Wisconsin's defense prepares to face J.K. Dobbins, Justin Fields again
Inside Ohio Stadium on Oct. 26, Wisconsin stood tall for about 35 minutes of game time against a potent Ohio State offense.
Wisconsin only allowed 10 points early into the third quarter. But after it pulled within three points after UW's lone touchdown of the day, Ohio State poured on a second-half scoring spree of four straight possessions with a touchdown in a 38-7 loss.
According to sophomore inside linebacker Jack Sanborn, it comes back to finishing.
“We played good football in that game at times. We had chances in that game to really keep it close and everything, and it was close for a good part of it," Sanborn said on Monday. "Then we didn’t play four quarters, though. We didn’t finish that game the way that we want to finish, the way that we expect to finish and that’s what happened.”
Now No. 10 Wisconsin (10-2, 7-2 Big Ten) has a rare opportunity to play the same program twice in one season. Earlier this week, the Badgers began preparation to take on undefeated and No. 1 Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday (7 p.m. CT, FOX).
Overall, the Badgers gave up 431 yards -- 264 on the ground. Despite containing J.K. Dobbins in the first half -- 11 carries for 51 yards -- Wisconsin allowed the standout tailback to finish with 163 yards on 20 attempts and two touchdowns overall.. According to StatBroadcast, that included seven chunk plays of 10 or more yards on the ground during the final two quarters.
That all started with Ohio State's second drive of the second half that resulted in a touchdown when UW had initially brought it to within a 10-7 game.
“A lot of the mistakes that were made in that game were just misalignments, a lot of missed tackles, I remember, and we just got to clean that stuff up," Baun said on Monday.
From redshirt senior Chris Orr's point of view, Ohio State stressed a particular rule from his role as an inside linebacker called a "backdoor 4i read." Defensive end Isaiahh Loudermilk's recalled how the Buckeyes exposed holes in the UW defense.
"They were hitting open gaps," Loudermilk said on Monday. "We just got to play disciplined ball. Someone we would be out of a gap here, and they hit it. Zone reads and stuff like that, we just really got to get our eyes right. We just got to stay disciplined, which is what we did the first half, but they started exposing it the second half.
"We’re lucky to have the opportunity to play them again. We’ll try to fix up our eyes and just come out playing.”
In this rematch from the regular season, Wisconsin will look at film in a few ways to prepare for an Ohio State offense that has averaged over 53 points and 503 yards in the last four contests. Baun, Sanborn, Loudermilk and Orr all acknowledged part of that will including looking back at that loss in Columbus.
Baun mentioned how the Badgers have now been able to feel the size and speed of the Buckeyes already, and how they will also look at the past month's games and what Ryan Day's unit has done differently. Orr also laid out a couple of other points of emphasis.
"Stuff that they did to hurt us, stuff that other teams might have did to hurt them defensively," Orr said, "Then just stuff that has hurt us against other teams that they can implement in their game plan, so it’s a combination of everything.”
With all the success Dobbins had on the ground against UW over a month ago, Justin Fields also gashed its defense with a rushing touchdown while completing 12-of-22 passes for 167 yards and two scores through the air. One thing to watch will be the quarterback's knee, as he acknowledged on Tuesday it hurts but he plans on playing. How that ailment affects his ability to run will be something to watch.
“If you have the ‘Q’ [quarterback], you know you stay with the quarterback," Orr said. "If you have the running back, you stay with the running back. No matter what goes on throughout the course of the play, you just do your job so that’s probably the most important thing.”
On Saturday, Wisconsin will have an opportunity to show any improvements and adjustments against Ohio State inside an indoor stadium. Though the defense has surrendered an average of 393.4 yards per game in the past five contests -- including the tilt inside the Horseshoe -- Loudermilk believes the unit has grown and is more disciplined. Within the defensive line specifically, he pointed to the fact they are "feeling blocks better" and their eyes are improving.
Orr looked broader at communication overall with the defense, from the line to the secondary, and also noted the players are "playing their alignments and assignments better."
With a Big Ten Championship on the line against the No. 1 team currently in the College Football Playoff rankings, Orr believes there is an increased level of focus for this week.
"I want to say that started yesterday. You start switching focus to the Big Ten title game," Orr said. "You think about what might have hurt you before, what they did to hurt you before. What other teams have done to hurt them in the coming weeks after we played them. Everything like that, so it’s definitely a heightened awareness.”