First game of the Fickell Era; Buffalo vs Wisconsin Week 1

[homer]

That was Mertz-esque

[yourout]

2 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

Is Mordacai really the best quarterback they have? That's two terrible interceptions today.

I'd rather have the guy with the blue helmet on.

[edfunderburk]

Mordecai is not him

He’s thrown two terrible passes today

I’m shocked because he is a veteran having started a ton of games

Color me unimpressed by him & the overall Badger team effort - players & coaches 

Bland effort to kickoff a much anticipated season

[homer]

3 minutes ago, edfunderburk said:

Mordecai is not him

He’s thrown two terrible passes today

I’m shocked because he is a veteran having started a ton of games

Color me unimpressed by him & the overall Badger team effort - players & coaches 

Bland effort to kickoff a much anticipated season

tough crowd 

[HarryDoyle]

5 minutes ago, yourout said:

I'd rather have the guy with the blue helmet on.

Which one?

[yourout]

It looks like targeting to me and they won't have Turner for the first half next week.

[homer]

the college targeting rule sucks. he turned his head. 

[HarryDoyle]

Welp, off to the Brewer board.

[LouisEly]

FWIW, the Badgers scored more points today than Michigan did against East Carolina and Ohio State did against Indiana.

[LouisEly]

1 hour ago, edfunderburk said:

Colorado has 68 new players - all new coaches - a new offense & defense too

They won on the road against TCU - a much better team than Buffalo - that played in the national championship game last season

TCU had eight players drafted this spring.  They lost a ton from last year.

[edfunderburk]

8 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

TCU had eight players drafted this spring.  They lost a ton from last year.

Were all 8 on defense?

[LouisEly]

9 minutes ago, edfunderburk said:

Were all 8 on defense?

The defense that gave up 45 points to Michigan and 63 to Georgia in the CFP last year?  Yep, three of them.

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, edfunderburk said:

Mordecai is not him

He’s thrown two terrible passes today

I’m shocked because he is a veteran having started a ton of games

Color me unimpressed by him & the overall Badger team effort - players & coaches 

Bland effort to kickoff a much anticipated season

They tried to get too cute. The defense had 7 in the box, they were playing off and often sending a LBer(which we struggled to pick up) and they were just forcing the passing game.

 

You saw at the end what this offense COULD be. They were playing Cover 1 and pressing. That's obviously when you take your shots. But that was toward the end of the game. 

The pieces are there. I'm not gonna say Mordecai is not "Him," after the season opener...he didn't look like him, but he was also throwing into a lot of cover 2 or 3 and Bell had a huge drop.

This is Wisconsin though. Passing to open up the run game? That's silly. They should have simple audibles(and I assume they do) and just play smarter.

I'm sure they will. Impressive 2nd half, but a pretty..."meh," game as a whole.

 

***Chez looked like a different back. Like a guy who can play at the next level. That burst, the quickness. I think this is gonna be a good fit for him.

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, yourout said:

Not sure what the record was for commercials in a non overtime game but it must have been passed early in the 4th quarter.

It's SO annoying how they talk about the "Greatest tradition in College Football," and then...go to commercial during it. But hey, at least we got to listen to "Sweet Caroline," sang by the Student section and band during garbage time in the 4th quarter.

 

That should be on TV every time. 

And if it is on TV...tell me what in the hell this is!

 

 

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, LouisEly said:

TCU had eight players drafted this spring.  They lost a ton from last year.

Of course. They still played for the Championship last year and Colorado who was projected to finish at the bottom of their conference, with ~4/5 wins beat them and had incredibly impressive performances from both Sanders at QB and Hunter at CB/WRer. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

 

This is Wisconsin though. Passing to open up the run game? That's silly. They should have simple audibles(and I assume they do) and just play smarter.

 

Agreed.

Having said that, I'm trying to give Longo & Fickell a pass re the offensive decisions & attribute it to trying to establish a new way of doing things. Because in the 2nd half they were gashing the defense running the ball, then took a 1st & 10 at their own 40 & It's like they suddenly thought "Oh yeah, I forgot. AIR RAID!!!!!" Then Mordecai throws the pick on 3rd and nine. As far as I'm concerned that whole possession & the ensuing Buffalo TD are on Longo (assuming he has the last word on plays). Made no sense.

I'll also assume they were keeping a lot of stuff under wraps because there was really very little thrown downfield, and if you run effectively that's what should be available. And they were running effectively. But still they threw the little passes to the flat, as if they HAD to do that because they couldn't run. It was just weird.

Before we pass judgement on what Mordecai is after one game, let me remind everyone Graham Mertz was 20-21 in his debut. Let's let this play out.

Until they show some more stoutness in the interior, I miss Keanu Benton. But I think the LBs are a pretty good group (Jeff Pietrowski didn't make a lot of plays but looked very active), & the secondary will be in time.

Tucker Ashcraft was very impressive.

O-line should be good. The C from Cincy (Renfroe) is still out, when he's back Bortolini will supply pretty good depth at C-G.

There was some noise about Mellusi & Allen playing together in the backfield. Don't know what that would look like but sounds intriguing. Might provide more problems than the 3 & 4 wides.

[BrewerFan]

13 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Agreed.

Having said that, I'm trying to give Longo & Fickell a pass re the offensive decisions & attribute it to trying to establish a new way of doing things. Because in the 2nd half they were gashing the defense running the ball, then took a 1st & 10 at their own 40 & It's like they suddenly thought "Oh yeah, I forgot. AIR RAID!!!!!" Then Mordecai throws the pick on 3rd and nine. As far as I'm concerned that whole possession & the ensuing Buffalo TD are on Longo (assuming he has the last word on plays). Made no sense.

I'll also assume they were keeping a lot of stuff under wraps because there was really very little thrown downfield, and if you run effectively that's what should be available. And they were running effectively. But still they threw the little passes to the flat, as if they HAD to do that because they couldn't run. It was just weird.

Before we pass judgement on what Mordecai is after one game, let me remind everyone Graham Mertz was 20-21 in his debut. Let's let this play out.

Until they show some more stoutness in the interior, I miss Keanu Benton. But I think the LBs are a pretty good group (Jeff Pietrowski didn't make a lot of plays but looked very active), & the secondary will be in time.

Tucker Ashcraft was very impressive.

O-line should be good. The C from Cincy (Renfroe) is still out, when he's back Bortolini will supply pretty good depth at C-G.

There was some noise about Mellusi & Allen playing together in the backfield. Don't know what that would look like but sounds intriguing. Might provide more problems than the 3 & 4 wides.

Just to be clear, I'm not making any...declarations on the program, just this particular game. It felt like they were trying to make a statement. This is a new Era and we're gonna throw the ball.

And you have to throw the ball. You don't get enough explosive plays in the run game unless you have a SPECIAL back, and even at UW, we've had...Taylor and Gordon who could take it 90 yards without great blocking despite a litany of VERY good backs(including the all time leading RB in Dayne). 

Allen is in the group of really good backs(like Ball...who had sensational vision, or White, Clay, Davis, etc...). Mellusi looked like a new man, but I doubt he's taken that huge leap.

It just seems like Buffalo knew exactly what was coming and they(the Badgers) still threw it into coverage until it dawned on them, "oh yeah...we're a great running team."

 

 

But insofar as making decisions on...ANYONE based on this game, Aschcraft looked really nice and I saw better pass pro by the OL and that's as much as I can say. It was one game in a new year before the Badgers really have their guys all in place. 

[homer]

Yeah that one series with about 8 minutes left was odd. Chryst would have run the ball 3 times in a row for sure. But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. They were up 31 - 10 and the game was more or less over. They maybe were trying to put something on tape that said "Hey, we're gonna throw whenever we feel like. So go ahead and stack the box". At least one of those throws was an RPO if memory serves.

[sveumrules]

15 minutes ago, homer said:

They were up 31 - 10 and the game was more or less over.

Wait, I’m really confused now. The Badgers were up 31-10?

From reading the thread I thought the defense got torched and the only play the offense made all game was an impressive run from Chez?

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Wait, I’m really confused now. The Badgers were up 31-10?

From reading the thread I thought the defense got torched and the only play the offense made all game was an impressive run from Chez?

........and you forgot to mention that none of their off-season acquisitions moved the needle.😄

[BrewerFan]

11 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Wait, I’m really confused now. The Badgers were up 31-10?

From reading the thread I thought the defense got torched and the only play the offense made all game was an impressive run from Chez?

It was 14-10 at halftime vs a mediocre MAC team that needed a late TD vs a 2-10 Akron just to get to .500 and a Bowl Game last year vs an HBCU.

It was not an impressive debut schematically, particularly early. A couple of runs, 1st downs. 3 straight passes, punt. 

And the record setting QB looked...not particularly special compared to Badgers QBs of the past. 

The criticism was definitely warranted. 

[LouisEly]

After watching the rest of the Big Ten West this weekend, I think it's still safe for Badgers fans to book hotel rooms for 12/2 in Indy.

[homer]

16 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

It was 14-10 at halftime vs a mediocre MAC team that needed a late TD vs a 2-10 Akron just to get to .500 and a Bowl Game last year vs an HBCU.

It was not an impressive debut schematically, particularly early. A couple of runs, 1st downs. 3 straight passes, punt. 

And the record setting QB looked...not particularly special compared to Badgers QBs of the past. 

The criticism was definitely warranted. 

I guess it's good they play two halves. And we have no idea if they are mediocre. But if they are mediocre based on last year's results then I guess so is UW. 

[nate82]

The first half was absolutely horrible.  It was bad both offensively and defensively.

Good:

Second half defense came to play.  The adjustments that were made on how they were running their coverage was amazing.  The switch from a mainly zone coverage to a more press coverage was a huge scheme change that impacted the game. 

The zone coverage killed the defense a lot last year and it was one of the things I hated with Leonhard last year.  He wouldn't change the defense even if the other team was taking advantage of what he was doing.  It is one of the criticisms and things that Leonhard needs to work on if he is ever to become a head coach.  He was like PC in that regard where he was to stubborn to make the obvious changes to their game plans. 

Mellusi finally looks healthy and he showed it in the game.  He has the speed and ability to make cuts again.  He is finally looking like that NFL like running back that he showed glimpses of before the injuries. 

Allen looked good catching the ball.  I think that will give some teams trouble with him catching the ball.  Unfortunately this doesn't really fit into the strengths for Allen as he is more of a north south runner then he is an east west runner.  Allen isn't really all that good in space and needs to be able to get some speed built up.  Allen is more like Emmit Smith though Emmit did have some east west movement.  I think throwing  a screen to Allen would be a better use of his skills than throwing to him in space.  Though it is tempting to have Allen going up against a DB that is like half his size to get a 5-yard gain.

I would like to see more sets where Allen and Mellusi are in the backfield together.  On pass plays this could work out really well as Allen is an exceptional pass blocker.  I think Mellusi out in space catching balls that Allen was catching would be a better option.  The speed and agility of Mellusi is just far more dangerous.  Having them both in the backfield would cause issues for most defenses.  Do you stack the box and try to take lanes away from Allen or do you try and cover a possible pitch out or pass to Mellusi on the edge?  Giving defenses dilemmas instead of problems should be the goal.  Problems have solutions dilemmas cause defenses to pick which one they are going to deal with.

The only WR that looked good in the game was Pauling.  If he were taller I think he would be a legitimate threat in the passing game but at 5'10" it is hard to be an impact player in the passing game.  Pauling looks to be the only sure handed receiver in the group.  The others really didn't get much of a chance.

Offensive line is better than last year though grading them on this game is difficult as Buffalo's defensive line wasn't all that imposing or threatening.

 

Neutral:

Defensive line looked better than last year but was still not making much of a push.  They were able to stand their ground on a few fourth and 1 situations.  Though I think if Buffalo actually runs the ball and doesn't do a QB sneak on one of the plays they would have gotten the 1st down. 

Offensive play calling.  This is a huge improvement from the previous years under PC.  They actually made adjustments and fixed some things that were not working.  They still tried a few things that were not working in the first half but it is an improvement that they didn't double down on it like PC would do every time.  I liked some of the schemes of getting the TE in open space and spreading out the WR from time to time.  Still not enough motion before the snap. 

 

Bad:

QB play was absolutely horrible.  Mordecai looked worse than Mertz on the field.  Mertz actually had a better game the Mordecai did against a better team in Utah.  Mordecai has really bad mechanics with his feet they are worse than Trubisky's.  When Mordecai is not dancing around in the pocket he looks like a good QB.  His feet got him into more trouble causing either a bad throw or unnecessary pressure. 

WR play again was lackluster other than Pauling.  There was no separation and when there was separation that one time down the field Bell dropped the ball. 

The WR are probably going to be one of the reasons why the offensive scheme is not going to be all that different from previous years.

Defensive scheme in the 1st half was absolutely horrible.  The Leonhard style of defense of playing too much zone and playing it at the wrong time killed the defense in the 1st half.  On a 3rd and 5 you don't want to be giving a WR a 5 yard cushion and allow them to get the 1st down.  This happened a few times in the first half and extended possessions unnecessarily.  If they would have played a more press defense in the first half on those short to mid yards to gain I think the defense would have been better.  They did make the change in the second half but Buffalo never made an adjustment to this and kept on running the same plays. 

The redzone defense looked to be more confused on what they were supposed to be doing and who had who.  On the two TD passes the DB's looked confused on who was supposed to be where and who was supposed to be covering who.  This needs some more discipline. 

 

Incomplete:

TE's were mostly missing in the game with only Ashcraft getting a few receptions.  This maybe more of a game plan issue or there just weren't all that many plays drawn up for the TE's. 

Linebackers looked good and made some plays when they had to but very little pass rush from the LB's in this game.  There were a few blitzes and they were caught in a pass blitz a few times when Buffalo was running the ball.  Hard to grade the linebackers when they were not all that involved in the game. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, nate82 said:

The first half was absolutely horrible.  It was bad both offensively and defensively.

Good:

Second half defense came to play.  The adjustments that were made on how they were running their coverage was amazing.  The switch from a mainly zone coverage to a more press coverage was a huge scheme change that impacted the game. 

The zone coverage killed the defense a lot last year and it was one of the things I hated with Leonhard last year.  He wouldn't change the defense even if the other team was taking advantage of what he was doing.  It is one of the criticisms and things that Leonhard needs to work on if he is ever to become a head coach.  He was like PC in that regard where he was to stubborn to make the obvious changes to their game plans. 

Mellusi finally looks healthy and he showed it in the game.  He has the speed and ability to make cuts again.  He is finally looking like that NFL like running back that he showed glimpses of before the injuries. 

Allen looked good catching the ball.  I think that will give some teams trouble with him catching the ball.  Unfortunately this doesn't really fit into the strengths for Allen as he is more of a north south runner then he is an east west runner.  Allen isn't really all that good in space and needs to be able to get some speed built up.  Allen is more like Emmit Smith though Emmit did have some east west movement.  I think throwing  a screen to Allen would be a better use of his skills than throwing to him in space.  Though it is tempting to have Allen going up against a DB that is like half his size to get a 5-yard gain.

I would like to see more sets where Allen and Mellusi are in the backfield together.  On pass plays this could work out really well as Allen is an exceptional pass blocker.  I think Mellusi out in space catching balls that Allen was catching would be a better option.  The speed and agility of Mellusi is just far more dangerous.  Having them both in the backfield would cause issues for most defenses.  Do you stack the box and try to take lanes away from Allen or do you try and cover a possible pitch out or pass to Mellusi on the edge?  Giving defenses dilemmas instead of problems should be the goal.  Problems have solutions dilemmas cause defenses to pick which one they are going to deal with.

The only WR that looked good in the game was Pauling.  If he were taller I think he would be a legitimate threat in the passing game but at 5'10" it is hard to be an impact player in the passing game.  Pauling looks to be the only sure handed receiver in the group.  The others really didn't get much of a chance.

Offensive line is better than last year though grading them on this game is difficult as Buffalo's defensive line wasn't all that imposing or threatening.

 

Neutral:

Defensive line looked better than last year but was still not making much of a push.  They were able to stand their ground on a few fourth and 1 situations.  Though I think if Buffalo actually runs the ball and doesn't do a QB sneak on one of the plays they would have gotten the 1st down. 

Offensive play calling.  This is a huge improvement from the previous years under PC.  They actually made adjustments and fixed some things that were not working.  They still tried a few things that were not working in the first half but it is an improvement that they didn't double down on it like PC would do every time.  I liked some of the schemes of getting the TE in open space and spreading out the WR from time to time.  Still not enough motion before the snap. 

 

Bad:

QB play was absolutely horrible.  Mordecai looked worse than Mertz on the field.  Mertz actually had a better game the Mordecai did against a better team in Utah.  Mordecai has really bad mechanics with his feet they are worse than Trubisky's.  When Mordecai is not dancing around in the pocket he looks like a good QB.  His feet got him into more trouble causing either a bad throw or unnecessary pressure. 

WR play again was lackluster other than Pauling.  There was no separation and when there was separation that one time down the field Bell dropped the ball. 

The WR are probably going to be one of the reasons why the offensive scheme is not going to be all that different from previous years.

Defensive scheme in the 1st half was absolutely horrible.  The Leonhard style of defense of playing too much zone and playing it at the wrong time killed the defense in the 1st half.  On a 3rd and 5 you don't want to be giving a WR a 5 yard cushion and allow them to get the 1st down.  This happened a few times in the first half and extended possessions unnecessarily.  If they would have played a more press defense in the first half on those short to mid yards to gain I think the defense would have been better.  They did make the change in the second half but Buffalo never made an adjustment to this and kept on running the same plays. 

The redzone defense looked to be more confused on what they were supposed to be doing and who had who.  On the two TD passes the DB's looked confused on who was supposed to be where and who was supposed to be covering who.  This needs some more discipline. 

 

Incomplete:

TE's were mostly missing in the game with only Ashcraft getting a few receptions.  This maybe more of a game plan issue or there just weren't all that many plays drawn up for the TE's. 

Linebackers looked good and made some plays when they had to but very little pass rush from the LB's in this game.  There were a few blitzes and they were caught in a pass blitz a few times when Buffalo was running the ball.  Hard to grade the linebackers when they were not all that involved in the game. 

There was some talk of Mellusi & Allen being in the backfield together. We'll see. They both seem willing/capable of blocking for each other so it's a possibility.

Based on Saturdays' game, the D-line really misses Benton in the middle, and Isaiah Mullins. One isn't coming back. Hopefully Mullins will be soon.

I think they may have been effected defensively (not scheme, but aggressiveness) when that little wheel route or whatever it was went for the big gainer in the 1st half. I think there's sufficient ability to, with experience, press up a lot defensively. But there has to be a better pass rush to compliment that. that's where Peterson, Pietrowski, & Chaney come in as I think that mainly has to come from the LBs & maybe Mullins. Darian Varner & T J Bollers may help there but didn't really see the field Saturday.

Latu at S needs to play a lot better. Ashcraft looks like he totally belongs, one game into his career. That isn't easy for a TE.

There may/may not be one "go to" guy at WR, but the overall group is IMO fine.

I think Mordecai was a little over-anxious AFA going through progressions. Get more comfortable looking downfield & the shorter stuff will be much more effective.