Wisconsin vs. Alabama - Saturday, 9/14/24, 11am Central

[RedStickBrew]

Sounds like Mettauer is next man up but I think the playbook shrinks quite a bit with him

[edfunderburk]

7 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Starting to sound like a broken record but Locke is horrible.

Wisconsin is horrible 

I miss ground & pound

i also miss Leonhard 

[nate82]

1 minute ago, edfunderburk said:

Wisconsin is horrible 

I miss ground & pound

i also miss Leonhard 

Ground and pound and the score is probably 72-3 now and Leonard wouldn’t be doing any better with the players on this team defensively.  

[CheezWizHed]

Just now, nate82 said:

Ground and pound and the score is probably 72-3 now and Leonard wouldn’t be doing any better with the players on this team defensively.  

I think JL has the D be more assignment sure.  Still losing, but more assignment sure.

[edfunderburk]

This may be a 4 win team if they get a couple of breaks 

[nate82]

1 minute ago, edfunderburk said:

This may be a 4 win team if they get a couple of breaks 

Yeah no that is a dumb statement.  Purdue, Iowa, Rutgers, Northwestern and Minnesota are all very winnable games.  That is five games that are easily winnable games.  Predicting only two wins from those five is just troll level of an opinion.

[nate82]

5 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

I think JL has the D be more assignment sure.  Still losing, but more assignment sure.

Not sure how aggressive you can be when the defensive line is playing more on their side of the line even on pass plays.

[CheezWizHed]

3 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Not sure how aggressive you can be when the defensive line is playing more on their side of the line even on pass plays.

I didn't say aggressive. Assignment sure means fewer WRs running uncovered. Wouldn't change a ton in today's game, but the D certainly seems less prepared than with JL.

[nate82]

1 minute ago, CheezWizHed said:

I didn't say aggressive. Assignment sure means fewer WRs running uncovered. Wouldn't change a ton in today's game, but the D certainly seems less prepared than with JL.

Blah read it as aggressive.

[yourout]

12 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Yeah no that is a dumb statement.  Purdue, Iowa, Rutgers, Northwestern and Minnesota are all very winnable games.  That is five games that are easily winnable games.  Predicting only two wins from those five is just troll level of an opinion.

At Iowa is a loss and at northwestern has been historically bad for us. At Rutgers will be no picnic either

[yourout]

2 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

I think he'll get another year if they make a bowl game.  But some of his recruits need to start showing up.  

If they lose at home to Purdue in a couple of weeks I think Fickel should be fired on the spot.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, nate82 said:

Ground and pound and the score is probably 72-3 now and Leonard wouldn’t be doing any better with the players on this team defensively.  

Actually the one TD they scored was when they kept the ball on the ground. Defensively I don't know how they would've fared today with Leonhard in charge, but if his past is any indication they would've blown way fewer assignments, and the only way they give up 42 or more is if the mistakes were as plentiful as what we saw today, on both sides of the ball.

Look, I'm not a huge Fickell detractor. Deeming him a failure at this point would be foolish. But he also hasn't done much of anything to generate confidence either. He strikes me as a coach/administrator who puts a lot of responsibility for success on his coordinators & staff. And right now that doesn't exactly cause me to feel the need for sunglasses. And wanting to add Jack Del Rio when they did makes things a little more curious. But I don't see the need to go over the top with criticism until sometime next year at the earliest, if warranted.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

I don't know if anyone expected them to actually win today. But I wanted to see something much cleaner, at home, in a game of this magnitude. The 2nd quarter sequence was particularly ugly. You're competing, and in the game. The Mellusi fumble was a huge gaffe, obviously, but the details bookending either side of it, those are the details that kill you. You receive a punt, and fair catch it at the 5-yard line. That's inexcusable & makes the fumble even more of a killer due to field position. Then you force an incompletion on 3rd down, holding them to a FG. Except you don't because Hills jumps offside. TD.

I guess we weren't saved in the 2nd half, when Chaney was able to take the field & proceed to play worse than the people who replaced him in the 1st half. His over-pursuing & lack of assignment-assuredness is getting to be very old.

Would love to know what we were doing in the secondary late in the half when they scored in like two plays. It almost looked like we were trying to take away the short pass, which I assume wasn't the case because that would be lunacy, so I'll chalk it up to, once again, people not being where they're supposed to be.

Words can't express how bad everyone should be feeling for Van Dyke.

[LouisEly]

Take away the two fumbles deep in their own territory and it's 28-10.  On two plays they got receivers open deep behind the coverage but couldn't hit them.  Add in the debacle at the end of the first half (Were they playing single high coverage?  With less than a minute left?) and it very easily could have been a very close game.

One bright spot was the overall play of the OL.  They almost always gave the QB time to throw, and most of the pressure was a result of holding the ball too long.  I recall very few if any times when the QB had little time due to immediate pressure.  Good run blocking considering the opponent too except for a couple of plays.  Mellusi and Yacamelli combined for over 100 yards on only 19 combined carries.  Should have run the ball more.

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, LouisEly said:

Take away the two fumbles deep in their own territory and it's 28-10.  On two plays they got receivers open deep behind the coverage but couldn't hit them.  Add in the debacle at the end of the first half (Were they playing single high coverage?  With less than a minute left?) and it very easily could have been a very close game.

One bright spot was the overall play of the OL.  They almost always gave the QB time to throw, and most of the pressure was a result of holding the ball too long.  I recall very few if any times when the QB had little time due to immediate pressure.  Good run blocking considering the opponent too except for a couple of plays.  Mellusi and Yacamelli combined for over 100 yards on only 19 combined carries.  Should have run the ball more.

Watching it live & seeing one replay (I have no desire at this point to watch it over again), I have no idea what they were trying to do defensively in the last minute of the half. It almost looked to me like some sort of prevent package with an unfamiliar combination of players, causing confusion as to where the heck everyone was supposed to be.

I think the line was OK today. It's a very, very simplistic looking running attack, but when the box isn't overloaded they seem good enough to get a push for decent yardage. How, or if, things get amended for Locke with the bye week will be interesting. Really, they SHOULD'NT have trouble giving a QB time to throw since most of the routes are shorter. Had the long opportunity with Kekahuna. Got to convert that one.

If people thought they don't throw long often enough now, I shudder to think what things might look like with Locke at the helm. And from what I understand Mettauer isn't close yet.

I thought your guy Aaron Witt looked pretty good.

[Jim French Stepstool]

9 hours ago, nate82 said:

Defense has been fine it has been the offense that has been extremely bad.  They need better defensive linemen as they are asking their linebackers to do way too much.  As the game goes on the linebackers start to make mental mistakes as they are getting tired.  Just way too much being asked of the linebackers.  

 

I agree the LBs are collectively a pretty talented group. But I don't know if the mental mistakes have anything to do with being tired. And there seems to be enough depth that it shouldn't be a case of their getting gassed.

That said, I agree they don't receive nearly enough help.

[Jimbo]

Not a fan of shotgun on 4th-and-1.

Got really tired of that Ingrim guy, more so than Gus Johnson.

 

[Samurai Bucky]

Looks like I picked a good weekend to take a trip to Arizona... 😁

We ended up catching the last part of the third quarter and the fourth.  Uggh... Wisconsin has a lot of work to do.  Unfortunately, this reminds me of Gary Anderson's tenure so far.  I'm sure it is different, but it feels the same.

[CheezWizHed]

22 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

Looks like I picked a good weekend to take a trip to Arizona... 😁

We ended up catching the last part of the third quarter and the fourth.  Uggh... Wisconsin has a lot of work to do.  Unfortunately, this reminds me of Gary Anderson's tenure so far.  I'm sure it is different, but it feels the same.

Gary Anderson crossed my mind while watching this game. 😢