After one of the most shocking comeback wins you’ll see in college football all season, Wisconsin football is riding high as all of the sudden, the Badgers have a takedown of No. 13 Penn State in Happy Valley on their resume.
With homecoming against Michigan State right around the corner, Wisconsin doesn’t have much time to celebrate the biggest win in the Luke Fickell era. But before the Badgers do battle with the Spartans, let’s take a look at 10 underrated plays from Wisconsin’s massive upset win in Week 4.
We’ve all seen Jacob Harris’ 72-yard touchdown more times than we can count; these are the slept-on plays that didn’t get as much attention, but tell us a whole lot about this football team.
Let’s start with some forgotten throws from Colton Joseph. Again, the one Wisconsin fans will remember forever is the 72-yard strike over the middle to Harris for six. It’ll also be hard to forget those three brutal interceptions he threw, each one uglier than the last.
But the play above was a stellar throw. On Wisconsin’s penultimate touchdown drive, the Badgers were out of time and needed the old score/stop/score. On this play, Joseph keeps the ball on an RPO. He takes a shot from the Nittany Lions edge rusher, who gets into the backfield so quickly he has to change his arm angle a bit. Still, he stands tall and delivers a strike to receiver Shamar Rigby, his lone catch of the game, while absorbing the contact.
This is another throw from Joseph that didn’t get much attention, but should have Badgers fans excited about what this passing game could become as the gunslinger continues to develop. This is a third-and-long, and Joseph calmly sits in the pocket, goes through his progressions and finds Tyrell Henry over the middle to move the chains.
You can see Joseph look towards the receivers at the top of the screen before coming back over the middle to his next read, Henry. This is a simple, on-schedule pass, but it’s a really nice job of reading the defense and finding the open man from Joseph, especially in a third-and-long scenario.
Joseph had a wild ride of a game of course, but a Badger who was dialed in all night? Cornerback Javan Robinson.
Robinson was all over the field Saturday night, but this was probably his most impressive play. To stumble while covering a go route, only to regain his footing and recover to swat the ball away (taking advantage of an under-throw from Rocco Becht in the process) is just a ridiculously impressive play, especially in such a crucial, game-defining moment.
Robinson was target 10 times and only allowed two catches. He was completely lights out in coverage, but he was also a very sure tackler in Happy Valley:
