What do we know about the Badger football team?

Russell Wilson might not be as mind-blowingly good as we thought, but he’s pretty good.
Like it or not, Russell Wilson’s Heisman campaign is dead and buried. His only chance of eclipsing high-profile players like Andrew Luck and Trent Richardson was to lead the Badgers to an undefeated season, and through some twisted corruption of logic those two last-second losses will inevitably fall at Wilson’s feet when voters fill out their ballots. Early-season Wilson completed every throw with unconscious ease–today’s Wilson occasionally misses open receivers and makes poor decisions in the pocket. We might as well focus on the truth: Wilson isn’t the best player in the nation, but he’s still a very good quarterback. Even in Wisconsin’s losses, he completed 34 of 53 passes for 478 yards and 5 touchdowns. The coaching staff seems to have figured out how to best utilize his talents, routinely getting him on the move outside the pocket and taking advantage of his ability to throw with accuracy and strength on the run.

The special teams unit is routinely hurting more than it’s helping.
It’s not often you hear boos from Wisconsin fans at Camp Randall, but they were loud and clear following a 74-yard kickoff return by Raheem Mostert to set up Purdue’s offense at the Wisconsin 16 yard line. The defense held Purdue to a field goal, but they were put in terrible position by the poor kickoff coverage. Blown punt protection seriously hurt the Badgers in their two losses, and against a more potent offense, giving up 74-yard returns is a dangerous mistake. Watching the coverage units is an odyssey of over-pursuit, missed tackles, and defenders left in the dust. When you lack speed deep on the roster, tackling and gap integrity become crucial in kick coverage, and the Badgers look downright sloppy far more often than anybody should be comfortable with. While punting wasn’t a common occurrence against Purdue, we can hope the personnel change installed last week has taken care of coverage concerns.

The secondary isn’t much better.
When Dave Doeren left to take the head coaching position at Northern Illinois, his successor Chris Ash promised to dial up the pressure from the Badger defense. Doeren’s defense relied on talented individual players to generate a pass rush, rather than blitzing, in order to drop more players into coverage. With players like J.J. Watt on the defensive line, that’s a decent plan, but nobody on the current unit has ascended quite to that level. That puts a lot of pressure on the secondary to stay with their receiver, and they haven’t always done so. The Badgers haven’t been burned as frequently by quick throws to the sideline, a testament to the tighter pressure Ash’s system puts on opponents at the line of scrimmage. But there have been at least two egregious breakdowns in coverage in the last two games resulting in opponent touchdowns, including Ohio State’s game-winning score where a receiver was left wide open in the end zone. Blown coverage happens to even the best teams, but these are situations where the secondary should know exactly who to cover and where to go. We could blame injuries for disrupting the unit’s chemistry and continuity, but the fact remains: there are too many mistakes happening in the defensive backfield.

The skill positions are talented across the board, but they ain’t fast.
The running backs are strong and hard to tackle. The receivers are sure-handed and sharp in their routes. And they’re all about as fast as linebackers. Breakaway speed is not a common trait on this roster. It’s tough to say it has really hurt the Badgers when they’ve been so good at moving the ball, particularly in the red zone, but it does temper the excitement of a big play to see the weakside safety scream across the entire field and bring a guy down at the 11 yard line.

The defense has to create more turnovers.
A big factor in the Badgers’ success last season was a defense that excelled at creating turnovers. They averaged a 1.08 turnover margin per game, which was thanks in part to the sharp offense that rarely gave up the ball. But the offense has been just has sharp this season, and the margin/game is down to 0.78. Doesn’t seem like a big drop, but it’s not the full story either. 8 of the defense’s 13 turnovers were gained in blowout wins again South Dakota, Nebraska, and Indiana. Against Michigan State and Ohio State, the Badger recovered one fumble in each game. Against the Spartans, the fumble recovery led to a quick Wisconsin touchdown and a 14-0 lead, but we’ve probably discussed that enough. The recovery against OSU was hugely important, leading to a Montee Ball score that kept the game from getting out of hand in the third quarter, but it came on a punt return and can hardly be credited to the defense. In both games, turnovers were destined to play a big role in deciding the outcome. The defense needs to find more ways to take the ball away.

Chris Borland has adapted well to his move inside.
Borland is undoubtedly an exciting and dynamic player no matter where he is on the field, but there was concern that his shift to inside linebacker would mitigate some of the pass-rushing ability he showed in his first season when he recorded 5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss. Through 9 games this season he has only 1.5 sacks, but 14 tackles for loss. The move inside has morphed Borland from a designated pass-rusher and quarterback-hounder to an excellent run-stuffer. Borland shows great anticipation and timing, routinely knifing past blockers and hitting runners behind the line of scrimmage. Wisconsin still needs to find a way to generate pressure, especially if they’re lucky enough to reach the Big Ten Championship Game or Rose Bowl, but for now we can rest assured that Chris Borland’s talents are not being wasted at his new position.