MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Badgers were on their outdoor practice field for the 10th practice of spring.
BadgerBlitz.com was on the scene. Here are my three biggest takeaways from Saturday's action.
Defensive line takes advantage of injured offensive line
Something looked off with the starting offense almost immediately.
Two consistent starters this spring — left tackle Kevin Heywood and left guard Joe Brunner — were unavailable, in favor of Leyton Nelson and Colin Cubberly.
It’s safe to say that their absences were felt. The defensive line and edge rushers had their best day of practice yet, by far. There were so many pressures and tackles for loss that the practice was beginning to feel monotonous.
Nose tackles Parker Petersen and Brandon Lane showed off their sheer strength by bull-rushing multiple interior linemen. Edge rusher Angel Toombs found himself in the backfield a few times, often taking advantage of freshman Nolan Davenport. Grambling transfer Micheal Garner pulled off one of the best plays of the day when, on a jet sweep to Tyrell Henry, he reached his arm out and dragged Henry down before he could even leave the pocket.
The defensive line and edge rushers have shown a tremendous amount of improvement over the past week or two alone, but this performance likely wouldn’t have happened with a healthy offensive line. Heywood and Brunner were out Saturday, as was right guard Emerson Mandell. Backups Barrett Nelson and JP Benzschawel have also missed the majority of spring. This is a thin group right now.
These injuries ultimately seem minor enough to where they won’t need extra assistance via the portal. But the offensive line played so poorly that it suffocated the rest of the offense. The quarterbacks had no time to throw and the running backs could rarely go more than a few steps without encountering multiple bodies.
This stitched-together line needs to shape up soon, at least for the sake of the rest of the offense.
