3-2-1: Recapping Wisconsin’s Week 3 win over Georgia Southern

After Wisconsin returned home and defeated the Georgia Southern Eagles on Saturday afternoon, Luke Fickell will now take his team back on the road to West Lafayette, where they will face Purdue this Friday.

BadgerBlitz.com brings you our weekly "3-2-1" series, honing in on the Week 3 win over Georgia Southern, and what it will mean going forward.

The story of the game, at least on defense, was the turnovers. The Badgers recovered a fumble and caught five interceptions from quarterback Davis Brin. The defense deserves acclaim for finally getting a takeaway, but almost all of the interceptions came as a result of either disastrous passes or decisions. Let’s go through each of them.

The first came about halfway through the first quarter during the Eagles’ second drive. Brin threw it to an open receiver on the right side of the field from the left hash, but was hit by Ben Barten mid-throw. It didn’t land anywhere near his receivers, instead getting snatched in the air by safety Hunter Wohler. Barten’s contact ultimately caused the poor throw, so I’ll credit the defense with this one.

The next two, however, were the result of God only knows what. Four minutes into the second quarter, Brin threw a 30-yard pass to the middle of the field with no real pressure in his face, right into the hands of Ricardo Hallman. The closest receiver was Jjay Mcafee, who was about six yards away. Bad pass. Brin threw his third pick of the half less than four minutes later. C.J. Goetz hit him as he threw, but the pass still went in the direction of an Eagle receiver with at least four Badgers in his area. This one should’ve never left Brin’s hands.

The shortest interception of the night came about three minutes into the third quarter. It seemed as if Brin locked on to Derwin Burgess Jr. pre-snap and still threw it despite two Badgers covering him. James Thompson Jr. tipped the pass, so it fell short into the hands of Goetz, but wouldn’t have made it to Burgess regardless.

The fifth and final interception came four minutes later, right after Wisconsin re-gained the lead. Brin stood from a completely clean pocket, then threw it 40 yards down to the left sideline, where Wohler sprinted from the middle of the field to leap up and grab it.

The defense ultimately put enough pressure on Brin to make him uncomfortable, but they can’t act like they weren’t helped out by some awful mistakes from a mediocre quarterback.