Wisconsin vs Penn State, Saturday 10/26/24, 6:30PM

[nate82]

Just now, wildcat83 said:

PSU just better in the trenches on both sides, starting to take over in the 2nd half

It is not helping when your QB has 3-5 seconds more to throw and throws before the receiver can get out of their cut.  I am just tired of seeing Locke at QB.  His decision making is just absolutely horrendous.  People keep on saying how smart he is but yet game after game play after play he makes absolutely stupid decisions.  If he is a smart QB then I fear what they think is a dumb QB.

[wildcat83]

1 minute ago, nate82 said:

It is not helping when your QB has 3-5 seconds more to throw and throws before the receiver can get out of their cut.  I am just tired of seeing Locke at QB.  His decision making is just absolutely horrendous.  People keep on saying how smart he is but yet game after game play after play he makes absolutely stupid decisions.  If he is a smart QB then I fear what they think is a dumb QB.

Yep, he’s not the answer.  In the era of the transfer portal there’s no use sitting on guys to save a red shirt either, time to use the remaining games to get young guys some experience.  Having a QB who can run sure would help the run game as well, as the PSU backup is proving.

[nate82]

The defense tried but Locke decided to throw the game away.  I hope Locke transfers after this season as that would be the best outcome for the Badgers.  He should be benched going forward.  He hasn’t improved at all.  Every game it is the same issue as the last game or it is something new.

This game it is the decision making and him throwing the ball way too early.  Other games it is the bad decision making and horrendously inaccurate throws.  He just sucks as a QB and it is time to just move on.

[HarryDoyle]

1 hour ago, nate82 said:

Locke just sucks bench him already!

If they had someone better, I'm sure he would be benched.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, nate82 said:

The defense tried but Locke decided to throw the game away.  I hope Locke transfers after this season as that would be the best outcome for the Badgers.  He should be benched going forward.  He hasn’t improved at all.  Every game it is the same issue as the last game or it is something new.

This game it is the decision making and him throwing the ball way too early.  Other games it is the bad decision making and horrendously inaccurate throws.  He just sucks as a QB and it is time to just move on.

Locke is their best option at the position right now & it isn't particularly close. You needed him to play better than he did to beat the #3 team in the nation, but that's just one item on the list. But of course he's the QB, so he's always going to shoot to the top of said list.

1st half drops didn't help. & not being able to run the ball is going to make his job tougher, even if you're playing Purdue or Rutgers much less these guys. Van Dyke or Mordecai add a dimension that might help you mask that deficiency. Locke doesn't have that, and with a true freshman behind him I'm not sure how often they'd want him running anyway.

The coaches see Mettauer every day. If/when he's deemed ready I imagine we might see a package for him here & there. The sun hasn't risen on that day, yet. And Locke not being as good as we'd like him to be most likely isn't going to expedite it.

[Jim French Stepstool]

55 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

If they had someone better, I'm sure he would be benched.

Yes. And by definition, the 'someone better' would've been the #3 QB going into the season. People need to remember that.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

Seriously. These stupid shotgun runs are embarrassing. Their D-Line is absolutely working the interior O-Line. Clearly quicker and beating them off the jump. Do the Badgers not have a fullback or an H-Back option in the backfield?! I mean this question sincerely. I don't watch the Badgers. LOL. I just tuned in to watch this game. 

The FB or H-back is a thing of the past in this offense. Nowakowski is a FB left over from the previous regime, and he's now a TE. I guess you could say in certain rare formations they use him or Jackson Acker in the backfield as a psuedo-FB, But it isn't a regular thing anymore.

[Jim French Stepstool]

To win this game, it needed to be a continuation of what we saw in the 1st half---not many points & hopefully a  couple TOs or special team gaffes by PSU, which was unlikely. Quite possibly the biggest factor was Allar having to leave the game, and Pribula coming in & actually playing better than him. He's a runner, and you couldn't really afford a spy on him because there was too much talent elsewhere on the field. Throw in their O-line starting to establish itself in the run game, and there was a lot of pressure taken off the kid. THAT'S how you go 10-12 or whatever he was.

 Needed to run the ball at least at a mediocre level & that never happened. Locke, or any other QB, isn't going to beat this team when you can't run the ball. Under 3 YPC for Walker, and we had to throw it 42 times. That's a killer, especially when your guy isn't mobile. Disappointing day for the O-line after some good work the last few games.

I thought the Badgers' D-line lack of depth really showed up in the last 20-25 minutes of game time.

[Jim French Stepstool]

18 hours ago, wildcat83 said:

Yep, he’s not the answer.  In the era of the transfer portal there’s no use sitting on guys to save a red shirt either, time to use the remaining games to get young guys some experience.  Having a QB who can run sure would help the run game as well, as the PSU backup is proving.

 

Beau Pribula (the PSU backup QB) is in his 3rd season in college. If we had him as an option I'm sure we'd use him. Due to his running ability he'd probably be starting.

I know people don't like to hear this, but Mettauer was in HS 6 months ago, and I trust the coaches that see him every day that throwing him out there wouldn't be constructive. He was supposed to be the #3 guy. Van Dyke got hurt. Sometimes stuff just sucks.

Mettauer can play in four games & still maintain a redshirt. His not playing really doesn't have anything to do with redshirting (or not).

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, wildcat83 said:

Their backup QB looks very comfortable in the pocket and works through progressions really well.  Penn St winning in the trenches probably helps that along though.

 I Agree. He was a good instinctive runner, and came in right around the time their offensive line started to gash us up front. Bad combination. 

And those two elements made it pretty easy for him to throw.

[yourout]

Will be interesting to see how many future draft picks Penn State had on the field. 

That is a pretty talented team.

[Joseph Zarr]

I just do not understand what the Badgers offensive identity is. That was my main takeaway from the sole Badgers game I will watch this year. It felt like Longo relied much too heavily on slow developing shotgun hand offs versus a much more athletic front. And then repeatedly went away from a pass game plan of attack that clearly was working. And then played conservative at the wrong times while also playing over-aggressive at the wrong times. In other words, he certainly came across - again, only first and last time I will watch them - like a coordinator/coach who lacks feel and/or a clear methodology.

[LouisEly]

Locke had a few bad throws and one really bad decision, but he was put in a bad situation by a bad play call.  As @Joseph Zarr said, when it's 3rd and 14, the OL is getting dominated, and your QB is taking a shotgun snap at the goal line, you run a QB draw, maybe a quick WR screen, and get out of there and don't make it any worse.

Locke wasn't good but he wasn't the problem today - it was losing the LOS on both sides of the ball.  DL held it's own for a while, but got tired by the 4th quarter.  Nowhere for Walker to run - the Badgers aren't going to win with Walker averaging 2.7 ypc.  WRs dropping passes or not looking for them.  And one of the hardest things to defend is a good backup QB because you aren't game planning for him, if there even is any film on him to prepare with.

Honestly, this is what happens when they wear red pants.  Bad decision before even getting on the field.

[nate82]

1 hour ago, Joseph Zarr said:

I just do not understand what the Badgers offensive identity is. That was my main takeaway from the sole Badgers game I will watch this year. It felt like Longo relied much too heavily on slow developing shotgun hand offs versus a much more athletic front. And then repeatedly went away from a pass game plan of attack that clearly was working. And then played conservative at the wrong times while also playing over-aggressive at the wrong times. In other words, he certainly came across - again, only first and last time I will watch them - like a coordinator/coach who lacks feel and/or a clear methodology.

I think the problem was Locke last night and the WR's for a bit.  Pauling early in the game was dropping passes but then he came back alive in the 2nd quarter.  Then to start the third quarter Locke's internal clock went I have to throw the ball as soon as I get it there is a guy just about to hit me as soon as I get the ball.  This screwed up the timing with the WR's as they could never get on the same book as Locke was on let alone the same page.

They had to go to the run game and PSU knew this.  They dared Locke to beat them and he couldn't do it.  The Badgers were running somewhat successfully in the 1st half but PSU made an adjustment to go all out and stop the run.  Locke failed at picking the team up.  He couldn't get out of his own head with the timing.  He was constantly throwing way too early in his reads.  He didn't even look at the field before throwing he locked in as soon as he got the ball.  He had plenty of time last night to survey the field but never did it.  There were times if he had just waited one more second a receiver would have been open for him to throw to.  Then there was the possible TD throw on play action where he absolutely gaffs and throws the ball way to far.  It was an easy throw that should be made 100% of the time.  He can't even make the easy throws consistently. 

I am going to harp on this again but Locke is a horrible QB and he shouldn't be starting.  I would rather go with someone who is not ready to play than keep on running Locke out there.  He hasn't improved a single bit since he has been the starter.  I will remove the Alabama game for him but going from the USC game to the PSU game he hasn't improved and has actually gone backwards in development.  Even in the Purdue game he looked absolutely horrible at QB.  One of the interceptions wasn't fully his fault though he had some fault in it by throwing the ball low when he just needed to lead his receiver a bit to give the receiver an easier catch.  All of his other INT's and mistakes are all on him.

If the team is to go forward they need to remove Locke from the starting QB job. 

[RedStickBrew]

I think Badger fans should be realistic. The roster is filled with low impact transfers at nearly every position group. The talent is just not there yet. CLFs first recruiting class are true freshman. They need a couple years yet to build the roster with talent IMO

[Jim French Stepstool]

6 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

I just do not understand what the Badgers offensive identity is. That was my main takeaway from the sole Badgers game I will watch this year. It felt like Longo relied much too heavily on slow developing shotgun hand offs versus a much more athletic front. And then repeatedly went away from a pass game plan of attack that clearly was working. And then played conservative at the wrong times while also playing over-aggressive at the wrong times. In other words, he certainly came across - again, only first and last time I will watch them - like a coordinator/coach who lacks feel and/or a clear methodology.

Actually, you sound like a lot of the lamenting that fans have expressed in the 1st fifteen or so games of this regime re offensive identity. The mix btwn run & pass was pretty good in the past 3-4 weeks. Yesterday, PSU really shut down the run game, and their defense was much too good--and our pass pro too shoddy--for us to simply be one-dimensional in the opposite direction.

IMO the offensive identity started to emerge recently but they just ran into a defense that was too good to handle, and had too much depth up front for us to be able to wear them down.

In other words, not a good game to be the only one you tune in to☹️.

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, LouisEly said:

Locke had a few bad throws and one really bad decision, but he was put in a bad situation by a bad play call.  As @Joseph Zarr said, when it's 3rd and 14, the OL is getting dominated, and your QB is taking a shotgun snap at the goal line, you run a QB draw, maybe a quick WR screen, and get out of there and don't make it any worse.

Locke wasn't good but he wasn't the problem today - it was losing the LOS on both sides of the ball.  DL held it's own for a while, but got tired by the 4th quarter.  Nowhere for Walker to run - the Badgers aren't going to win with Walker averaging 2.7 ypc.  WRs dropping passes or not looking for them.  And one of the hardest things to defend is a good backup QB because you aren't game planning for him, if there even is any film on him to prepare with.

Honestly, this is what happens when they wear red pants.  Bad decision before even getting on the field.

All very good points, except I can take the red pants seeing as how it was Halloween.😛

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, RedStickBrew said:

I think Badger fans should be realistic. The roster is filled with low impact transfers at nearly every position group. The talent is just not there yet. CLFs first recruiting class are true freshman. They need a couple years yet to build the roster with talent IMO

Agreed. What has pleasantly surprised me a bit, is that attracting skill position people is to be expected given the 'air raid' hype. But if you want to believe the recruitniks they've done a pretty nice job attracting offensive lineman as well, and adding A J Blazek to the staff might just be a home run hire. Also, customizing a particular QB to your offense & then losing him to injury two years in a row doesn't help.

I was dubious about the staff, and overall program, moving forward. I feel much better about things now, even though it wouldn't surprise me if they're 5-5 after the next two games.

[LouisEly]

7 hours ago, RedStickBrew said:

I think Badger fans should be realistic. The roster is filled with low impact transfers at nearly every position group. The talent is just not there yet. CLFs first recruiting class are true freshman. They need a couple years yet to build the roster with talent IMO

Yep.  It took Pleated Khaki Pants four years before his teams started beating ranked opponents (I don't count UW with redshirt freshman Alex Hornibrook at QB as a ranked opponent, and they barely won at home).  His 2015 and 2016 teams didn't beat anyone ranked except UW w/Hornibrook at QB at home, and then they went 8-5 in 2017 (and the Florida team that was ranked the first week of the season when they beat them finished 4-7 that year).

That's the realistic path, and UW has had a lot more difficult of schedules this year and last year than Pleated Khaki Pants had his first three seasons.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, LouisEly said:

Yep.  It took Pleated Khaki Pants four years before his teams started beating ranked opponents 

And that was with the built-in recruiting advantage, both from the program itself & the media hype machine they can always count on. I still remember the B10 Network coverage when he was hired. I've seen installation of popes given less attention.

[CheezWizHed]

On 10/27/2024 at 11:32 AM, LouisEly said:

Locke had a few bad throws and one really bad decision, but he was put in a bad situation by a bad play call.  As @Joseph Zarr said, when it's 3rd and 14, the OL is getting dominated, and your QB is taking a shotgun snap at the goal line, you run a QB draw, maybe a quick WR screen, and get out of there and don't make it any worse.

Locke wasn't good but he wasn't the problem today - it was losing the LOS on both sides of the ball.  DL held it's own for a while, but got tired by the 4th quarter.  Nowhere for Walker to run - the Badgers aren't going to win with Walker averaging 2.7 ypc.  WRs dropping passes or not looking for them.  And one of the hardest things to defend is a good backup QB because you aren't game planning for him, if there even is any film on him to prepare with.

Honestly, this is what happens when they wear red pants.  Bad decision before even getting on the field.

Totally disagree saying that Locke wasn't the problem... Not the only problem, but he was clearly the biggest problem.  He was inaccurate, staring down WRs, throwing early (making accuracy worse), and the pick-6 was the main game changer.  He was decent the first half (when his WRs are having issues), but it was mostly him the second half.  

Now, I'm not ready to totally dump the guy as (despite the transfer portal) you still do need to let guys develop and grow.  But he was clearly our biggest issue in the game yesterday.