Wisconsin football report card for the 24-7 loss to Minnesota
Grading the Wisconsin Badgers offense, defense, and special teams from the 24-7 loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
The bowl eligibility streak has been snapped. UW failed to win a trophy game this year. The Axe is back in Minnesota’s control. A disastrous 2024 Wisconsin football season has come to an end as the Badgers finish the year at 5-7, the worst record for the program in over 20 years.
“I’ve been coaching for a good while, playing this game for a good while, and I don’t know that I’ve been in a position and situation like this, to be honest with you,” Luke Fickell told reporters after the game. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of things to get done, a lot of things we got to fix up and correct. Unfortunately, we’ll have a lot of time to do it.”
Here are my grades for Wisconsin’s offense, defense, and special teams from the loss to Minnesota.
Offensive Grade: D
43 yards. That is what the Badgers were able to muster in the first half. 43 yards.
Braedyn Locke managed to keep the ball out of harms way today and snapped his consecutive games with an interception streak. However, he finished with a sub-50 completion percentage and had multiple tipped passes at the line, finishing 15 of 32 for 130 yards and a touchdown. His 15-yard TD pass to Vinny Anthony breathed some life into the Badgers and the fans, but hope was lost when UW had a stalled offensive drive early in the fourth quarter that ended in a missed field goal.
Minnesota boasts one of the top run defenses in the Big Ten, and they thwarted any life the Badgers found in the run game, limiting them to a measly 36 rushing yards on the day. Darrion Dupree got some extended run and had a couple of nice attempts, but UW just could not get sledding against this strong Gophers defensive front.
Trech Kekahuna was a bright spot, as the redshirt freshman recorded six receptions for 64 yards on ten targets. He will be a key part of the Badgers receiving corps moving forward.
Defensive Grade: D
Remember how I mentioned Wisconsin had 43 yards of offense in the first half? Well, UW let up 202 yards of offense to Minnesota in the first half. That is an embarrassment. The worst part about it is that the game started off promising, with two early three-and-outs before the Gophers orchestrated an eight play, 89-yard scoring drive to get on the board first.
Gophers QB Max Brosmer was able to get pretty much whatever he wanted with both Daniel Jackson and Elijah Spencer, who each finished with over five catches. Let’s not get it twisted, this is a good Minnesota team, but my goodness, this Badgers defense made them look REALLY good.
Darius Taylor carved up the Badgers defense on the ground, logging 143 yards on 32 attempts, while his compadre, Max Major, broke off a 40-yard run of his own. It’s incredibly frustrating just how inconsistent this defense was the entire season, but this being the performance you go out with is just unacceptable.
Special Teams Grade: C-
Good for Atticus Bertrams, he was able to get a lot of tape out there today. In fact, today was the most Bertrams has punted all season, and he surpassed that mark his sixth punt of the game with just over a minute to go… in the first half. Most of his punts were solid, with his longest being a 53 yard boot in the third quarter.
Down 21-7, Nathanial Vakos missed a 37-yard field goal attempt that sent Badger fans to the exits early in the fourth quarter. Now, you can debate where he should have even been out there or not, but it was brutal to see him miss yet again. Vakos will finish the year making 12 of his 18 field goal attempts. Ouch.
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