Film room: Can Wisconsin football fix its dysfunctional offense?
With the Badgers' injury-riddled offense starting to implode, what does the tape say about Wisconsin's chances of righting the ship?
For two straight games, the Wisconsin football team’s offense has been abhorrently bad.
The issues have been extensive and crippling, and the Badgers’ completely dysfunctional offense has handicapped the entire team’s ability to put a competitive product on the field.
Things were rough on the road against Alabama, but what else is new? That utterance isn’t typically a major cause for concern for most programs in America.
And yet, the following week, things were even worse at home against Maryland. Now that’s a sentence that should raise some serious concern.
I thought Wisconsin’s offense had its worst fears realized against the Crimson Tide. I was wrong. The offense that showed up against Maryland made the offense in Tuscaloosa look almost competent.
Below, BadgerNotes.com dives into the tape from the ugly loss to Maryland to understand the root of the issues and assess whether or not this offense is salvageable.
The Badgers’ offensive film against Maryland is a cruel joke. It’s a comedic tragedy, a farce. It’s teach tape for what not to do when trying to run an offense smoothly.
This unit’s issues appear widespread on the surface, and indeed, it’s hard to argue against the notion that every position group needs to play better. But after re-watching every snap from multiple angles, I’ve boiled it down to a handful of core issues facing Wisconsin’s offense:
The Danny O’Neil disaster
You could say Wisconsin’s backup quarterback Danny O’Neil has executed poorly, but that would simply be coach-speak for, “He’s played like hot garbage.”
All of O’Neil’s issues and shortcomings were made painfully apparent against Maryland. We’ll start with his interception:
Wisconsin runs a slot fade to Trech Kekahuna at the top of the screen, and it looks like a simple cover one man look from Maryland.
O’Neil is pressured pretty quickly, but he reacts to that in the worst way possible: lofting a rainbow of a pass off his back foot to Kekahuna, completely disregarding or failing to see the safety lurking up top. The result was an easy interception for the Terps.
Again, it’s worth noting that O’Neil was constantly under siege, and pressure certainly impacts a quarterback’s play. But his poise under pressure, one of those qualitative traits we always talk about with quarterbacks, was non-existent. Below is another good example:
The Terps send just three after the quarterback, and despite the stunts from the defensive linemen, the Badgers’ offensive line maintains a clean pocket. The problem is that O’Neil leaves it immediately.
If you pause the above clip at 0:02, you’ll see an open Lance Mason, who runs a buttonhook from the slot. O’Neil needs to stay in the pocket and take the easy completion to his tight end. Instead, perhaps traumatized by his porous offensive line, he bails the pocket, effectively scrambling into pressure and settling for risky throw on the sidelines.
O’Neil has made some solid throws in his three starts and change, but his misses, like the above interception, have been some of the worst throws you’ll see from a Big Ten quarterback. Below, you’ll see him simply whiff on a toss to Kekahuna, who would’ve scored an easy touchdown had O’Neil put the ball on him:
Again, this time O’Neil doesn’t have a messy pocket to blame. He has plenty of time, but this ball just sails on him.
I’m not calling this pass a layup, but this is a tantalizing play because a good pass — not a great one — is all it would’ve taken for O’Neil to throw what would’ve been a walk-in touchdown. This is just a flat-out miss.
O’Neil’s struggles have been well documented. You probably didn’t need the above section to come to the conclusion that his play has been suboptimal to say the least. But while O’Neil’s issues might be the most tangible when watching this offense, plenty of other issues reared their ugly head against Maryland.
Offensive line woes
It’s no secret that Wisconsin’s offensive line is an abject calamity. It’s likely the single biggest issue facing the team right now.
The problem gets worse, however, when you dive into the tape and realize there’s not a quick fix staring you in the face, one simple hole to patch. Problems persist up and down the line. We’ll start with a rather surprising one: the struggles of Riley Mahlman.
Mahlman has been forced to play left tackle after the notion that Davis Heinzen could hold down that spot crashed and burned after one game. The natural right tackle has struggled mightily on the other side of the line.
Even for a fifth-year senior, poor play against Alabama’s talented front seven is forgivable. But Mahlman was repeatedly beaten off the ball by true freshman defensive end Sydney Stewart. With all due respect to the talented Terp, that simply cannot happen.
O’Neil has no shot to work through his progressions here. Mahlman also surrendered the quarterback hit that led to O’Neil getting knocked out of the game. The problems up front are aplenty, but the Badgers desperately need Mahlman to work through these early-season struggles and emerge a reliable tackle on the other side.
The even bigger issue up front, however, is the center position. Specifically, Ryan Cory. You have to feel for the redshirt freshman thrust into action clearly well before he’s ready, but he’s unplayable at this point.
Above, Cory gets blown past by a blitzing inside linebacker. He’s late recognizing the blitz, and his feet are too slow to get in position to square his body up against the linebacker. This results in an easy sack. With everyone else in man-to-man protection, Cory has to be able wall off a linebacker bringing undisguised pressure right up the middle.
Sure, Cory is young and his body could probably use another year or so in strength coach Brady Collins’ weight program before he’s physically mature enough for the trenches of the Big Ten. But the mental side of things has been really damaging for Cory as well — you can tell his head is spinning.
The following play is at half speed to give you a better sense of the blocking scheme. Keep your eyes on the center, Cory: