Thoughts On Wisconsin’s Win Over The Iowa Hawkeyes
The battle for the Heartland Trophy ended with the #10 Wisconsin Badgers winning 17-9 over the Iowa Hawkeyes on the road. It marks the fourth win in the last five games over Iowa with all four wins coming on the road at Iowa. The game was very physical and defensive as expected for these two teams. The Badgers looked good in some areas while others are a continuing concern. Let’s take a look at some thoughts on the Badgers’ victory:
1. The Special Teams were horrendous – It was not a good game for the Badgers’ special teams unit. Andrew Endicott went 1 for 3 on his field goal attempts including a terrible 32 yard miss on the first drive of the game. His 52 yard miss was more forgivable that was pushed just to the right of the post while his 36 yard make was just inside the post. He entered the game 4 for 4 on the season.
The punting game was very poor as well. The Badgers had 5 punts and averaged only 30.2 yards per punt between Anthony Lotti and P.J. Rosowski. There was also the kickoff to Desmond King in the final 90 seconds of the game that was returned 77 yards and gave the Hawkeyes a chance to make it an uncomfortable finish.
Special teams are where the hidden yards can be found and have a profound impact on the game in terms of field position. Let’s see how this unit improves against Nebraska next week.
2. Bart Houston makes a surprise appearance – This probably was the most surprising part of the game, but the reasoning for his appearance is more of a mystery. Houston came in for the Badgers’ third drive of the game and let them to a touchdown when he connected with Troy Fumagalli from 17 yards out. Hornibrook did take a big hit on the second drive of the game, but Houston also came back in for the first drive of the fourth quarter, which the Badgers did not score on. Houston did play well in his limited action…
3. Is there another quarterback switch on the horizon? – This is a fair question because Hornibrook had some struggles. Early in the game he had a couple of questionable throws in the flat and did not always look comfortable. However, Hornibrook did not have a bad game and Houston played well in his limited action. Is Paul Chryst trying to throw a wrinkle for opposing teams? Or is there a real chance that he might switch quarterbacks?
4. Red Zone inefficiencies continue – The Badgers have struggled all year getting touchdowns in the red zone and the game versus Iowa offered plenty of chances to correct that. Sure, the Badgers scored 2 touchdowns, but they could have made this game a lot more comfortable had they converted more of them. Coming into the game, Wisconsin had 23 red zone opportunities, but only 13 touchdowns (56.5%)
Against Iowa, the Badgers started off with a missed 31 yard field goal. Late in the second quarter, Corey Clement fumbled on the doorstep of the end zone that ended up resulting in a touchback, which Iowa converted into a field goal to make it a 7-6 game at halftime. The finished with a field goal late in the game to finish 2 of 5 on red zone touchdowns. The Badgers are now 15 of 28 (53.5%) in scoring red zone touchdowns and that percentage has only been going down the last few weeks.
5. The offense was both good and bad – We mentioned part of the bad with the red zone issues, but there was also the running game. The Badgers were not good running the ball. As a team they had 48 carries for 167 yards to produce a 3.5 yards per carry average. The offense was averaging 2.9 yards per carry until Corey Clement broke 34 yard run late in the game. Clement finished the game with 35 carries for 134 yards and a touchdown (plus that fumble on the goal line). This still is not the type of Badger rushing attack that we are accustomed to seeing. The receiving duo of Jazz Peavy (3 catches for 26 yards) and Troy Fumagalli (2 catches for 38 yards and a touchdown) were held in check for most of this game, but others did step up.
The good part of the offense was the passing attack and it did not really matter if it was Bart Houston of Alex Hornibrook throwing the ball. Hornibrook hit Kyle Penniston for 54 yards thanks to a missed tackle, but he also had a nice ball over the top to Quintez Cephus for 57 yards. Houston went 4 of 6 for 59 yards and a touchdown while he looked crisp running the offense. There was also Dare Ogunbowale out of the backfield converting three big third downs through the air. He finished with 4 catches for 51 yards and only 2 rushes for 10 yards. All those small yardage runs helped the passing game to get open, but did it really feel like a typical Badger offense?
6. The defense gets back to Badger Ball – The defense has been really good at not allowing touchdowns. They have given up only 8 touchdowns all year and the red zone defense has seen them give up only 7 touchdowns on 16 attempts. Against Iowa they were stout again giving up just three field goals including one that was pushed out of the red zone. The defense allowed only 2 of 13 conversions on third down for the Iowa offense and 83 yards rushing (3.1 yards per carry for Iowa’s rushing attack). This bend, but do not break philosophy has been the backbone of the defense and propelled the team to their 5-2 record.
7. Defense misses out on possible turnovers – The defense played a very good game, but we can still lament about the missed turnovers. On Iowa’s first two drives of the second half there were three fumbles by the Hawkeyes. Yet, the Badgers failed to recover any of them. This is the only real gripe against a unit that is continually leaned on to carry the team.
Wisconsin is now 5-2 overall and 2-2 in Big Ten play. They have a massive game at home next week against the Big Ten West leading Nebraska Cornhuskers. The Badgers need a win next week as well as another Nebraska loss to take control of the division. Below are previous columns providing thoughts on each Wisconsin game this season.
Wisconsin versus Georgia State
Wisconsin versus Michigan State