Film room: Wisconsin Badgers offense has worst fears realized vs. Alabama
Breaking down Wisconsin's offensive performance against Alabama from what worked to what didn't, and what to watch moving forward.
The Wisconsin Badgers rolled into Tuscaloosa already at a major disadvantage in terms of talent, depth and coaching.
Toss in a backup quarterback and a patchwork offensive line featuring three redshirt freshmen, and the result is the ugly, uninspiring and at times un-watchable offensive football that unfolded Saturday afternoon.
After the game, I argued that Wisconsin’s deficiencies cannot solely be blamed on the litany of backups playing meaningful snaps.
I’m still willing to die on that hill. The Badgers’ starters and coaches were also severely overmatched against the Crimson Tide.
Still, Alabama’s defense licked its chops at Wisconsin’s glaring weaknesses and proceeded to render the Badgers’ offense almost completely useless.
Below, BadgerNotes.com breaks down what went so horribly wrong for Wisconsin’s offense in Bryant-Denny Stadium, highlights a few bright spots and assesses where the Badgers might go from here:
As with everything in football, it starts up front. Coaches and players say it all the time, and it’s true, especially down south in the trenches of the SEC.
While the Badgers’ defensive front actually held up pretty well at the line of scrimmage, the same cannot be said for the offense. And again, three redshirt freshman, new starters everywhere — I get it. But when your redshirt senior, program stalwart of a right tackle Riley Mahlman is getting discarded at the point of attack, you didn’t stand much of a chance to begin with:
Of course, the carnage wasn’t limited to Mahlman doing his best to hold down the blindside tackle spot. Unsurprisingly, the aforementioned right side of the line, populated by redshirt freshmen Emerson Mandell and Colin Cubberly, was a massive issue.
The coaching staff likely prefers Mandell at guard. But he’s been forced to play tackle due to injuries and incompetence, and it was rough against Alabama. Disaster is a strong word, but unfortunately that’s what some of his reps, particularly in pass protection, were. Case in point:
Mandell has no shot here against linebacker Qua Russaw. He hardly even gets a hand on him.
Mandell and Cubberly also struggled when the defensive front changed the picture post-snap with stunts and blitzes. Here, the latter gets completely out-of-position, leading to a free rusher and an easy sack:
Under ex-offensive coordinator Phil Longo, the Badgers were hung out to dry when they didn’t have competent quarterback play (which, largely due to injury, was most of the time).
Under Jeff Grimes, the quarterback doesn’t need to be a future NFL draft choice. But the offensive line certainly has to move bodies in the running game and hold up in protection on passing downs. Clearly, neither was the case versus Alabama.
The offensive line is the heartbeat of any offense, but especially a Wisconsin scheme coordinated by Grimes. Understaffed on the offensive line, forced to reshuffle and start players clearly not ready to handle a premier SEC team on the road, the Badgers’ offense was stripped of its identity and with it, any chance to compete.
Couple that with starters whom are considered program leaders getting beaten easily off the line, and the result is what you watched Saturday.
Danny O’Neil had his struggles as well, none more glaring than his first interception:
Wideout Vinny Anthony runs a 10-yard curl route, but Alabama is in zone coverage with safety Bray Hubbard playing the hard flat. He baits O’Neil into the throw, who seemingly never even saw him. Quite simply, this is a throw your true sophomore quarterback who’s never played in a bigger environment that Boise State will make against Alabama on the road.
Some of O’Neil’s struggles, of course, had to do with the lack of protection from the offensive line. O’Neil rarely had a clean pocket Saturday, but on the few occasions where he did, he struggled to capitalize: