In their final nonconference game of the 2026 season, the Wisconsin football team hosted the Eastern Michigan Eagles as a final ‘tune-up’ game before opening Big Ten play next week against Penn State.
Unlike a week ago, the Badgers came off sluggish on both sides of the ball. It took a quarter, but then Colton Joseph and Wisconsin took off, dominating Eastern Michigan in a rainy game at Camp Randall Stadium.
Game recap
On the opening drive, the offense marched down the field, aided by a 27-yard pass to tight end Jacob Harris, to reach the Eastern Michigan 24-yard line. Wisconsin failed to convert a 4th down and turned it over.
The Eagles took over and immediately marched down the field and scored a touchdown on the Badgers, going up 7-0.
On the next possession, Colton Joseph tried to force a pass along the sideline while running and underthrew his target, leading to an interception.
The Wisconsin offense finally mustered three points on a Gavin Lahm field goal on the Badgers’ third possession.
Then, the floodgates opened.
Wisconsin started a scoring barrage before halftime, scoring a touchdown on four straight drives, aided by two interceptions in back-to-back possessions that gave the offense fantastic field position.
The onslaught continued into the second half. Partway through the fourth quarter, the starting offense was still on the field, leading to a touchdown drive culminating in a Colton Joseph pass to Emmett Bork, putting the Badgers up 48-10.
And just for good measure, the Badgers blocked a last-second field goal and returned it for a touchdown to finish with a 54-10 victory.
Just thorough domination.
What stood out
• Colton Joseph had his breakout performance
Through the first two games, I think we can all agree Colton Joseph, who the Badgers paid handsomely to come to Wisconsin from the transfer portal, has underproduced. Whether Joseph was still adjusting to Power 4 football or was actually banged up, he didn’t meet expectations.
He changed that today.
After a sluggish start, missing a few open receivers and forcing some passes that led to one interception and could have been more, he found his stride and started looking the part.
At the half, Joseph was 16-of-24 passing for 302 yards and two touchdowns. He also added four carries and a rushing touchdown.
After a more conservative second half, Joseph finished the game 23-of-33 for 362 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception, while adding 46 yards on the ground and another score.
This was the breakout performance we all wanted to see.
• Tyrell Henry is WR1
Heading into the season, the wide receiver room was a big unknown.
Tyrell Henry just made himself known.
Before the game, he led the team with eight receptions. He eclipsed that in the first half alone. As Colton Joseph’s favorite target, they connected nine times for 118 yards and an impressive toe-tapping touchdown to put the Badgers up 31-7 before the half.
By halftime, Henry had already put together a ridiculous stat line: 11 receptions for 143 yards and a touchdown.
He added three more catches in the second half, finishing with a school-record 14 receptions for 160 yards and a touchdown. That broke the previous Wisconsin record held by Matt Nyquist, who caught 13 passes against Iowa in 1995.
Henry now leads Wisconsin in targets, receptions and receiving yards by a wide margin.
• The defense looked the part for the first time since the first half of the Notre Dame game
After giving up 67 yards and a touchdown on the opening drive, the Wisconsin defense locked things down, making it nearly impossible for Eastern Michigan to do anything offensively today.
On the day, the Badgers gave up just 216 total yards and an average of 3.6 yards per play. This defense was all over the place.
It took almost two and a half games, but the Badgers finally forced a turnover. In fact, they forced three turnovers. Mason Posa and Matt Jung both came away with interceptions in the first half, followed by a Cooper Catalano scoop-and-score on the first possession of the second half for the Eagles after a forced fumble by Sebastian Cheeks.
While they didn’t rack up the sacks as I had predicted, they shut down the Eagles’ running attack, allowing just 62 yards on the ground.
This is the defense I was expecting to see this season, especially against teams like Eastern Michigan.
Game Balls
QB Colton Joseph: Joseph enjoyed his best game as a Badger today, racking up the passing yards. At one point, he was on pace to throw for over 600 yards.
Instead, he finished with 362 yards, the 7th-most in a single game.
WR Tyrell Henry: Joseph connected with Henry early and often today, and anytime someone breaks a school record, they get a game ball, right? Henry killed the Eagles out of the slot today and gave Joseph a steady, reliable target.
Stats of the game
7.6: The Wisconsin offense averaged a staggering 7.6 yards per play today.
14: Tyrell Henry caught 14 passes from Colton Joseph, breaking the Wisconsin single-game receiving record.
2.1: The Wisconsin defense allowed just 2.1 yards per rush, giving up just 62 yards on the ground on 30 rushing attempts.
3: The Badgers special teams unit registered their third blocked kick of the season, blocking the Eagles’ field goal attempt at the end of the game, resulting in a 55-yard touchdown return by Donovan Dunmore.
54: The Badgers scored 54 points, the most in a game since Week 3 in 2022 when they beat New Mexico State, 66-7. The 54 points are the most in the Luke Fickell era.
What’s next
Wisconsin (2-1) will travel to Penn State (3-0) next week to open conference play. The Nittany Lions are coming off a 55-13 victory over Buffalo.
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