3-2-1 LSU Breakdown

Green Bay, Wis. - Saturday afternoon the unranked Wisconsin Badgers surprised No. 5 LSU and the rest of the nation when they upset the Tigers, 16-14, at Lambeau Field. Here's what we learned, questions that remain and a prediction based on what we saw.

Coming into this much-anticipated matchup, a large amount of attention was given to Dave Aranda’s departure from Wisconsin to LSU as defensive coordinator. People were concerned the Badgers' top-ranked defense would be no more and that a decline was inevitable. After last night, it appears UW fans can rest easy.

While the Cardinal and White didn't exactly bottle up LSU’s star running back Leonard Fournette, they did enough to keep him out of the end zone and ultimately enough to come away with the victory. Justin Wilcox, the Badgers’ new defensive coordinator, drew up a blitz-heavy game plan that largely resembled the Wisconsin defense of yesteryear.

The scheme managed to keep the Tiger running back in check and gave LSU quarterback Brandon Harris fits all afternoon. Harris ended the day with two interceptions, a fumble, two sacks and only 131 yards in the air. The junior quarterback attempted a surprising amount of passes – 21 – while LSU only handed off 25 times, with Fournette getting 23 of those. With such a dominant back it's a surprise the Tigers didn't utilize him more in such a low scoring and tight football game. If you take away six of those passing attempts and feed them to Fournette, the defense gets to stay off the field for a couple more minutes and the offense stays in a better rhythm.

That rhythm never manifested for the Tigers as the Badgers held them to two of 10 on third down and just 257 yards of total offense. Even better than last year’s season average – 268 yards per game – that was good enough for a No. 2 national ranking. Now that the feared LSU offense is out of they way, the sky is the limit for this year’s defense.