Northern Iowa @ Wisco, 2:30 PM, BTN

[ReasonablySober]

Just get a first down and get the hell out of here.

[MadCityBucky]

Defense looks ughhh not well
Nobody looked good, nobody stood out.

[dogswithbeesintheirmouths]

That game was brutal. I think Matt Canada would've brought the same game plan if they were playing the '85 Bears today. Jesus, dude, feel free to throw it more than 5 yards down the field more than once per quarter.

[RiotPunch]

My enthusiasm for this team has been compromised.

[Bernman]

I can always get a pretty good gauge of how good a Wisconsin team is going to be merely by looking at how many in state kids were awarded starting spots. The last two years half or more of their starters were from Wisconsin and they won the Big Ten. The other 4 seasons when they were elite, '93, '98, '99, and '06; half or more of the starters were from Wisconsin. This year they dropped 5-6 in state starters to only 7 and they almost lose their opener at home to Northern Iowa. The correlation is too strong to be a coincidence anymore and it can be logically explained by kids from Wisconsin choosing the Badgers over every other program and growing up rooting for the program so they'll give that extra ounce for it. There are plenty of players on this team who fall into that category (esp. from the '11 class), but they haven't received favor yet because their lack of tenure and the staff's infatuation with speed over I.Q. at times. Southward is a great case in point. He's one of the faster players in the Big Ten, but misses tackles and plays like a chicken with his head cut off.

[midranger]

This season has a distinct 2008 feel to it. Little leadership. Little emotion. Little effort.

We looked like a 5 loss team.

[Ill-yasova]

For the record. 1 Play action going into the fourth, I only counted two screens all game, and no bootleg passes to buy time and extend plays. It was either pack it in for an obvious run against a 10 man front or go to a completely empty backfield where everyone runs a 5 yard crossing route.

Matt Canada everybody.

[Allanon23]

Matt Canada called the most conservative gameplan I've seen in over 10 years. DOB looked pretty good, but 4th quarter miscues on defense made this game way too scary.

I still predict 9 or 10 wins.

[RiotPunch]

I wonder if that was free-reign playbook Canada or Bielema putting a muzzle on him.

Too easy to blame that guy for me.

[Ill-yasova]

I wonder if that was free-reign playbook Canada or Bielema putting a muzzle on him.

Too easy to blame that guy for me.

I've always had the impression that Brett was pretty hands off when it comes to offense.

[humanrefutation]

Ball got a lot more carries than they wanted to give him, considering that he hasn't been playing contact football since New Years Day. I did like the sets with Ball and White, though.

[RiotPunch]

I've always had the impression that Brett was pretty hands off when it comes to offense.

Yeah, with Chryst calling the shots. You're still probably right, but my disliking towards Bret makes me at least question it.

[El Duderino]

I was shocked to see the OL get pushed around so often by a Northern Iowa defense. They regularly were in the Badger backfield on run plays.

As for the defense, i haven't been a fan of Ash at all. He runs as bland of a scheme as any defensive coordinator in football. Rush four and play Cover 2 zone 90-95% of the time, even if the defense is getting shredded. That's ok if you have pass rushers on the DL who can generate pressure by themselves, but last year they badly lacked pass rushers and it looks to be the same this year.

Borland is easily the best pass rusher on the defense and should be rushing on any clear passing situations. It's painful watching 3 or 4 mostly plodding white defensive lineman trying to get pressure and repeatedly failing.

[trwi7]

When Borland was blitzing yesterday I don't think there was a single time he didn't get to the QB.

[MikeIsGood]

To me, yesterday came down to poor run blocking on offense and not getting to their QB on defense.

Once DOB settled in, I was pleasantly surprised. He should only get better as the season goes on. He's not Russel Wilson and he never will be, but I wasn't expecting what we saw in game one.

[Kerb Hohl]

I won't take this as a positive game, and I think you can probably cross any darkhorse National Championship hopes, but I'm not going to jump off the bridge yet. Iowa had a more miraculous win against Northern Iowa 3 years ago and played in the Orange Bowl. We had a garbage/close call game against Northern Illinois several years back when we similarly let them make a serious run late in the game and had a decent Champs Sports win over Miami.

Arizona State was straight trash a few years ago, we should have lost to them at home, we barely beat SJSU at home, and we played in the Rose Bowl.

Long story short: I'm not enthused by Saturday's game, but I'm not jumping off the ledge.

Sidenote: Those that want a marquis non-conference game early, this was a season you had better be glad we did not. Could be similar to 2010 where we looked subpar to open the season up and picked up steam to make the Rose Bowl. Also could be an 8-4, lackluster year.

[El Duderino]

I don't think that many people were socalled jumping off the ledge over just a bad first game.

Offensively, the biggest issue i saw was the OL struggled to dominate the line of scrimmage in the run game as most expected vs competition like Northern Iowa. Way to often they allowed defenders to blow up runs in the backfield or after only a yard or two. That said, i expect the line to gel soon enough and a very good running game to follow.

Defensively though, i was more troubled by what i saw. Going into the year my two biggest concerns for the team was pass rush first and then the secondary. Ash generally runs a very conservative defense with lower amounts of blitzing, so the front four has to generate the pressure. Last year there really was nobody on the DL who could generate consistent pressure and i saw a lot of the same on Saturday. Borland got pressure on two rushes when they used him on certain third downs, but then i noticed N. Iowa doubled him on future rushes. This DL badly needs a Burke, Saleh, Schofield, Watt, Bryant, etc type that fairly often can generate a pressure when the defense really needs one.