DrWood wrote:You have problems with people stating facts? He was much worse before this game. That's a fact. He was a 4-star recruit (81 score); Mertz was a 4-star recruit with an 86 score. Doesn't mean they're going to perform.
And he was great yesterday, while his receivers were even better. They would have passed for a ton of yards against anyone except Georgia. They also ran for about 300 yards in their previous two games, so why would they throw the ball a lot? It's not like he played badly when they did either. And he only played a partial game against Nebraska, but did average over 11 yards per attempt. Kudos to UW for stopping a rushing attack that just put up 300+ yards against Iowa.
Nearly every single one of Wisconsin's Big Ten West titles, Rose Bowl berths, and/or other 2-3 loss seasons involved playing defense the way they did yesterday. Stop the run, play physical, make teams beat you through the air, get some sacks and hopefully an interception or two, and tip your cap to the opposing passing attack if they execute as well as they did yesterday. Defense was NOT the problem.
The defense did not play poorly; Minnesota's passing attack simply played great. Almost nobody would have stopped them yesterday. This is obvious to anybody who pays more attention to the game than the box score.
ETA: Not saying the defense played well either, but it was neutral at worst by UW standards. The offense is the problem, as it has been almost constantly for most of the last 3 trash seasons.
Wut we've got here is... faaailure... to communakate.