Wisconsin played its eleventh and second-to-last game of the season against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, winning 24-17 in Camp Randall on Saturday night. Luke Fickell and the Badgers will now look to the almighty Axe Game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday afternoon.
BadgerBlitz.com brings you our weekly "3-2-1" series, honing in on the Week 12 win over Minnesota, and what it will mean going forward.
THREE THINGS WE LEARNED DURING WISCONSIN'S WIN
1. The Badgers still can't stop mobile quarterbacks.
This is an issue I’ve discussed multiple times in these columns, and it’s only because they’ve struggled with it throughout the year.
The Badgers don’t know how to defend mobile quarterbacks, at all.
The problem first emerged in the second week of the season when they faced Washington State’s Cameron Ward, and different quarterbacks have taken turns killing the Badgers on the ground all season.
They were gutted this past weekend by Chubba Purdy, who entered with five pass attempts and zero starts all season.
Wisconsin can blame his success on its lack of knowledge, but Purdy made it clear almost immediately that he needed to be taken seriously. On the very first drive, six plays into the game, Purdy found space and took off for a 55-yard touchdown run. He evaded a blitz off the edge from Jason Maitre, then simply ran past a group of Badger defenders on his way to the end zone.
After giving up a few big Purdy runs on the next couple drives, they somewhat shaped up. They deployed freshman linebacker Christian Alliegro to keep his eye on Purdy, and it mostly worked.
Nebraska’s offense couldn’t do much of anything throughout the second, third and most of the fourth quarter. Then the final drive happened. A holding penalty and an 18-yard run from Emmett Johnson brought the Huskers to midfield, then Purdy broke off a 22-yard to get to Wisconsin’s 26-yard-line. A few plays later, on 3rd-and-2 from the 18, Wisconsin could’ve forced Nebraska to kick a tougher field goal to tie it, from a kicker who already missed a 42-yard attempt. Instead, Purdy picked up six yards on the ground, ensuring a first down and an easy field goal attempt.
They eventually contained the Nebraska offense enough in overtime to secure the win, clinched by a Preston Zachman interception. The defense deserves a lot of credit for rounding into shape, but they let Nebraska stay in the game in the only way they could’ve.
