The Coyotes proved to be a feisty opponent, but Wisconsin got ahold of itself in the fourth quarter to emerge victorious and open the season 2-0.

BadgerBlitz.com has grades and game balls from Wisconsin's Week 2 victory over South Dakota.

Wisconsin's offense still appears to be in the midst of a severe identity crisis. Game to game and even drive to drive, this unit looks shockingly different. On the Badgers' two touchdown drives in the first half, they marched down the field with authority, looking dangerous through the air and ground. But the drive chart tells the story: each Wisconsin scoring drive was followed by a punt, two of which were three-and-outs.

Lets start with a few positives from this unit, because while it might not feel like it, there's some definite progression and improvement from Week 1. The Badgers managed to create a handful of big plays. They cut out the dropped passes. Tyler Van Dyke made less — albeit still some — poor decisions.

Still, lingering issues abound with this unit. Nothing feels like it comes easy. A perfect example: Wisconsin had a third-and-goal from South Dakota's one yard-line, and Chez Mellusi was stuffed by Gary Bryant Jr. It came back on fourth down and punched it in, but it shouldn't be that difficult to get one yard against South Dakota.

While there were a handful of chunk plays, most of them came in the first quarter. The only truly massive play was the 50-yard touchdown pass to CJ Williams that looked like a busted coverage off an RPO. The others were completions of 20-odd yards to Bryson Green and Vinny Anthony, plays that are supposed to be a frequent occurrence in an air raid scheme.

After much speculation all week, the Badgers did elect to open their offense up in Week 2. But to what end? A few flea-flicker plays fell harmlessly incomplete. Van Dyke completed 17-of-27 passes for 214 yards and a score. A fine stat line, certainly, but far from what you would call efficient or dominant.

The running game looked much improved from Week 1, and that was without Tawee Walker. The offensive line got significantly more push than it did in the opener, and it created plenty of running lanes for Mellusi and Cade Yacamelli, the latter of which had a career game on the ground. After the entire team's longest run was just 12 yards in the opener, Yacamelli ripped off a 29 yarder in the second quarter. Baby steps, but progress nonetheless.

Ultimately, the numbers sum up this game pretty well. 385 total yards against an FCS team, while averaging just 4.2 yards-per-carry, is nothing to write home about. 7-for-14 on third down? Not great. 3-for-4 in the red zone? Problems continue in that department.

But more so than the numbers, most telling about this offense is that they simply don't pass the eye test right now. Again, they seem to lack an identity. A lot of the concepts they run, both run and pass, appear very clunky. There's certainly flashes of what this unit could look like — think back to Van Dyke's gorgeous throw on the run to Vinny Anthony for 32 yards on the first drive of the game. Regardless, the continued lack of consistency and cohesion is extremely troublesome.