Wisconsin Football 2024

[homer]

lol Peej

 

 

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

22 hours ago, RedStickBrew said:

Very true. I am just grasping for something positive. We have to ride with this QB the rest of the year

For all his inconsistencies & lack of running ability Locke is their best bet right now & it isn't particularly close. Perhaps Mettauer has the light come on at some point this season & he earns some more snaps. Unless they missed badly in their assessment he'll be much better than Locke, He just isn't there right now, which isn't surprising.

[Jim French Stepstool]

I think the biggest takeaway from this is that there HAS been improvement in the last few weeks, it just isn't overly evident due to the defense being worn down in the 2nd half at USC & Bama being a physical mismatch. Both Kekahuna & Anthony have made strides, The O line seems to be coming together (although the depth still isn't there, an injury or two among that group could be critical) & as much as Mellusi's horrible injury luck sucks, I thought we had the depth to overcome it as long as the youth steps up & yesterday it did.

Obviously the defense is going to have bigger challenges ahead than facing a struggling team w/a guy in his 1st game as OC. Still, overcoming the INTs & resulting field position by holding them to a pair of FGs was impressive. Kept momentum from turning & basically put the game away.

I actually like the schedule progression, going to Rutgers next week. Continue to try to answer questions re focus & physical play while hitting the road vs a group playing pretty well. Please, just stay away from the 3-and-outs that take all of twenty seconds off the clock & send the defense right back on the field. That could turn things ugly.

[Jim French Stepstool]

15 hours ago, homer said:

lol Peej

 

 

 

After the outburst, I loved the quick pivot & brisk walkaway a la Tom Crean.

I don't know the name of the character because I never got into the movie series but he is starting to look like the bald-headed guy in Austin Powers.

[LouisEly]

On 10/5/2024 at 11:06 AM, nate82 said:

Locke needs to be benched he is the worst QB ever in Badgers history.

This aged well

[nate82]

6 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

This aged well

It was more the WR's that helped him out.  He is still inaccurate and makes a bunch of bad decisions.  He had a few gimmes that could of went for long plays and no he wasn't being rushed either.  He missed a few reads where there was a player open enough to make a pass but instead went the other way into someone who was completely covered.  

There was a play in the 1st quarter where he miss read the play and threw to a WR that had a DB basically in a spot where the WR couldn't make a catch but the TE was coming open.  He had enough time and wasn't under any pressure to get rid of the ball there either.  There was another play near the red zone where he throw to the sideline instead of throwing to the back of the end zone pylon.  If he throws to the back of the end zone pylon the WR has a chance at a catch and an easy TD.  He didn't even come close to that instead he threw it about 2-yards out of bounds where the WR had the DB beat.  If he puts it in the back of the end zone near the pylon it is either an in completion or a TD.  Where he threw it was a less than 0.1% chance of a catch. 

He is still not a great QB.  He had a lot of passing yards and TD's in the game but he also had two interceptions and both were his fault.  One where he threw low instead of leading his WR and another just an absolutely horrible decision after throwing a previous pass that was an absolutely horrible decision. 

His arm angle is also very problematic.  He gets a lot of his balls tipped at the line of scrimmage because it comes out so low.  When he tries to get some loft on the ball he doesn't have the arm strength to get it to a WR quickly enough.  It hangs up in the air for far too long and allows the DB to get back into the play if they are beat.  He is just not a good QB and the Badgers really should be looking at someone else going forward. 

[LouisEly]

23 minutes ago, nate82 said:

He gets a lot of his balls tipped at the line of scrimmage because it comes out so low. 

Exactly how many times has that happened this year?  None got tipped last week or the week before.  I've seen it maybe once.  Jordan Love had balls tipped today; happens to every QB if the DL does their job and gets their hands up.

23 minutes ago, nate82 said:

but he also had two interceptions and both were his fault

No, one was off of Pauling's hands.  It was a well-located ball low and away from the defender where only the receiver could get it and Pauling yipped it.

23 minutes ago, nate82 said:

He is still not a great QB.

How many college QBs are (who are redshirt sophomores)?  Every game I've watched I've seen QBs on other teams make bad throws and bad decisions.

Bo Nix and J.J. McCarthy were top 15 picks.  Stetson Bennett and Aidan O'Connell were 4th round picks.  That tells you how many great QBs there are in college. 

For his career Locke has 10 TDs to 4 INTs.  I can think of a lot of UW QBs with worse numbers than that.  He just threw for the 7th most yards in a game ever in the history of Wisconsin Football.  So, no, he is not the worst Badgers QB ever. 

[homer]

good start

[nate82]

That was a dumb pass.  If you are going to throw that you put it where no one can catch that.  Just an absolutely dumb throw by Locke.

[nate82]

Why were some afraid of this Rutgers game?  Not seeing why so far.

[nate82]

Almost another muffed punt.  This is getting concerning.

[yourout]

23 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Why were some afraid of this Rutgers game?  Not seeing why so far.

Doing the best to let them hang around.

[homer]

D came to play today

[RedStickBrew]

Hills has been great on the D line.

[CheezWizHed]

Nice to see Locke looking a bit more comfortable.  That mid-season practice game against Purdue was probably a nice way to get him some live practice. 

I'm surprised about our run D though.  They certainly look different today as Monangai hasn't done anything today.

But my goodness has Rutgers been their own worst enemy.  They couldn't catch a cold today.

[yourout]

very nice performance today. 

Road Wins are never easy.

[edfunderburk]

So impressed with the Wisconsin football team these past two weeks 

I didn’t think they would improve this dramatically so quickly - especially after the Alabama & USC losses 

I have hope in their future after the last two games 

The schedule gets much more challenging in the next six weeks - hopefully they continue to improve & win their share of games 

[CheezWizHed]

Oregon and Penn State are going to be hard even though they are at home. Nebraska, Northwestern, and Iowa are winnable, but on the road. 

Gotta finish strong with MN at home though.  

Getting 3-4 wins there is possible. 

[homer]

you can poo poo Rutgers and Purdue but they haven't been blowing anyone out under Fickell regardless of who they are. Good to see. 

[nate82]

2 hours ago, yourout said:

Doing the best to let them hang around.

I still didn't see anything from Rutgers that suggest they were a tough game for the Badgers even coming off the loss to USC and Alabama. 

 

I am not sure what everyone was so worried about with this game.  I don't believe Rutgers is all that good and they showed that today.  They are not a good team and their record seems a bit fluky.  I had the Badgers having the last two games as very winnable but some said that wasn't going to happen especially the Rutgers game. 

There are a bunch of winnable games left against Northwestern, Iowa and Minnesota.  Oregon and Penn State are probably losses and then you have a maybe winnable game against Nebraska.  If the Badgers steal one from Nebraska and win two of three against Iowa, Northwestern and Minnesota that puts you at 3 more wins which gets the team to a bowl game. 

[yourout]

1 minute ago, nate82 said:

I still didn't see anything from Rutgers that suggest they were a tough game for the Badgers even coming off the loss to USC and Alabama. 

 

I am not sure what everyone was so worried about with this game.  I don't believe Rutgers is all that good and they showed that today.  They are not a good team and their record seems a bit fluky.  I had the Badgers having the last two games as very winnable but some said that wasn't going to happen especially the Rutgers game. 

There are a bunch of winnable games left against Northwestern, Iowa and Minnesota.  Oregon and Penn State are probably losses and then you have a maybe winnable game against Nebraska.  If the Badgers steal one from Nebraska and win two of three against Iowa, Northwestern and Minnesota that puts you at 3 more wins which gets the team to a bowl game. 

Any bowl game is a good one this year with this schedule.

[Jim French Stepstool]

What I liked about today was that last week they were much more physical against a Purdue team that you SHOULD dominate, and today they continued it against a team that had more of a physical reputation, and did it on the road. Despite a few dumb, 2023-type mistakes the offensive line continues to progress. Last year in the run game I felt their best hope was to get some kind of initial push & pick up 3-5 yards. Now along with a deeper, more healthy stable of backs I see some linemen (and a receiver or two) actually firing out into the 2nd level & getting a piece of a defender downfield. But as I said before, stay healthy. Depth still a ?.

Dupree looks comfortable both running & catching the ball, and runs hard. Officially 'not a freshman anymore'. Kekahuna, size be damned, the kid is just talented.

I loved the defensive philosophy. I don't know if this is the specific reason why they did it, but mostly just rushing 3 or 4 & making Kaliakmanis make decisions in the passing game, rather than giving him chances to beat you with his feet, worked brilliantly. His receivers didn't help him much, but I've seen the guy enough to feel good about forcing him to complete a drive by throwing the ball, especially when they weren't running it consistently. Other than the option play where you don't know whether he's pulling it out of the RBs' belly, there was nothing that really hurt us repeatedly. And among the DL & LBs it's not so much about one or two guys dominating, but everyone getting a little better, a little more assignment-sure. Gratifying.

The bad decisions by Locke seem to be getting a little fewer each week. For a #2 QB who doesn't have the running instincts you'd like to have in this offense that's about all you can ask for. That, and continue to diminish the bad stuff, like the other units. Another challenge awaits as NU usually isn't the most talented group but more often than not schemes well & refuses to beat themselves. Looking forward to seeing how they react to going into Stadiums-R-Us, or whatever that thing is they put together with their Tinkertoys down in Evanston.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, edfunderburk said:

So impressed with the Wisconsin football team these past two weeks 

I didn’t think they would improve this dramatically so quickly - especially after the Alabama & USC losses 

 

Even in those two games.......they hung in vs a much better team (Alabama) for almost two full quarters despite mistakes, then wore down. Vs USC they played a mostly terrific half of football, then the offense lost continuity & defensively the 'SC receivers & QB are just elite talents that stepped up their game in the 2nd half. Couldn't get off the field on 3rd down. So I think the improvement somewhat started before Purdue, but now vs avg-to-less competition it's really more noticeable. Maybe learning what it takes to compete for 4 quarters, too.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, CheezWizHed said:

Oregon and Penn State are going to be hard even though they are at home. Nebraska, Northwestern, and Iowa are winnable, but on the road. 

Gotta finish strong with MN at home though.  

Getting 3-4 wins there is possible. 

IMO the progress they've shown has to continue, week-to-week, for them to win at Iowa. But yeah, I wouldn't put Iowa quite at the level of PSU or the Ducks.

[nate82]

16 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Dupree looks comfortable both running & catching the ball, and runs hard. Officially 'not a freshman anymore'. Kekahuna, size be damned, the kid is just talented.

Dupree kind of reminds me of a mix between Ball and White. 

They need to get Kekahuna the ball more.  Maybe add in some end sweeps or an end a round every once in a while.  Kekahuna kind of looks like a DJ Moore type of a player.  I am not sure he will be as good as Moore is but I really like his athleticism.  If he was taller Kekahuna would be everything you look for in a WR.