So what happens for Wisconsin football if Jonathan Taylor misses time due to some leg injury
The nightmare scenario for Wisconsin football (and its fans) on Saturday as star freshman Jonathan Taylor left the game with an injury. He missed the entire second half.
To be crystal clear, it is not at all clear the severity of the injury. So lets assess what happens if the Badgers lose Taylor for any duration.
Not to overwhelm with the star power of my rolodex, but I did slide into the DMs for Dave Heller. I wanted to know if Paul Chryst offered any new information.
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Turns out Chryst didn’t but I appreciate Heller’s reply. We’ll apparently just have to watch practice this week for clues on Taylor’s health.
It could be nothing too significant. Playing on the road against a listless offense while up 17-3 at half. Maybe conservative medicine is the sensible approach. They didn’t need to further expose Taylor or exacerbate the injury.
But what happens for Badger football if it loses its bell cow RB and best overall skill position player?
Not much for future Wisconsin opponents. The Badgers aren’t suddenly going to put the offense on the erratic left arm of quarterback Alex Hornibrook. Wisconsin will still run the ball and throw only as needed off play action. Frankly, there might be more to study given the more limited sample sizes from Bradrick Shaw and Garrett Groshek.
For the Badger offense, Wisconsin is fortunate to still have a dominant offensive line and capable back ups in Shaw and the emerging Groshek. Yet Wisconsin loses Taylor’s big play ability.
After all, he entered Saturday’s game as the 4th leading rusher in the country. In addition, Taylor has 43.2 percent of Wisconsin’s carries and 60.3 percent of the Badgers’ rushing yards.
Related Story: Share Carries to help Jonathan Taylor
So losing him is no small loss of course. Fortunately, Wisconsin has Indiana next and the Hoosiers are the 10th best rushing defense in the Big Ten and #60 nationally.
Truthfully, Wisconsin can still win the Big Ten West even without Taylor for a longer period of time. The defense is clearly more than capable of carrying the team.
But to win the Big Ten championship or become the first Big Ten team to score in the College Football Playoff since 2015, Hornibrook has to improve. The Wisconsin offense borders on explosive when he plays well as we saw against BYU and Maryland.
Next: What it Means: Badgers Beat Ilini
Of course you want Taylor in the lineup. He sucks up defensive oxygen and makes everyone else better. But Wisconsin will be best served with a safe approach and not risk re-aggravating the injury and letting it linger. Whatever the injury is.