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7-3, great defense so far.

For whoever it was I was talking about Stave with before the season...good call. I never said he was bad (I had never seen him), but I thought O'Brien was going to be the guy.

LOL at calling a toss on 3rd and 1 losing 8 yards. Nice job, Canada.

trwi7 wrote:LOL at calling a toss on 3rd and 1 losing 8 yards. Nice job, Canada.

It worked on 3rd and 2 a few plays earlier. I don't know what else you want him to call. We have O'Brien in there and runs up the middle in this game and on the season are seeing guys hit Ball or White before they get the handoff.

We need to do a sweep to Gordon or something.

Let's give it up for playing not to lose, ladies and gentlemen!

That was the worst two minute offense imaginable.

I normally hate Beilema's strategies down the stretch, but I can't complain here. I wouldn't have let O'Brien do **** on any of those plays and just take the 10-3 lead.

However, I think you have a point on the defensive end.

trwi7 wrote:That was the worst two minute offense imaginable.

So would you have preferred 3 O'Brien imcompletions and punt it back to MSU at the 50 with a minute to go and 3 timeouts?

I liked it. Run it a few times and get it to the 40 since they're playing pass. Best thing is FG range when you start throwing it at the 40, worst thing is you go to OT. I honestly worried that O'Brien threw 3 incompletions or an INT and you're letting MSU get a FG at the end of regulation.

I would have preferred using timeouts. Ball starts out with a 7 yard run and we piss away 25 seconds. Then we get the first down and don't call a timeout.

I'd rather play to win in regulation with the way the offense has looked.

I also find it hard to believe that O'Brien won the job to start the season. The only reason he won it was because he was an upperclassman.

I was just about to start talking up this team too. 2 road losses, one a close one to a top 10 team.

trwi7 wrote:I would have preferred using timeouts. Ball starts out with a 7 yard run and we piss away 25 seconds. Then we get the first down and don't call a timeout.

I'd rather play to win in regulation with the way the offense has looked.

I think they were playing to win. They were NOT trying to go to overtime. Once they got to the 40, all they needed was 30 seconds with the 2 timeouts they had.

I agree, they should have used one of them after that first down they wasted 5 seconds before the snap.

The good thing about this game is it means almost nothing in the long run. Barring a miracle, we're playing in the B10 Championship game.

I had no confidence in getting the stop there.

I hate this team when it has to stop the pass.

Play not to lose and look what happens. I'd also rather see Phillips over O'Brien if Stave can't play.

I HATE this coaching staff.

What a frickin disappointing lose.

trwi7 wrote:Play not to lose and look what happens. I'd also rather see Phillips over O'Brien if Stave can't play.

Look, I don't like the defensive strategy. They always seem to go into passive schemes when up late.

I'm still puzzled by what you mean on offense. You think even if they called all their timeouts immediately on the last drive and have 20 extra seconds that Danny O'Brien gets them 40 yards further?

Like I said, it's more likely he throws 3 immediate incompletions, we punt, and they can possibly get in FG range.

On another note, while I am a big fan of getting Stave in there over O'Brien, my feeling was that in principle, both could pass the ball down the field about the same, but O'Brien was a huge failure in awareness and a few other factors.

At this point, it's not even close. O'Brien looks even worse than it was once thought.

You just can't ignore how poorly this team has performed in close games under BB's leadership the last 5 years. The only close game that we won where it didn't require a bail out from the opponent or refs was Iowa in 2010. That's the proudest I've been of a BB coached team. Good fake punt call, ran it down their throat, were aggressive enough on defense and held up. Outside of that we needed a running into the kicker against MSU in the championship game last year to offset a disastrous long punt return which gave Sparty what little chance they had to prevail, and a very makeable kick missed which was made longer by phantom penalties against Utah State this year. Here are the losses:

- today's collapse against MSU where the offense commits multiple penalties including an unnecessary hold to sabotage a would be game clinching TD, defense which only allowed 3 points the rest of the game plays on their back foot for the final drive to allow 7, and subsequently we don't take TO's on the potential comeback drive where we only need 3 unanswered to win.

- Last year's debacle at MSU where we allow a hail mary to be completed at the death, previous to which Bielema kept MSU's drive alive by taking TO's on D when they were still in manageable down and distance to convert.

- Last year at OSU where Wisconsin allows a very late heave/hail mary to lose.

- MSU in '08 where Bielema commits a sideline penalty to shift momentum in a game Bucky was in control of, unnecessary holding penalty override the would be game clinching TD, and then BB lets MSU kick with no time on the clock instead of preserving 40 seconds and 1-2 TO's for a chance at a comeback.

- Oregon in the Rose Bowl last season where BB takes a serious risk that time expires because it's supposedly more important to spike the ball with 2 seconds left and about 15 yards to go when they were gouging the Ducks with the no huddle.

- TCU in the Rose Bowl before last where they sit on John Clay until the end when he dominates, and then miss the 2-point conversion on a play which was given no time to develop.

- '08 against OSU where Wisconsin leads late but allows a game winning drive where Terrelle Pryor ran it in untouched at the end because all LB's went to tackle the running back on an option before he even had the ball.

- and of course the epic 2nd half debacle at Michigan in '08.

Wisconsin under BB are horrible in close games because of his mental mistakes which rub off on the rest of the team. He is a good enough coach overall to be a consistent factor in the Big Ten, so I don't know what actions could be taken to correct these problems, I guess we have to hope he magically gets smarter.

Although the team wouldn't have required doing the little things to succeed down the stretch in this particular game if it weren't for Stave's injury. Stave is to Joe Montana as DOB is to Brian Brohm. I seriously think DOB is worse than Evridge or Sherer. They were better playmakers and won us a few games at least. DOB is now 0-3 against D1A comp in games he finishes, Stave is 5-0. LOL at the fans who argued we gave DOB too short of a leash or we should have went back to him because Stave made a few under-throws. Stave has the stones to not take himself out of the play immediately at the first sign of pressure because he starts running toward his own goal line. DOB is on his heels as soon as he finishes his drop. It is like watching Brohm play for the Packers.