The Badgers’ offensive line is coming off a pretty solid performance against a USC defense that, while not particularly statistically impressive, was at the very least loaded with talent in the front seven.
Wisconsin football has tried all season, to no avail, to settle its starting five up front. The Badgers have trotted out five different starting lineups in the offensive trenches across seven games. Their most recent tweak? Inserting Barrett Nelson at right guard in place of PJ Wilkins, who started there in the loss at UCLA.
Nelson is a question mark for the Badgers, as he surprisingly popped up on their mid-week injury report, initially listed as doubtful. He still appears to have a shot to play, though it remains to be seen. Nonetheless, pundits around the country took note of how Wisconsin’s offensive line pushed USC around last week, and Nelson starting was the big development.
Health aside, could Nelson be the answer Wisconsin has searched for at right guard? BadgerNotes dives into the All-22 film to find out:
We’ll start with some of the negatives from Nelson’s performance, most of which came in pass protection.
USC sends safety Alex Graham on a strong-side blitz, which the Badgers pick up correctly: right tackle Emerson Mandell picks up the blitzing defensive back, while center Stylz Blackmon (No. 76) and guard Barrett Nelson (No. 70) handle the 3-tech and 5-tech defensive linemen, respectively.
But Nelson, once one-on-one with Trojans defensive lineman Braylan Shelby, doesn’t hold up in pass protection. The guard finishes the play on the ground, and Shelby gets the sack on Badgers quarterback Colton Joseph.
To Nelson’s credit, this was the only other true pressure I noticed on the USC tape, and Wisconsin actually gains five or six yards here. But once again, he gets beat and allows instant pressure in Colton Joseph’s face.
To give Nelson credit once again, he didn’t hold here, and two pressures across 19 pass-blocking reps isn’t abysmal. But pass protection is still something of a work in progress for the fifth-year guard.
On the flip side, Nelson had some really nice reps in run-blocking.
I love how he gets to the second level here, and then completely seals off the linebacker, paving the way for Bryan Jackson to gash the Trojans for a cathartic run against his old team.
Below, more of the same. Nelson gets a free release off the line of scrimmage and quickly climbs to the second level. Once again, he throws the key block responsible for springing tailback Abu Sama on this play:
