Wisconsin/Penn State review

Once again, it was an ugly performance by the Wisconsin Badgers, gaining only 269 yards of offense in a 22-10 loss at Penn State on Saturday. Jack Coan received his second start, and he did not play well to put it nicely. There were only a few bright spots. Jonathan Taylor started off the game with a 71-yard touchdown run, but the offense was shut down after that. This loss eliminated the Badgers from Big Ten West contention with Northwestern’s win over Iowa, and this is the first season where Wisconsin lost four games since 2012. Bucky went to the Rose Bowl that year, but that obviously isn’t happening this year. This is the worst year for them since 2008 when they struggled to a 7-6 record and was crushed by Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl. With the loss, Wisconsin drops to 6-4 and 4-3 in Big Ten play. Penn State improved to 7-3 and also 4-3 in conference play. Wisconsin falls to 1-3 on the road in conference action, the most road losses in Big Ten action since that 2008 season. This is also the first time they have lost by more than one score three times in a season since 08. They need Alex Hornibrook back soon.

Wisconsin’s biggest positive was Jonathan Taylor once again, as the sophomore ran for 185 yards on 20 carries. He started the Badgers off on the right track with a 71-yard touchdown to give Bucky an early 7-0 lead. Other than that, he had 114 yards on 19 carries for an even six yards per carry, so he played well all day and it wasn’t just one carry that made him look good. With his big performance, he catapulted himself into the top 10 in career rushing yards at Wisconsin. Taylor started in 12th, but would move past Heisman Trophy winner Alan Ameche, John Clay, Terrell Fletcher and Brent Moss. He is now just 184 behind Billy Marek for seventh and is 452 yards away from 2,000 for the season. In a year without consistent quarterback play, to get to 2,000 would be incredible, especially since the Badgers will not be going to Indianapolis this season. Taylor is just 61 yards from once again cracking the top 10 for single-season rushing yards. He finished fourth last season with 1,977 yards. Taylor is only the fourth Wisconsin running back to have back-to-back 1,500-yard rushing seasons. Right now, it is like when Adrian Peterson was dominating with Tarvaris Jackson as his quarterback. The sophomore is so great, he tears through defenses even when constantly facing eight and nine in the box.

They didn’t start out well, but Jim Leonhard’s crew kept fighting and gave Wisconsin a chance to win, constantly holding Penn State to field goal attempts, but the Badgers offense could not capitalize. In the first half, the Nittany Lions had 239 yards of offense and 16 points, and they went 4-of-8 on third down. In the second half, they were held to 104 yards and six points. Whenever the defense had its back to the wall, it came through and forced Penn State into a field goal attempt. The defense did everything it could to slow down the Nittany Lions and give the offense a chance, but the offense was brutal. The linebackers came to play. T.J. Edwards registered a career-high 14 tackles, while Butkus Award semifinalist Ryan Connelly added 10 tackles, including a sack and two tackles for loss. Andrew Van Ginkel and Zack Baun combined for 17 tackles with two sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss as well.

Unfortunately, the negatives far outweighed the positives. Outside of Taylor, the offense was abysmal. Wisconsin quarterback Jack Coan, filling in for the injured Alex Hornibrook, was terrible in his second career start. The sophomore went 9-of-20 for 60 yards with two interceptions and two lost fumbles. Since 2000, only once has a Badgers quarterback had a worse passer rating than Coan’s 50.2 against Penn State. This was also only the fourth time this millennium that the Badgers had 60 or fewer passing yards in a game. Amazingly, they won two of those games, including the Melvin Gordon game against Nebraska in 2014. People seem to like moving the goal posts for Coan. When Hornibrook makes mistakes, it is on him. When Coan makes mistakes, it is on Paul Chryst. It is ridiculous. Simply put, you cannot turn the ball over four times and beat a good team on the road. He needs to be better.

The offensive line was hyped as a great unit coming into the season, but has not played up to par so far this season. While it is true the success of Jonathan Taylor has a lot to do with the line, but the pass blocking just has not been good. Wisconsin was sacked five times against Penn State and has been sacked 18 times overall in the 10 games so far. David Edwards has had a poor year this year, and was dominated on Saturday. This unit needs to be better to help out the quarterbacks.

The defense as a whole played solid, but the run defense did not do well.....again. Like against Northwestern, the yards per carry against was not terrible, as the Nittany Lions ran for just 3.9 yards per carry. However, Miles Sanders gained 159 yards and a touchdown, running for nearly seven yards per rush. Not good. After not rushing for more than 72 yards in his last two games, he had the third-most yards on the ground this season. With nose tackle Olive Sagapolu out for the rest of the season, backup Bryson Williams will need to step up.

This upcoming week, the Badgers hit the road to West Lafayette for their last road game of the year against the Purdue Boilermakers. Wisconsin is 1-3 in road games this season after losing just one in Chryst’s first three seasons in Madison combined. The game will be at 2:30 CST and will be televised by the Big Ten Network.