Wisconsin Offense: C
Things started so brightly for the Wisconsin offense on Saturday. Jonathan Taylor ripped off two impressive long touchdown runs. It looked to be business as usual for the Badgers.
Yet Wisconsin couldn’t sustain the success and it ended up leaving the result in doubt longer than necessary.
Wisconsin outgained Florida Atlantic 357-106 on the ground, and 564-248 overall. UW ran 84 plays to FAU's 54.
— Benjamin Worgull (@TheBadgerNation) September 9, 2017
After a punt on the first possession of the game Wisconsin responded with a pair of Taylor touchdowns on its next two series.
Perhaps most troubling was the weak red zone offense. The Badgers managed just a field goal of its red zone trips in the first half.
This includes failing to score anything with 1st-and-goal from the FAU 6. Then, on the stroke of halftime, Wisconsin couldn’t get in the endzone on 1st-and-goal from the FAU 8.
But in the second half Wisconsin had two punts and a fumble on three of its six possessions.
The final numbers look healthy. Wisconsin racked up 564 total yards including 357 on the ground. Wisconsin claimed a 38:34 – 21:26 edge in time of possession. Finally, the Badgers had a 29-9 edge in first downs.
As noted in the tweet above, the Badgers ran 84 plays to just 54 for the Owls. For the record, Clemson ran 99 plays in last season’s national title game that wore down the Alabama defense. Wisconsin was just 15 snaps behind that today.
Just look at those numbers without the final score. There’s no reason Wisconsin should have only mustered 31 points against Florida Atlantic.