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What the ****? How does this happen on 3 straight plays when you know they're coming?

A great end to a great season.

Unfortunately no one will question fick on the overly conservative calling throughout the game and esp in the 4th

98 yard drive that was just about the easiest drive you're ever going to see followed by us starting to drive for the win and then completely falling apart.

An unfortunate result for the Badgers but man what a fun game. Got to see a ton of young guys get time and they hung tough against a really good LSU team. It's a loss but this legitimately might have been their best game of the season.

Trech Kekahuna, Quincy Burroughs, Curt Neal, Christian Alliegro, Jonas Duclona were all freshman who got significant playing time today

Austin Brown, Jake Renfro, Nolan Rucci, & Vinny Anthony barely played this year and played significant snaps today.

The Badgers lost but today made me more optimistic about the future of the Badgers then previously

Until the end , it was great game ! Defensively we just couldn't keep up with receivers , especially with hardly any pressure up front! Looking like our Wr's room is looking pretty good! A few things in today's game bothers me.
1). Pac 10 refs
2) that touchdown , was not a td, foot clearly on the line! Maybe they score anyhow , but maybe not!
3) the inconsistent spotting of the ball! Maybe the homer in me , but it sure seemed that they always spotted us back a yard or two back , while it seemed they seemed to get a generous spot!
Had high expectations this year , but reality set in. I do like that we will be more balanced on offense . Defensively a little bit worried especially now that we have some high powered offenses coming in!

Mtsportsfan wrote:Until the end , it was great game ! Defensively we just couldn't keep up with receivers , especially with hardly any pressure up front! Looking like our Wr's room is looking pretty good! A few things in today's game bothers me.
1). Pac 10 refs
2) that touchdown , was not a td, foot clearly on the line! Maybe they score anyhow , but maybe not!
3) the inconsistent spotting of the ball! Maybe the homer in me , but it sure seemed that they always spotted us back a yard or two back , while it seemed they seemed to be a generous spot!
Had high expectations this year , but reality set in. I do like that we will be more balanced on offense . Defensively a little bit worried especially not that we have some high powered offenses coming in!

You can see why Fickell & Tressel have added a bunch Linebackers in the Transfer Portal this offseason, just absolutely zero pass rush today from the current guys.

Special teams need to be fixed! Punter has a 17 yard punt, and the kicker missed one ( yes , a 52 harder ) its just not today , but the inconsistency all year. Obvious kicking situations are not that obvious if you can't trust your kicker!

MVP2110 wrote:

Mtsportsfan wrote:Until the end , it was great game ! Defensively we just couldn't keep up with receivers , especially with hardly any pressure up front! Looking like our Wr's room is looking pretty good! A few things in today's game bothers me.
1). Pac 10 refs
2) that touchdown , was not a td, foot clearly on the line! Maybe they score anyhow , but maybe not!
3) the inconsistent spotting of the ball! Maybe the homer in me , but it sure seemed that they always spotted us back a yard or two back , while it seemed they seemed to be a generous spot!
Had high expectations this year , but reality set in. I do like that we will be more balanced on offense . Defensively a little bit worried especially not that we have some high powered offenses coming in!

You can see why Fickell & Tressel have added a bunch Linebackers in the Transfer Portal this offseason, just absolutely zero pass rush today from the current guys.

Looks like he added speed at the LB's position. Inside and out. Going to need a little more beef for the line though.

They should offer Perkins the bag and get him to Wisconsin. What Kelly's done with him is ridiculous.

Oddly enough I think Wisconsin's two best games of the season were losses. I think this game and the Ohio St game were probably their two best performances

MVP2110 wrote:Oddly enough I think Wisconsin's two best games of the season were losses. I think this game and the Ohio St game were probably their two best performances

Defensively Ohio State and offensively today.

Sucks that it took all the way until the bowl game to really see Mordecai in full flight. I think if he had another year we'd really have something.

MVP2110 wrote:An unfortunate result for the Badgers but man what a fun game. Got to see a ton of young guys get time and they hung tough against a really good LSU team. It's a loss but this legitimately might have been their best game of the season.

Basically where I was at. If the talent upgrades keep coming at LB/OLB, I think that changes a lot of things. Things are looking good.

Fickell's 4th down stuff bothers me more than Chryst. Chryst I agreed 90% of the time with him when he punted in opponent territory. We were Iowa. The odds of converting 4th and 4 in some of those years were much worse than punting it back and having the defense make something happen. This team's build was kind of the opposite. The only time I stepped up and would defend Fickell was the 4th and goal at halftime against OSU for various reasons.

I'm always an optimist on this stuff, though, because fans usually guilt the coach into better changes OR Fickell knows this stuff and has a weird rebuilding year mindset. I'll be more concerned if it's happening in year 2 or 3.

Short yardage play calling and lack of aggressiveness from the staff bit us.

Unless you have a top-3 type kicker in the ncaa, you probably should never be be attempting 50+ yard FGs in an offensive shoot out in a 3rd tier bowl game. Even then, assuming a 75% chance of success, it doesn’t make too much sense. We needed 7 on drives. It was pretty clear from mid second quarter.

Which brings me to this. The athleticism deficit left by the previous staff is appalling. Our front 7 generated zero pressure. Our CBs were giving big cushions and dudes were still flying by them with ease and lack of pass rush allowed the QB time to hit them. Having two NFL game wreckers last year papered this over by and large, but it on full display yesterday. You can definitely see why Fick wants to turn over this defensive personnel. Just not good enough. We need a beastly DL in the worst way and it unfortunately doesn’t feel like help is on the way.

Watching our offensive unit play their hearts out (especially Mordecai, a kid with no previous history with UW) it makes me a bit salty that Brae decided to sit it out to protect his day 3 draft status. I appreciate what the kid did here, but it felt like he left plenty of yards on the training table.

Agree with pretty much all of that. The only weird thing about the lack of talent in the front 7 (which I totally agree with) is it felt like they got a bunch of 4-star guys like Bollers, Johnson, etc. that you thought would keep the pipeline of dynamic edge rushers flowing and boy did that not happen. And the ILB guys are capable but just not defensive anchors like they had for the decade before it with Orr, Sanborn, Edwards, etc.

I totally get why he didn’t, but this game probably would’ve been a nice one for Brae to potentially boost his stock.