The Wisconsin football team rode a hot start in the first quarter to a 36-9 victory over the visiting Western Illinois Leathernecks at the home opener tonight.
Game recap
You could not have asked for a better start to the game if you were the Wisconsin Badgers. Abu Sama busts a 72-yard touchdown run on the first offensive play of the game to open up a lightning-fast 7-0 lead.
The defense came out fast too, forcing an immediate three-and-out. Sama busts another run on his second carry of the night, this time a 21-yard scamper, giving him 103 yards on just two carries. The offense, however, fizzled out and settled for a field goal to go up 10-0.
The defense did their job yet again, forcing a punt on the next possession that was blocked by safety Carson Van Dinter, who also picked it up and brought it in for a touchdown.
Complete dominance halfway through the first quarter.
After that, the Western Illinois offense started moving the ball a bit on the Badgers, and the Leathernecks’ defense stiffened up on the Badgers offense, leading to some back-and-forth field goals for both sides. Wisconsin kicker Gavin Lahm hit field goals of 49 and 51 yards. The Badgers went into the half with a 23-6 lead.
The second half started off with an explosive play from the Leathernecks on a 45-yard pass to Jacob Kania down the sideline that set Western Illinois up nicely. After a holding call negated a touchdown for the Leathernecks, they settled for a field goal.
After that, the Badgers finally took control. The longest drive the defense allowed after that was just 25 yards.
Offensively, they finally got things going on the ground again. The Badgers had an eight-play, 68-yard drive that was all running plays, finishing with a 28-yard touchdown run by Darrion Dupree.
The Joseph later connected with Chris Brooks Jr. for a 33-yard touchdown to put the Badgers up 36-9, the final score.
What stood out
The special teams unit is great
Outside of the fumble by Bortolotti in Week 1, the special teams for the Badgers have been great. Sean West put on a clinic last week punting, and now Gavin Lahm showed us what he was capable of, hitting those long field goals in the first half.
Outside of the kicking aspects of special teams, the Badgers blocked another punt, doing so in back-to-back weeks. Liam Danitz, who blocked the punt last week, almost got another one tonight but was just short.
The defense bent but didn’t break…too often
The defense was pretty disappointing tonight. While they didn’t give up a touchdown, the Western Illinois offense moved the ball far too easily on them, especially on the ground.
After holding Notre Dame to 111 yards on the ground in Week 1, the Leathernecks had 154 yards, including 88 from their starting quarterback.
While the Badgers held the Leathernecks out of the end zone, a team like Western Illinois shouldn’t be able to move the ball as well as they did. It’s definitely something they are going to have to focus on and fix before they open conference play in Week 4.
The Badgers still can’t play a complete game
I talked about this in my part of the staff predictions. Western Illinois is coming off a 41-10 beatdown from another FCS school, albeit the No. 4 FCS school in Illinois State.
But the Badgers are a Big Ten team. A 36-9 victory isn’t good enough.
They came out on fire, and they were going to be able to do whatever they wanted all game; then, all of a sudden, as we’ve seen so many times before, the momentum changed, and all of a sudden it’s a struggle.
The offense struggled to move the ball. After rushing for 103 yards on two carries, Abu Sama finished with just 107 yards on eight carries. Colton Joseph also had accuracy issues, missing multiple open targets.
The defense struggled to get stops until they were in scoring range.
Yes, a 36-9 win looks okay on paper, but it was all just disappointing and still short of what I thought I needed to see.
Game Balls
K Gavin Lahm: Two weeks in, we have our second specialist with a game ball. When the Wisconsin offense couldn’t finish a drive with a touchdown, Lahm was automatic tonight, hitting those long-distance field goals from 49 and 51 yards.
The past few seasons, I had no confidence that the Wisconsin kicker would make the kick, regardless of the distance. Maybe it was because the Badgers were already winning by a large margin and there wasn’t a ton of pressure, but I didn’t feel that sense of dread of an incoming missed field goal when Lahm came on the field.
Granted, he missed an extra point at the end of the game, so not great, but hitting those long field goals gives me confidence in his leg and ability moving forward.
Thomas Heiberger: Heiberger started getting some snaps in the second half after the departure of Mason Posa. The junior linebacker was immediately making plays.
In his first snap, he broke up a pass in the red zone, helping hold the Leathernecks out of the end zone and settling for a field goal. On another play, he came flying out of nowhere on a quarterback rollout and forced him to get rid of the ball early, leading to an incompletion.
He finished the night with three tackles, a tackle for a loss, and a pair of pass breakups.
Stat of the night
The Badgers returned a block punt for a touchdown for the first time since 2009, when David Gilbert blocked a Purdue punt, and Aaron Henry returned it seven yards for a touchdown.
What’s next
The Badgers (1-1) will play their final non-conference game next week against Eastern Michigan (1-2) at home at 11:30 a.m. on Peacock. The Eagles are coming off a 35-7 loss to Michigan State in East Lansing.
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Not impressed with the play calling. Very few long passes, no pitchouts to running backs, run up the middle on 1st and 20, no naked bootlegs by QB, didn't make Western Illinois' defensive backs work that hard, etc.. Our defensive line almost seemed outmatched -- poor job of containing WIU's QB on his keepers.