A week has passed since the Wisconsin Badgers fell to the now-No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship game. However, UW (10-3) found itself in a third New Year's Six Bowl in four seasons when it was announced that head coach Paul Chryst and his program would play No. 6 Oregon (11-2) in the 106th edition of the Rose Bowl Game on Jan. 1.
BadgerBlitz.com will provide much more coverage of "The Granddaddy of Them All" in the coming weeks, but for now, editor/recruiting analyst Jon McNamara, senior writer Jake Kocorowski and staff writer Asher Low reconvened to discuss what transpired the first 13 games of the 2019 season.
Below is the third of a handful of questions answered that will be published in the coming days. Be sure to check out the previous roundtable discussions as well
Grading Wisconsin's 2019 season through 13 games | Highest point of the 2019 season through 13 games |
Was "the" low point of the season the Illinois loss? Were there other points of the 2019 campaign you would also point to?
McNamara: Illinois is the easy - and probably correct - answer. But I'll go with the 4th and 15 at Wisconsin's own 20 when Anthony Lotti botched a punt in the Big Ten title game. The Badgers were still up, 21-14, at the time, and UW held Ohio State to a field goal on the following possession. But it felt like the was the start of the floodgates opening at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Buckeyes went on to score the next 17 points en route to a 34-21 win. Again, Illinois was the "low point" of an extremely successful season, but the special teams gaffe in Indianapolis seemed to turn the tide in Indianapolis.
Kocorowski: I think it's due to the fact the team’s narrative completely changed after Illinois hits that game-winning field goal. Even with a dirty, ugly, sloppy victory, Wisconsin remains undefeated and its College Football Playoff hopes -- if the season stays on the same path as it played out -- hinge on upsetting Ohio State in the title game. Again, maybe UW even has conversations about being the fourth team in after beating three top 25 teams and playing like it did during the first half last Saturday.
I still maintain Wisconsin was prepared for the game. It was just that Illinois out-executed UW and exposed flaws in the proverbial armor that possibly had been symptomatic in earlier games. Missed tackles and giving up chunk plays were on display on that October afternoon in Champaign.
Low: It (Illinois) absolutely was the low point. I do not want to say the Illinois loss would have changed much about Wisconsin’s two games against Ohio State, mainly because I have that much respect for how fantastic the Buckeyes are on both sides of the football. But Wisconsin fans have to wonder what kind of swagger the Badgers would have had if they had walked into Ohio Stadium as an undefeated, top 10 team.
The loss at Illinois also was a case of Wisconsin losing a football game rather than Illinois winning it. Having the ball up two scores in the fourth quarter? You have to close that out no matter who you are playing. A Jonathan Taylor fumble and a late Jack Coan interception -- one of his four picks thrown this year -- in the final 15 minutes proved to be the difference and absolutely took an element of confidence away from the Badgers it felt like they could not get back until the Minnesota game.
