MADISON — The Wisconsin Badgers played their season opener underneath the Camp Randall lights on Friday night, defeating the Western Michigan Broncos, 28-14.

In what began as a tight, low-energy game that could’ve gone either way, the Badgers eventually seized control in the fourth quarter and rode their running game to a victory.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from Wisconsin’s win.

Entering the game, it was easy to predict that the Badgers would likely use a safe approach and lean on the run. Against an inferior opponent, the common sense strategy is to keep it on the ground, allowing the better players to win out in the end rather than leaving the outcome up to big plays and random chance.

“The number-one thing going in the game, we wanted to be able to pound the football, play physical, we wanted to impose some will and make sure we get these backs and this line rolling,” Luke Fickell said after the game.

However, the decision-making was so safe and conservative that it seemed to often rob the offense of their energy. I began to wonder in the second quarter if they were hiding Tyler Van Dyke. Only three of his 23 attempts in the first half traveled over 15 yards, and even that seemed like a lot based on how the game looked.

When Fickell was asked for his assessment of Van Dyke in his debut, it sounded like he was talking about a pure game manager.

“To be honest, I think he did what we asked him to do. We wanted to be physical, we wanted to run the football, we wanted to manage the game in a way that we weren’t just gonna take shots to start off with, and I think he did that.”

It would’ve at least made more sense if Western Michigan’s pass defense posed any threat at all, but they didn’t. In 2023, they allowed 234.6 passing yards per game (second-highest in MAC) and 23 passing touchdowns (highest in MAC). Friday’s game was also their first after losing their top cornerback from last season — Keni-H Lovely. The receivers were gaining plenty of separation, especially over the middle, which is one of Van Dyke’s favorite zones.

Yet the coaches never made it easy for the passing game to gain any momentum, either. So when they actually had to move down the field with pace, they often looked sluggish and disorganized.

At the end of the first half, when they needed to complete a drive in less than three minutes, it looked as if they had never practiced an end-of-half drill. They ran the ball four straight times to burn over 100 seconds of clock, then called eight straight passes, eventually leading to a flame out field goal.

Ultimately, they looked devoid of identity. If something worked, they would repeat it until it didn’t, often leading to some stagnance. They weren’t trying to make the defense guess. It felt almost arrogant; as if they only needed minimal creativity and energy to beat this lowly MAC team.

Their nerves were expected. It was the season opener after a pressure-filled offseason, at night underneath the Camp Randall lights. But the poor decision-making was far less excusable.

If you only watched the line of scrimmage during this game and didn’t know either team, it would’ve been hard to guess who was in the MAC.

All in all, it was expected for the Badgers’ defensive line to struggle. An already-thin room lost their leader in James Thompson earlier in August, leaving an unproven group to man Wisconsin’s defensive front. The early returns from Friday seemed to do a better job of validating fears than quelling them.

When asked for his assessment of the defensive line’s performance, Fickell expressed some frustration as kindly as he could.

“It’s really hard… I’m not gonna say they did a great job, I’m not gonna say they didn’t do their job. But when the game gets methodical like that, it takes a lot of discipline. We played a lot of guys, we rolled some guys through there. Maybe we didn’t play as many or the numbers at which we needed to… I think all-in-all, those guys continue to hold up, they continue to do what we ask them to, and we know this — we have to find some ways to create negative yardage plays, so that the game doesn’t become as methodical as it is.”

Even though they’re in the MAC, Western Michigan has one of the more experienced and capable offensive lines in the conference. It was never going to be a cake walk for the Badgers. But looking forward to the rest of the schedule, it’s going to take some serious adjustments to not be completely overwhelmed by some of the stronger teams on the schedule.

On the other side, the offensive line looked about even against a front that didn’t retain or acquire any truly special players. They made up for their lack of talent with numbers, often loading the box when they believed the Badgers would run, and they were usually right.

Most of Wisconsin’s biggest runs came when the offense was more spread out and difficult to predict. Yet they held a talented running back room to 4.3 yards per carry. I’m not yet sure if that says more about Western Michigan’s impressive defense, or the lack of creativity from Wisconsin’s offense.

Coming into the year, there were more questions in the running back room than normal for a school like Wisconsin. They lost their undisputed No. 1 back in Braelon Allen, brought in a few talented-but-unproven players who are all capable of playing and their top returner is quite injury prone.

Regardless, their two lead backs — Chez Mellusi and Tawee Walker — showed enough to provide optimism for the rest of the season.

Walker dominated the offense early, contributing four rushes for 16 yards, and two catches for 11 yards on the opening drive alone. He would go on to finish with 15 carries for 66 yards and a touchdown. These may not seem like superb stats, but given the constant pressure of the Cougar defense, he played almost as well as he could have.

It took slightly longer, but Mellusi began to make an impact throughout the course of the game. He ended up finishing with 19 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown. More importantly, his body looked just about 100% as he was constantly seeking contact rather than playing it safe. Mellusi’s 19 rushing attempts are four more than his highest total from last year, which is a solid indication of how much they plan to use him.

The only questionable decision they made with their rotation was the decision to prioritize playing Cade Yacamelli over freshmen Dilin Jones and Darrion Dupree. Yacamelli looked good in his few rushes — running four times for 35 yards — but it would’ve been beneficial to get a look at some of the young talent that may not get opportunities later in the season, against better opponents.

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook