3-2-1: Recapping Wisconsin’s Week 2 loss to Washington State

After Wisconsin traveled to Pullman and lost to the Washington State Cougars on Saturday night, Luke Fickell will now look to return home to face Georgia Southern.

BadgerBlitz.com brings you our weekly "3-2-1" series, honing in on the Week 2 loss to Washington State, and what it will mean going forward.

The biggest reason Wisconsin lost was its inability to deal with Washington State quarterback Cameron Ward. His final stats weren’t terribly impressive — only 255 total yards and two touchdowns. But anybody who watched the game knows that Ward did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

Ward looked impressive in the first quarter when the Cougars scored back-to-back touchdowns to secure a lead. Yet it was the fourth quarter touchdown drive where he really showed why he was the best player on the field. Up two with nine minutes left, Ward led the Cougars on a 10-play drive lasting almost four minutes. He always seemed to either find his receivers, or run around long enough to make some sort of gain. This defense doesn’t often face quarterbacks as athletic as Ward, or offenses as spread out as Ben Arbuckle’s, and you could tell. Some of the Badgers’ attempts to defend him were simply laughable.

Luckily for Wisconsin, an obvious achilles heel might not matter this year, given its conference schedule luck. They won’t play Michigan or Maryland, which have the two best and most dynamic quarterbacks in the Big Ten. They play an Ohio State team at home that doesn’t seem to have an NFL first-rounder at quarterback for the first time in years. This could be a rare time in football when an obvious flaw doesn’t come back to bite a team. Or maybe it will.