Wisconsin football entered Saturday night with a chance to prove its four-game winning streak was more than just a promising stretch.
Instead, Luke Fickell and the Badgers left the Rose Bowl with a 17-7 loss to No. 12 UCLA, dropping to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in Big Ten play.
There were opportunities to win this game. Wisconsin forced two turnovers, briefly pulled within three points in the second half, and got enough defensive stops to remain within striking distance. But the offense couldn’t sustain drives, the defense spent far too much time on the field, and questionable decisions compounded an already frustrating night.
“I thought we'd had a really good couple of weeks," Fickell said postgame. "I thought we were in a really good place. We went out there today and didn't play like I'd seen us play. “Didn't have the consistency to do the things, the little things really well, and it showed up.”
The officiating certainly deserves scrutiny, but Wisconsin didn’t do nearly enough to overcome it. Coming out of the bye, this was supposed to be an opportunity to measure the progress the Badgers had made. Instead, we got a reminder of how much work remains to get where they want to go, especially with USC and Iowa waiting over the next two weeks.
With that as the backdrop, let’s hand out some grades.
