Film room: Wisconsin Badgers secondary must improve vs. pass-happy Terps
Despite a stout run defense, Wisconsin's pass coverage is trending in the wrong direction ahead of a clash with pass-happy Maryland.
On the eve of Big Ten play, Wisconsin football is hardly into the meat of its schedule, one that will match the Badgers up with the likes of Ohio State, Oregon and a handful of other daunting arial assaults.
And yet Maryland, Wisconsin’s conference opener, will immediately test the Badgers’ reeling defense and predominantly, its secondary.
The front seven’s lack of production and disruption thus far in head coach Luke Fickell’s tenure has been well-documented. But after two suffocating performances in buy games (34 rushing yards allowed vs. Miami (OH), 33 vs. Middle Tennessee) offered promise that the run defense might be back, the Alabama game affirmed that promise is in fact a reality.
Wisconsin can stop the run.
This is just one example of many futile runs the Crimson Tide tried against the Badgers’ front. Above, Wisconsin’s defensive linemen Brandon Lane and Parker Petersen disengage in time to plug up any would-be rushing lanes, while outside backer Sebastian Cheeks comes off the edge to finish the job.
But it’s not just newcomers like Petersen that’ve powered the Badgers’ resurgent run defense. You’re seeing development from returnees including Tackett Curtis, who appears to be thinking less and playing faster:
You can’t miss Curtis on this play; he immediately runs to exactly the right spot to blow up the run. He sheds a block attempt from a wide receiver, and while he gets run over by the tailback, he stops his forward momentum, effectively making the tackle.
Still, despite the Badgers’ valiant efforts in the trenches, it mattered little as Alabama managed to carve up their secondary with ease, a trend that alarmingly began in Week 2 against Middle Tennessee.
Wisconsin has surrendered nearly 600 yards through the air in its past two games, with Alabama gunslinger Ty Simpson tossing for 383 yards last week in a surgical evisceration of the Badgers’ pass defense.
While Simpson was certainly brilliant, completing 83 percent of his passes and tossing four touchdowns in the process, Wisconsin’s secondary made it all too easy.
The first thing that stands out when watching the defensive tape from Week 3: the Badgers’ coverage was far too soft.
Wisconsin is in zone coverage here, and wideout Ryan Williams runs a corner route at the top of the screen. Cornerback Ricardo Hallman gives him outside leverage, and he has not shot to flip his hips in time to contest the pass.
Bad things can happen when you press talented wide receivers at the line of scrimmage, but Williams and company cannot simply be allowed to run their routes essentially on air. No Badger defender gets within three yards of him on this all-too-easy pitch-and-catch.
Now, there were times Alabama schematically ensured Wisconsin couldn’t get physical with its receivers, such as when it deployed bunch formations like the one below:
Again, formations like the bunch Alabama runs here with its two receivers on the left side of the screen make it difficult to stick to receivers in the short passing game. Still, the Badgers’ soft zone had no answer for just about any passing concept the Crimson Tide threw at them.
With the four-man pass rush not getting home all afternoon, Wisconsin sitting back in zone invited Alabama to be the aggressor, and it gladly took the Badgers up on that.
Below is another example of mind-numbingly soft zone. Redshirt freshman cornerback Omillo Agard is in coverage here, and again, he gives receiver Germie Bernard a sizable cushion: