The Wisconsin Badgers beat the Western Illinois Leathernecks 36-9 on a night that started on a high note but ended with many questions as Wisconsin improved to 1-1 on the season.
Wisconsin entered the week as a 36.5-point favorite, and that jumped all the way to 42.5 ahead of kickoff. Things looked great on the first snap of regulation, as Abu Sama III bounced a run to the edge for a 72-yard touchdown to give the Badgers an early 7-0 lead.
The Badgers forced a quick three-and-out and faced their first minor issue as Tyrell Henry fumbled on the punt return, but Wisconsin was able to recover and got great starting field position at their own 46-yard line. Sama quickly got the Badgers moving with a 31-yard run on the first play of the drive, once again bouncing to the edge and winning with speed.
One play later, the Badgers got into the red zone, but the drive stalled there as a first-down Sama run went for negative yards. Wisconsin couldn’t recover from there, and they kicked a field goal in the red zone for an early 10-0 lead.
Wisconsin’s defense looked sharp once again on the ensuing drive with their second consecutive three-and-out, and the punt unit made a major play for the second week in a row. After Liam Danitz blocked a punt against Notre Dame last week, Carson Van Dinter got a blocked punt early on Saturday, which he returned for an easy touchdown. Suddenly, Wisconsin was up 17-0 less than halfway through the first quarter.
Things started to get a bit wonky from there, as Western Illinois ran through Wisconsin’s defense on an 11-play, 65-yard drive that resulted in a field goal, exposing some holes in Mike Tressel’s unit. Western Illinois ran the ball on seven straight plays, as their offensive line consistently won against Wisconsin’s defensive front to move the ball.
The Badgers almost had another kickoff issue, as Nate Palmer fumbled a kickoff before returning it 24 yards. And the Badgers went 10 plays and 37 yards from there to get into field goal range for Gavin Lahm, as they relied more on the passing game. That included a 25-yard completion to Tyrell Henry on 3rd & long, but Colton Joseph did show some of his accuracy struggles, missing on a few easy throws.
Wisconsin was in a good position up 20-3, but its defense ran into issues once again, struggling to get a stop as they gave up another long 14-play, 65-yard scoring drive that ate up over seven minutes of clock. While playing more man coverage, Wisconsin’s defense continued to play back, and their defensive line struggled to win the battle in the trenches.
Joseph’s on-and-off night continued, as he threw an interception looking for Malachi Coleman that was called back due to a penalty. He also had an easy miss short to Jacob Harris, and Wisconsin settled for its third field goal of the half.
Luke Fickell looked to be aggressive, calling a timeout with the clock winding down on defense to get the ball, and Western Illinois did the Badgers a favor by throwing the ball out of bounds on third down. So, Wisconsin retained possession with 1:13 left.
After one first down, though, Wisconsin elected to be conservative, as they didn’t call a timeout following a short completion inbounds to Jacob Harris. Then, on 3rd & 3 at their own 42-yard line, they ran the ball and waited until the clock got to five seconds before running an ugly final play of the half.
Wisconsin took a 23-6 lead into halftime, but things looked off on both sides of the ball after that hot 17-0 start over the first seven minutes, with the defense being the real concern.
Those concerns weren’t quelled to start the second half, as Wisconsin didn’t have much of an adjustment to Western Illinois’s run-heavy game plan. The Leathernecks had another long 11-play, 59-yard drive that resulted in another field goal to start the half, dropping the lead to 14.
Wisconsin finally showed some offensive consistency again, electing to run the ball eight straight times with Bryan Jackson and Darrion Dupree, with the latter capping an eight-play, 68-yard drive with a 28-yard touchdown. After not seeing as much success in the run game in the second quarter, it looked like Wisconsin wanted to make the adjustment and get downhill in the run game, which Jackson and Dupree both did well on the drive.
After allowing a first down on their next defensive drive, Wisconsin finally got off the field on a fourth down, as Tommy Heiberger made a nice play 1-on-1 in coverage, breaking up a slant to force the turnover on downs. Wisconsin also started to play more aggressively near the line of scrimmage, as Western Illinois didn’t have a gain longer than three yards on the drive.
A holding penalty and a missed throw from Joseph to Tyrell Henry forced a quick three-and-out for the Badgers, but Wisconsin’s aggressive defense quickly responded by forcing a quick punt after allowing a first down again.
After a pair of back-and-forth punts, Wisconsin’s passing offense finally hit on an explosive play, as Colton Joseph found Tyrell Henry on a deep crosser for 51 yards after stepping up in the pocket. One play later, he found Chris Brooks on the sideline for a 33-yard touchdown pass, as Wisconsin extended its lead to 36-9.
Wisconsin’s aggressive defense swarmed around the ball, forcing yet another punt, which allowed the Badgers to give true freshman Ryan Hopkins the first snaps of his collegiate career to end the game.
Wisconsin ended up winning 36-9 in a comfortable win, but it was one that raised a lot of questions on both sides of the ball. After some early success offensively, the Badgers struggled to be consistent in a game they were expected to win by over 40 points. They couldn’t figure out the run game for a quarter and a half, while Colton Joseph looked unimpressive with a number of easy misses, which had been a theme in the offseason for the transfer quarterback.
Defensively, the Badgers could not find a way to stop Western Illinois on the ground after their early dominance, as their defensive line looked outmatched and the team felt slow and late reacting to the ball.
Things did change at the end of the second half, as Wisconsin finally got some more stability on the ground, while Joseph did connect on a pair of explosive plays. But there are a lot of questions about Joseph’s accuracy and Wisconsin’s consistency on this side of the ball.
The bigger issue was how the defense fared, as Western Illinois exceeded 300 yards, including over 150 on the ground, after only having 52 rushing yards against Illinois State last week. Outside of Sebastian Cheeks, the Badgers defensive line looked outmatched at times, and Wisconsin’s corners were beaten on a couple of explosive plays as well.
Now heading into Week 3, the Badgers have a lot of questions to figure out on both sides of the ball as they go into their final non-conference game.
