and may have scored on that possession. Then, Taylor fumbled at his own five. Fortunately, Wisconsin’s defense stood tall and held the Terrapins to a field goal. For as good as the freshman is, he has a tendency to put the ball on the ground. That was his third lost fumble on the year, and they seem to come at terrible times. Obviously, it is never good to lose a fumble, but the last two fumbles could have been killers. Last week, he fumbled against Purdue when Wisconsin was driving in an attempt to take a two score lead.
In addition to the turnovers, Wisconsin has also been hurt by penalties this year, especially mental flags like false starts. The Badgers have a good offense, but they cannot afford to keep falling behind the chains. It may work against the Marylands and Northwesterns of the world, but it won’t against whichever team the Badgers play in Indianapolis. It will need to be cleaned up. Wisconsin had six flags thrown on it in the game, and most could be avoided. One was a questionable clipping call that wiped away a Taylor touchdown. Fortunately, Wisconsin overcame that one and was able to score a touchdown anyway. Two of the penalties were false starts. Easily avoidable. One was a defensive pass interference on D’Cota Dixon, who should have let Moore catch the ball and just wrap up because Moore was short of the first down. I mentioned the stupid unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Nelson. He should have been smarter than that. Paul Chryst needs to clean that up. I challenge Wisconsin to have four or fewer penalties at Illinois next weekend. Also, the Badgers had a botched center-quarterback exchange. Even though they won by 25 even with all those mistakes, the sky is the limit if they limit them.
Maybe it was being without both Chikwe Obasih (even though he has been out for virtually the entire year) and Isaiahh Loudermilk. Maybe it was being without Chris Orr for a good portion of the game. Maybe it was a spread offense it wasn’t familar with. I don’t know, but Maryland ran the ball effectively against the front of Wisconsin. Yes, most of the damage came in the second half after Wisconsin went up 28-3, but still. Hopefully the Badgers can clean that up heading to Champagne next week. Bucky came in fourth in the country in rush yards allowed per game, allowing just 78.8 and 2.7 yards per carry. Against Maryland, the Badgers allowed a season-high 143 rushing yards. To make it worse, Maryland’s top two running backs, Ty Johnson and Lorenzo Harrison III combined to rush for 147 yards on 28 carries for an average of 5.3 yards per carry. That will need to be cleaned up moving forward. Hopefully it is just due to the injured players and nothing more. We’ll see in a few weeks.
This one was a nice win, much-improved from last week. However, there is much to work on. But, like every week, survive and advance. As long as they win, they are in good shape. It is sort of like the NCAA Tournament where every week matters and it does not matter how pretty it is. After two consecutive home games, the Badgers take their show on the road next week, as they have a virtual bye week next week against Illinois. The game is at 11 am CST and will be televised on MSESPN. Wisconsin is 10-1 in true road games under Chryst.
No comments:
Post a Comment