First half Van Dyke was ok, not great but also not bad either. He was just ok in the first half but in the second half a lot of mistakes. The Badgers don't have that vertical threat but you still have to show it to make the defense honor it. Once the Badgers showed they were not going to run those plays the short and middle passing lanes started to get clogged.
The very little presnap movement is starting to get aggravating.
As for the deep routes Fickell did admit that they were too conservative with the play calling and they need to get better at that in the post game interview on the field on FS1. I found that to be interesting that the whole game plan for today was to be very conservative. He also talked about a few other things that they need to work on.
I came away the opposite on this. I think they didn't do enough. The TE's were there in the passing game and then all of a sudden disappeared. I think they needed to get them involved more in the passing game. Where has Nowakowski been the last few years? He looks like an actual TE and he looks to have some good hands at least on the few plays they threw to him today.
This is a huge loss and I am not sure the defense will be able to recover from this and by the defense I mean the D-line. The LB's made some nice plays but they are being asked to do too much. If someone on the d-line doesn't step up it is going to be a waste of some good LB's. I am actually kind of intrigued by this LB core and they maybe one of the better LB's the Badgers have had in a few years now.