WEST LAFAYETTE - The Badgers notched their first Big Ten win of the season on the road against Purdue, escaping West Lafayette with a 38-17 win.
BadgerBlitz.com has grades and takeaways from Week 4.
OFFENSE: B
Wisconsin marched down the field and scored a touchdown on each of its first three drives, which was an extremely welcome change from the slow starts the Badgers put together in out-of-conference play. Give them credit for recognizing an issue and getting it turned around in the first Big Ten game of the season.
For the most part, Wisconsin had no trouble moving the football. It's one three and out was a drive that ended on a Tanner Mordecai interception. The Badgers scored on seven of their 11 drives and managed to avoid the offensive lulls that plagued them throughout the first three weeks.
Mordecai had a good day overall. He threw for 174 yards while completing 63 percent of his passes, and picked up 58 yards on the ground with two scores. The pass he threw that got picked off early in the fourth quarter was a tad late, but it was more of an impressive play by defensive back Derrick Rodgers Jr. to rip it away from Chimere Dike.
The rushing game was effective all night. It wasn't dominant, but it got the job done. Braelon Allen led the way with 16 carries for 116 yards and two scores. He had a few of his trademark angry, "get off me" style runs where he disposed of a would-be-tackler. The major question mark now, of course, becomes the health and availability of Chez Mellusi.
Phil Longo appeared to open up the playbook more in his first conference game. The two Philly Special calls are an obvious example, but Mordecai's designed runs and some of the concepts and counters they ran off those are more ways the coordinator expanded his play sheet.
A new area of concern is the litany of false starts the Badgers had called on them. It's curious as to why — the stadium noise was never particularly deafening.
The Badgers' offense certainly cooled off in the second half, as they were held to three straight field goals to start the half. They had their issues — most troubling amongst them an inability to throw the football in the red zone — but it was an encouraging performance from a unit that had its share of question marks.
